The Broward County Water Resources Task Force met Friday to start discussing ways to prevent a future water shortage caused by a combination of a population that's growing -- and a water supply that's not.

The goal of the task force, which has 22 elected officials in Broward, is to propose a common water supply solution for the entire county by next September.

The group, which met for the second time Friday, spent most of the meeting learning how the county's water system currently works.

''We're trying to look at water and come up with a common policy,'' vice chairwoman Kristin Jacobs said.

''If we do this right, we'll come up with a recommendation every city can adopt,'' she said.

Patrick Davis, of environmental consulting group Hazen and Sawyer, gave a presentation to educate task force members about Broward's existing water system. Broward has 33 water treatment plants and 15 wastewater treatment plants.

The environmental rules and regulations, along with Broward's geological situation, will guide task force members as they make decisions about the future of the county's water resources.

Much of the county's water comes from the Biscayne Aquifer, which is one of the most prolific aquifers in the world, Davis said.

But Broward has reached the maximum yield of the aquifer. At the current rate of water consumption, Broward County will need to find sources for an additional 106 million gallons of water per day by 2025, he said.

Sunrise, Fort Lauderdale and Deerfield Beach will have the most unmet demand.

''People can keep using the Biscayne Aquifer, but it can't provide the new population with the same water source,'' Davis said. ``We need to find an alternative source of water.''

Other issues county leaders face include climate change, saltwater intrusion and an abundant supply of rainfall but nowhere to store it.

''We now hope that at the end of one year, we can come up with a plan that includes things every city can do, like using alternative resources and conservation,'' Jacobs said.

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