What would it be like if there were no water?
How about brushing your teeth in milk, washing your hair in mustard or shaving your legs in cranberry juice? That may seem strange, but to a group of Deltona High School students it was a very brief and comical reality.
And one that was caught on video.
The three Deltona High School students who made the video, If the World Had No Water, were among the five student groups -- 13 students in total -- who won honorable mention in the St. Johns Riverkeeper public-service announcement. Three of the groups were from Seminole County high schools.
Henry Swanson's
oft-unheeded predictions on water came true
"We're going to hell in a handbasket,"
Swanson said recently, sitting by his kitchen table covered with news clippings and reports of Central Florida's efforts to slake the thirst of development.
Henry Swanson, 83, has preached responsible water use since before the arrival of Walt Disney World, even when no one seemed to care. The retired agricultural agent, pictured in 2003, is proud of the 5 Agricultural Hall of Fame awards he has received.
Time running out this session for bill aimed at repairing, protecting Florida's aquatic gems
"When I saw what the problem was,
I took it on to tell every city slicker and business fellow
just how our water system works,"
Swanson said.
"I took it as a crusade and never let go of it."
Consensus from hearings around Fla. was that conservation efforts must improve.
Swanson said recently, sitting by his kitchen table covered with news clippings and reports of Central Florida's efforts to slake the thirst of development.
Henry Swanson, 83, has preached responsible water use since before the arrival of Walt Disney World, even when no one seemed to care. The retired agricultural agent, pictured in 2003, is proud of the 5 Agricultural Hall of Fame awards he has received.
Time running out this session for bill aimed at repairing, protecting Florida's aquatic gems
"When I saw what the problem was,
I took it on to tell every city slicker and business fellow
just how our water system works,"
Swanson said.
"I took it as a crusade and never let go of it."
Florida's natural springs in crisis: Which ones are cleanest, most polluted?
By Kevin Spear, Orlando Sentinel
April 11, 2010
Fanning Springs had a lush garden of native underwater plants when the artesian jewel became a state park a little more than a decade ago.
Today, a witch's hairdo of algae dominates Fanning's waters. About 35 miles from Gainesville, the cluster of springs has earned recognition as among the state's most polluted and a prime example of what's killing ecosystems at many of Florida's best-known springs.
Sweeping water legislation aimed in large part at repairing and protecting springs across the state is pending in Tallahassee, marking at least the fifth year in a row of serious attempts to bolster safeguards for one of Florida's environmental treasures. But with just three weeks left in the current legislative session, it is unclear whether this year's bill finally will succeed.
"This is the biggest change in water law in at least 20 years," said state Sen. Lee Constantine, R- Altamonte Springs, the author of SB 550. "When you do something like that, it's always dicey."
Ecosystem disasters have been emerging at the biggest of nearly 700 known Florida springs, including Wakulla near Tallahassee; the most iconic, such as the mermaid playground at Weeki Wachee north of Tampa Bay; and even ones as highly protected as the Wekiwa near Orlando.
In essence, complex and rich arrangements of aquatic plants, fish and wildlife are being snuffed out by simple but overwhelming forms of algae.
The culprit is an extremely common type of water pollution, soaking deep into the ground from a variety of sources, including septic tanks, sewage plants, agriculture, lawn fertilizer and dirty stormwater. It's called nitrate, a form of nitrogen and an essential nutrient for plant growth.
Peer into the massive pool created by Silver Springs near Ocala, and to the untrained eye there's not much sign that anything is wrong.
Even through the glass bottoms of the vintage Yahalochee and Charlie Cypress tour boats, the basin seems to thrive with turtles, fish and long, skinny plants that look like giant blades of grass.
Scientists suspect, however, appearances are deceiving at Silver Springs.
Bob Knight, University of Florida professor and springs researcher for 30 years, and other aquatic scientists have documented how rising nitrate levels initially act as a growth booster for a spring's plants and then wreak havoc.
Alexander Springs, deep in Ocala National Forest, is possibly the state's cleanest — nearly what Mother Nature originally designed — with a nitrate level of far less than 1 part per million and measuring consistently at about 0.05 parts per million. That tells scientists healthy springs have extremely low levels of nitrate.
Serious harm begins in a range of 0.2 to 0.4 parts per million of nitrate. At that point, native spring plants are getting force-fed a high-calorie diet. The signature vegetation of healthy springs — eelgrass and tape grass — surges with growth.
The nitrate level at Silver Springs has pushed to 1.4 parts per million and is still rising.
"At higher concentrations, what we see is a flip where the system stops supporting the submerged aquatic vegetation — like the tape grass and the eelgrass — and it starts supporting more and more algae and a different kind of algae: filamentous algae," Knight said, referring to the type that looks like an unruly wig.
"The thickness of these algae mats can be a foot or more, and it totally replaces submerged plants," he said.
Knight studied under one of Florida's earliest springs scientists, Howard Odum, and has at his fingertips a half-century of data on Silver Springs biology and chemistry. He fears the system is vulnerable to that flip.
At Fanning Springs, the nitrate level is about 6 parts per million, which approaches a concentration too toxic to drink. The loss of eelgrass and related variety of other plants was relatively sudden, leaving an ecosystem "pretty much sterile" compared with the flora and fauna once in place, said park manager Sally Lieb.
At Wekiwa Springs, where algae growth is rampant, nitrate levels often exceed 1 part per million.
Knight thinks if dramatic action were taken to prevent nitrate from getting into springs — for example, by connecting septic tanks to modern sewage systems and limiting use of farm fertilizers in sensitive areas — the problem would still persist because of the heavy load of pollutant now stored in the aquifer system that supplies water to springs.
"The springs are just the tip of the iceberg," he said. "We've got a Floridan Aquifer contamination issue with nitrate. It's going to take years, even if you stopped fertilizing in Florida, for rain to rinse that nitrate out."
There is evidence springs can be salvaged. Nitrate in Wekiwa Springs, for example, has lessened slightly as a result of closure of the massive farms around Lake Apopka and the decline of the area's citrus industry.
The city of Tallahassee has been revamping the way it disposes of treated sewage in an attempt to lessen nitrate turning up in waters of Wakulla Springs.
"It's worth noting we are already seeing improvements," said Michael Sole, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and a strong supporter of most of Constantine's water bill.
Late last week, Constantine held a six-hour meeting in Tallahassee with bill opponents, including representatives of farming, construction and other industries. He agreed to consider modifying some of the bill's provisions, which include measures to improve septic tanks, reform stormwater regulations, establish springs-protection zones and put Florida on a path to adopting more-precise water-quality standards. He also is working to align his legislation with various sections of water legislation in the House.
The bill is slated for one more committee stop before advancing to the Senate floor for debate.
"We've got a good shot," Constantine said. "A lot better shot than we did last year."
State in water crunch, Senate committee says
Consensus from hearings around Fla. was that conservation efforts must improve.
TALLAHASSEE — Despite receiving more than 54 inches of rain a year and having 7,700 lakes, 50,000 miles of rivers and streams and more than 700 springs,
Florida will have problems supplying enough water to satisfy the needs of its 18 million residents,
a Senate committee was told March 11, 2010
What we think:
Kill destructive water bill
What will Mr. Crist do?
The man who also brands himself
"
Florida's environmental governor"
let down the entire community when he signed Senate Bill 2080,
which steamrolls sensible regulations
to promote sprawl and enable unneeded mega-developments
like Destiny in Yeehaw Junction.
Where's Yeehaw Junction?
Precisely the point.
He should stick to his "stated principles" and kill the bill.
March 12, 2010
Right a grievous wrong
Senator Baker's bill would dilute last year's destructive water management legislation.
A member of the clique that helped pass one of last year's most outrageous bills in Tallahassee wants to make amends.
Give Eustis Sen. Carey Baker
credit for wanting to fix the notorious Senate Bill 2080,
which scrapped public hearings on water-withdrawal applications,
leaving decisions on how much developers and others can take to bureaucrats
running Florida's five water-management districts.
But give Mr. Baker only partial credit. He filed a bill that would restore the power of appointed board members overseeing the water districts to hear and decide water applications in public. Great.
He got someone to sponsor it in the House, Rep. Charles Van Zant of Keystone Heights.
But Mr. Baker still needs to work to get enough legislators to pass it. And while he's at it, why not improve the bill further? Even with Mr. Baker's fixes, the bill would restore a troubling provision that gives the board members discretion to hand off permitting decisions to the bureaucrats.
The appointed officials generally have chosen to decide the more consequential applications themselves, in public. But why not make it impossible for them to pass the buck on major applications to staff, who could make decisions in private?
It's certainly in Mr. Baker's political interest to do the right thing.
He says he ended up sponsoring his bill to undo last year's mistake because his constituents suffered the consequences and complained, loudly.
After the bill passed,
the St. Johns River Water Management District's executive director,
Kirby Green,
gave
Niagara Bottling Co.
a permit to suck millions of gallons from the aquifer in Lake County.
The outcome potentially could have been different had the district's board been forced to decide Niagara's fate in public.
No doubt it would have heard cries to reject Niagara's application from a public incensed because,
unlike the red carpet treatment given Niagara,
the district forces residents to cut back on watering their lawns.
But it's also in Mr. Baker's interest to get his bill passed simply to make things right, for himself and the state. Mr. Baker feels he's been unjustly attacked for his role in last year's bill. In part, yes.
Before the bill's passage, Mr. Baker had sponsored a separate bill benefitting the environment. It required that water-management districts provide Florida-friendly landscaping ordinances for local governments to use as a model. And stipulated homeowners associations could no longer punish members if they ignored sod-only landscaping rules to plant their own drought-resistant alternatives. A good bill.
But because the bill was languishing, Mr. Baker attached it to another one sponsored by Sen. J.D. Alexander of Lake Wales. Mr. Alexander then amended it, this time with the language that ended public hearings on significant water-withdrawal applications, handing their fate to bureaucrats.
The bill passed. Mr. Baker claims he didn't know exactly what Mr. Alexander's additions portended until after he voted for it. It's a weak excuse when a lawmaker claims he didn't know all the details of a bill he backed. Mr. Baker should have read it.
But the bill, with its damaging provisions, was Mr. Alexander's.
Mr. Baker's
clumsy role in helping pass it
has worked to obscure
his more favorable role in drafting the bill's beneficial landscaping language.
If Mr. Baker
can pass a new measure restoring the public's ability to influence regional water decisions,
he can help right his record
and
stop the damage from last year's blunder.
Our choices matter!
Cloudy water future
Volusia still isn't working together on a sustainable supply
In Volusia County's ongoing water woes, no party can honestly claim clean hands.
Local cities put their desire for uncontrolled growth above environmental needs.
County officials waffled when they should have taken a strong lead. The St. Johns River Water Management District has always talked tough about conservation and intra-county cooperation -- but when the district issued generous water-consumption permits to key East Volusia cities, it undermined a burgeoning effort to create a countywide water authority with bite. And when voters had the chance to mandate better water management in 2006, they blinked, rejecting a provision that would give a countywide water board authority over well fields.
Now the issue is approaching a crisis point in west Volusia County, where water utilities are squeezed between the mandate to protect Blue Spring and their fear that much higher west-side water costs would crush the region's chance of economic growth.
The west-side cities have a valid complaint. Because east-side cities have claimed most of the well fields in the center of the county, West Volusia is being forced to seek alternate sources -- which can be ruinously expensive. Their ability to claim groundwater is further restricted by the mandate to preserve a minimum flow of water at Blue Spring, a crucial wintering spot for endangered manatees. It's no surprise that west-side leaders are panicking.
Water managers should refuse requests to lessen protections for the spring. The minimum spring-flow levels are nominally intended to protect the manatees -- but the species is merely a bellwether for the area's overall hydrological health. If Blue Spring's volume diminishes enough to harm the manatees, it's a clear sign that West Volusia's water supply is dangerously stressed.
But neither should west-side cities have to bear the entire burden of protecting the spring (and the aquifer that feeds it.) East Volusia cities are sucking up the water that west-side cities could otherwise be using. In the long run, the entire county is relying on the same water supply, and east-side cities shouldn't be protected simply because they got their straws in first.
The County Council took a crucial step in the right direction toward broader regional solutions last week, when it approved a new water-conservation ordinance and pledged money for efforts to enforce it. Most of the water pumped out of Volusia County's aquifer is used to irrigate lawns, so stopping wasteful watering is a good priority. But even if cities join in (as they should), it will only be a step -- that doesn't carry the county far enough.
Anything bigger will require countywide cooperation -- or coercion.
There is so much Volusia County could be doing, if its 16 cities, the agriculture community and the county government would work together.
Volusia authorities could build reservoirs to capture storm runoff that's currently trickling into the St. Johns River, or racing through canals that dump into the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean.
They could interconnect water systems, managing well fields to prevent overpumping.
Instead of turning to expensive alternatives like Seminole County's Yankee Lake plant (which plans to treat water from the St. Johns River) or Flagler County's Coquina Coast desalination plant,
Volusia County could retain better control of its own hydrological destiny.
None of that will happen without countywide cooperation on water. And if east-side cities remain obstinate in their "I've got mine" mentality, the entire county will eventually suffer.
The best option is still a single entity that controls Volusia County well fields, and wholesales water to cities that want to maintain water utilities. But that will never come to pass, as long as county leaders, cities and the water management district continue to insist that tough water controls in Volusia County are someone else's responsibility. That's why voters should be asked, once again, to approve a clear and binding plan for countywide water control.
LOOKING FOR SOLUTIONS
The News-Journal asked a group of people with long-term involvement in Volusia County's water struggles what they think would resolve them. Here's what they said.
Why hasn't Volusia been able to reach a countywide agreement on water?
Bill Scovell of DeLand, former County Council member, served on the Water Policy Review Commission and helped create the Water Authority of Volusia: There was no coalition to make things happen. Everybody, it seems, was paddling their canoe in different directions.
Herky Huffman of Enterprise, member of the St. Johns River Water Management District governing board: (The water management district) funded the alliance. It just never worked out. But this is a regional problem, and we all need to work on this.
What's the next step?
Ed Kelley, Ormond Beach city commissioner and first chairman of the Volusian Water Alliance, which pre-dated WAV: (The district) needs to be realistic and have variable restraints on the minimum flows and levels -- those levels have fluctuated throughout the years, and the manatees have not been harmed.
Pat Northey of Deltona, Volusia County councilwoman: We have to get really serious about conservation, and we have to get information about conserving rainwater. We've had two major (flooding) events in less than a year, and all we've done is send the water to the St. Johns River and the ocean.
What should be done about west Volusia County's problems?
Huffman: West Volusia cannot handle this by themselves. We heard that loud and clear.
Northey: What reason does Daytona Beach have to stop dumping water in the Halifax River -- we (the county's water utility) offered to buy it and pump it over here and they said no! Unless there is some authority that holds the hammer over all of our heads, I'm hearing loud and clear that West Volusia is on its own.
What are the long-term solutions to water management in Volusia County?
Scovell: We have not done those things necessary to take care of our water situation. WAV was an opportunity to have centralized water-production facilities -- a congregate effort to produce additional water from the ocean, the river, or whatever other sources, sharing the cost of groundwater and the cost of the other water.
Kelley: WAV should be the sole provider of water. It should have fulfilled its intended purpose -- we would have had much better ability to manage the water if we (had continued with that model.) I still believe there's hope for WAV to resurrect itself.
Our mission is to protect, preserve and restore
the ecological integrity of the St. Johns River watershed
for current users and future generations through advocacy and citizen action.
St. Johns Riverkeeper is a non-profit grassroots organization that serves as an advocate for the St. Johns River and the communities that benefit from this tremendous resource. The Riverkeeper philosophy is rooted in a sense of public ownership of local water bodies.
Jimmy Orth
Executive Director
St. Johns Riverkeeper
2800 University Blvd. N.
Jacksonville, FL 32211
904-256-7591
ST. JOHNS RIVERKEEPER TO FIGHT WATER WITHDRAWAL PERMIT
Group will Pursue all Legal Options to Protect St. Johns River
Jacksonville – The St. Johns Riverkeeper Board of Directors has directed the organization’s staff to take action to oppose the Seminole County permit application to remove millions of gallons of freshwater from the St. Johns River. The St. Johns Riverkeeper Board instructed the group’s legal team to pursue all options necessary to prevent the proposed withdrawal and protect the health of the River.
The Riverkeeper Board acted quickly after last week’s announcement that the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) staff has recommended approval of the Seminole County request to withdraw an average 5.5 million gallons per day--which could exceed 11million gallons day (MGD) during periods of high demand-- from St. Johns River for the proposed Yankee Lake project. The SJRWMD Governing Board is scheduled to decide upon the permit request at its next meeting on March 11th.
Seminole County is proposing to use surface water from the St. Johns River for irrigation purposes. After 2013, the county proposes to use river water as a potable water source. Seminole County is negotiating with surrounding communities to provide drinking water, and some estimates project 40-80 MGD could be removed from the middle St. Johns River.
The SJRWMD announcement caught the public by surprise. SJRWMD staff has recently fanned out across Northeast Florida announcing that the agency had begun a $2 million, 24-month study to answer questions and concerns about the environmental and economic impacts of the proposed water withdrawals from the St. Johns and Ocklawaha Rivers. The proposed study was a result of the public outcry questioning the science and decision-making process that led to estimates that over 262 MGD could be “safely” removed from the St. Johns system.
“It’s clear that the SJRWMD will not wait for the results of the “Study” before it allows central Florida communities to begin to remove water from the St. Johns”, said St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon. “We have no faith that the SJRWMD will protect the St. Johns River. We are fighting for the future of the St. Johns River, and we are prepared to go to the mat,” Armingeon noted.
Despite the fact that questions remain about the impacts of removing water from the St. Johns River, District staff recommended approval of the withdrawal permit. Because of the District’s odd permitting process, the public has to take legal action before the Governing Board even discusses the permit.
“We cannot wait until March 11, and hope that the Governing Board does the right thing and denies the permit application. We would lose our right to challenge the decision”, said Riverkeeper Legal Counsel Michael Howle. “The Riverkeeper Board has directed me to move quickly and decisively, and I’m moving forward with several legal options,” he added.
Letters to the editor for Feb. 12, 2008
Another water grab The developers of Halifax Plantation have requested a permit from the St. Johns River Water Management District to allow the extraction of 658,000 gallons more of surface water and groundwater a day.
Surface water and groundwater would come from the surficial aquifer, and groundwater from the Floridan Aquifer. It would serve a golf course, urban landscape and nursery irrigation. The withdrawals would come from functioning wells and 23 new wells, called "proposed wells" and a surface lake. The proposed project would also use Volusia County wells.
So the development games roll on. We are now near exhaustion of our water supply. We have severely affected nature's ability to replenish our supply, and serious unrelenting drought is likely in the future. Wealthy corporations and developers continue to fill their pockets at the expense and inconvenience of average citizens.
The Water Management District says if citizens want to look at this project's plans, we must go to its office in Palatka or some other unspecified location. Written objections must be received within 14 days from the date of the newspaper notice Jan. 30. Comments must go to District Clerk, 4049 Reid Street, Palatka, Florida 32177-1429.
The original mandate of the water districts was to assure the preservation and conservation of our vital water supply. Instead, the district has spent most of its megamillion dollar budgets distributing our most finite resource to assure economic growth. This is more proof that such growth is a liability rather than an asset.
GORDON WILLIAMSON, Holly Hill
Starting in the late 1950s,
Swanson rattled political cages around Central Florida
with his words of a future water crisis in a landscape dominated by a booming, thirsty population.
"We're going to hell in a handbasket,"
Swanson said recently,
sitting by his kitchen table covered with news clippings and reports of
Central Florida's efforts to slake the thirst of development.
"When I saw what the problem was,
I took it on to tell every city slicker and business fellow
just how our water system works,"
Swanson said.
"I took it as a crusade and never let go of it."
-Henry Swanson
Swanson rattled political cages around Central Florida
with his words of a future water crisis in a landscape dominated by a booming, thirsty population.
"We're going to hell in a handbasket,"
Swanson said recently,
sitting by his kitchen table covered with news clippings and reports of
Central Florida's efforts to slake the thirst of development.
"When I saw what the problem was,
I took it on to tell every city slicker and business fellow
just how our water system works,"
Swanson said.
"I took it as a crusade and never let go of it."
-Henry Swanson
Water Quality Investment Act of 2009
http://capwiz.com/y/issues/votes/?votenum=123&chamber=H&congress=1111
The House passed this legislation to authorize funding for the
Clean Water State Revolving Fund,
which helps states build water treatment facilities.
East Deltona would like to
stop pooping/peeing into our water supply
Rep. Suzanne Kosmas voted
YES
send e-mail (http://capwiz.com/y/mail/?id=2530&mailid=custom)
see bio (http://capwiz.com/y/bio/?id=2530)
West Deltona
loves paying 4X the price for water as East Deltona so.......
Rep. John Mica voted
NO
send e-mail (http://capwiz.com/y/mail/?id=168&mailid=custom)
see bio (http://capwiz.com/y/bio/?id=168)
Let's
not
go back
to the days of developers run amok
Florida has attracted
more people from other states
than any other state in the nation
since the start of the decade.
However,
from 2007 to 2008,
more people left Florida
for other states than moved in — a net loss of nearly 9,300 people.
Has Central Florida learned from its mistakes of
rolling over
for every big development that comes along?
Apparently not.
Volusia has more than enough land already approved for its new residents.
This would just add to the glut for years
to come and strain services
such as roads,
schools,
police, fire and water
throughout the county. The Florida Department of Community Affairs issued
an 11-page report stating,
in no uncertain terms,
that
this project is bad news. But pretty pictures,
fancy lawyers presenting dog-and-pony shows
at council meetings,
and a growth-drunk Edgewater make the magic.
Even in the face of Tallahassee's objections, Edgewater officials
are frantically shoving this monster through.
The insane proposal
went to the regional planning council last week.
Next it zips back to Edgewater for final rubber-stamping.
Why the desperate rush? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
defines sustainability as:
"meeting the needs of the present
without
compromising the ability of future generations
to meet their own needs." The present doesn't need this monstrosity
-- there is a glut of overdevelopment
in south Volusia
that will take decades to absorb.
You can contact Jane Healy at janehealy49@gmail.com.
She'd like to hear about public officials who need their feet kept to the fire.
Is Volusia County's 'water shortage' believable?
By MICHAEL G. WRIGHT, GUEST EDITORIAL
Michael G. Wright
Wright, of Orange City, is a certified public accountant who retired as a meteorologist from the U.S. Air Force at the rank of captain. He is chairman of the Orange City Water Sustainability Committee and controller at the Council on Aging of Volusia County.
As chairman for Orange City's Water Sustainability Committee, I attended a meeting on April 29 in Deltona, where we heard from representatives of the St. Johns Water Management District about water shortage issues. As a former Air Force weather forecaster, I pointed out that a climatology map shows that Florida receives more rainfall than any place in the United States, except the coastal areas of Washington, Oregon, and the Gulf states.
Satellite photos reveal that Florida has an abundance of lakes and rivers -- the second largest lake in Florida is Lake George in the northwest corner of Volusia County. One of the water management district represen-tatives commented that we probably will never exhaust the water available to us in the aquifers. So we have water falling out of the skies, we have water lying around in the form of lakes and rivers, and we have water springing up from the ground. And yet we have a water shortage?
It is my impression that what we have is a water shortage due to legislation and regulation. Otherwise we have more water than we know what to do with. Alternet columnist David Gutierrez, in a 2008 article entitled "At Least 36 U.S. States Face Water Shortage," observed, "While Florida has no shortage of rainfall, widespread draining and paving of the region's natural wetlands has left the water unable to drain back into the soil. As a consequence, the state is forced to flush millions of gallons of water into the ocean per year to avert floods."
An October 2007 Associated Press article further points out that "...the state dumps hundreds of billions of gallons of treated wastewater into the Atlantic through pipes -- water that could otherwise be used for irrigation."
Why has legislation and regulation created a pseudo-water shortage? We can't tap into some water sources because zealots have overdone it when it comes to environmental issues.
Then there are the zealots who go overboard with respect to preservation of manatees. These issues are important, but they do not justify the threat of raising water rates by 2 to 7 times for people who simply cannot afford such an unreasonable increase. If the choice is between the manatee and humanity, then humanity must win.
Then there are big money interests that want to over-develop the area or install water desalinization plants. I guess they want us to spend our money to increase water resources, so they can rake in more money for themselves.
If we truly have a water shortage, then excessive development will only make a bad situation worse. And telling us we need a desalinization plant is like telling Eskimos they need freezers to freeze water!
Of course bottled water companies would love to convince our elected officials to require citizens to drink bottled water. And where does bottled water come from? According to the St. Petersburg Times, The Nestle Corporation pumps 500,000 gallons a day from one limestone basin in northern Florida. Add in the other 22 bottled water companies operating in Florida, and you get a total of 5.4 million gallons of water removed from Florida's aquifer every day -- most of it at no charge to the companies that pump and sell it.
So it's fine for bottled water companies to suck up all the water they want and sell it to us at premium prices, but Florida's citizens need to identify new water sources for our consumption. By the way, up until recently, these bottled water companies paid no taxes on the water they sucked up, except for a one-time fee of $150 for a local water permit. But the water management district expects us to pay more for our water -- a lot more! We certainly must use our water resources more effectively. And we must prudently protect our environment.
So what should we do?
First, we should aggressively pursue the use of landscaping options that require no irrigation. According to the United States Green Building Council, outside water uses, primarily landscaping, account for 30 percent of the 26 billion gallons of water consumed daily in the United States. Second, we need to maximize the retention and use of reclaimed water. According to the water management district, "Currently, Florida is leading the nation in the use of reclaimed water. But even as a national leader, Florida is only taking advantage of a fraction of its potential reuse opportunities."
Third, we must require developers to design building projects that minimize impervious areas to avoid excessive water run-off. The use of permeable pavements, for example, allows more water to percolate back into the soil, instead of contributing additional run-off.
Fourth, if the above initiatives are insufficient (although they might just be sufficient), we should be looking at the construction of adequate reservoirs to retain water that is currently wastefully flowing into the ocean. Reservoirs may not be as high-tech as desalinization plants, but they are probably a lot less expensive. And from what I read about the Tampa desalinization plant in the St Petersburg Times, reservoirs would probably be less costly to operate as well.
To implement these initiatives, legislation and regulations need to be modified to provide us with cost effective options to effectively manage the abundant water resources with which we are blessed. We certainly don't need "solutions" that provide massive economic benefits to major corporations, with negative economic benefits to citizens.
Regarding our alleged water shortage, however, it will not surprise me to hear the news media report one day on some scandalous relationship between the water management district and big money interests -- big money interests that once again will put their own greedy interests ahead of the rest of us. This is another situation where we as citizens should be following the money.
The News-Journal has invited a variety of local folks to use this space to share their point of view about our greater community, its challenges, and its opportunities for success
May 22, 2009
Growth laws may be revised
By DINAH VOYLES PULVER and JIM SAUNDERS
Staff Writers
Gov. Charlie Crist could be poised to sign an overhaul of Florida's growth management laws that environmental groups and counties argue would create transportation and development problems.
Staff Writers
Gov. Charlie Crist could be poised to sign an overhaul of Florida's growth management laws that environmental groups and counties argue would create transportation and development problems.
Crist said this week he probably will approve the overhaul, which passed in the waning days of the spring legislative session after weeks of debate and lobbying.
With Crist facing a June 2 deadline to sign or veto the bill, supporters and opponents have launched campaigns to try to sway his decision.
Supporters say the bill will point development toward urban areas and also help Florida emerge from its economic problems.
"I think that's what it's ultimately all about . . . economic growth and jobs," said Rep. Dorothy Hukill, a Port Orange Republican who sponsored the measure in the House. :(
But Charles Pattison, president of the growth management group 1000 Friends of Florida, said the bill will promote "unchecked and inappropriate" development in vast areas of the state.
With more than 300,000 vacant housing units in Florida and development plans approved for another 630,000, Pattison said he's not sure why legislators felt the need to make it easier to build more.
Development issues played a large role during the annual legislative session that ended May 8. A crash in the housing and real estate markets has caused widespread problems in the state, such as helping push the unemployment rate to 9.7 percent in March.
Crist on Thursday signed another bill that could help builders if they file legal challenges against local government impact fees. The bill will place more of a burden on the governments to prove the validity of fees, which in many areas add thousands -- or tens of thousands -- of dollars to the cost of each house.
But during a trip this week to Daytona Beach, Crist acknowledged the difficulty in balancing economic development and environmental needs.
"Being sympathetic to trying to jumpstart the economy but also protecting the environment, it's a fine line," Crist said during a meeting with the editorial board of The Daytona Beach News-Journal.
Perhaps the most closely watched issue in the growth bill deals with transportation "concurrency," a requirement aimed at making sure adequate roads are in place to handle additional traffic from developments.
Bill supporters say concurrency has unintentionally led to sprawling development into outlying areas. That is because it's more expensive to build roads in urban areas to meet transportation requirements.
The bill would exempt many urban areas from concurrency, as a way to try to drive growth to those already-developed areas.
Doug Buck, a lobbyist for the Florida Home Builders Association, said he thinks developers will pursue urban projects if costs and regulations can be reduced enough so there won't be advantages to building in rural areas.
But Pattison said the way the bill has defined urban areas is "fundamentally flawed" and could clear the way for development in vast parts of Florida.
The exemptions would apply to cities that have a minimum population of 5,000 residents and 1,000 people per square mile. That would exempt 245 cities, including most cities in Volusia and Flagler counties, from concurrency rules.
Exemptions also would apply to eight of the most populous counties in the state, though not to unincorporated areas of Volusia and Flagler.
The Florida Association of Counties wrote to Crist last week warning that the widespread exemptions "will only worsen our state's transportation network.
"Eliminating transportation concurrency will lead to Florida's residents and businesses actually suffering in the long run," wrote the group's president, Alachua County Commissioner Rodney J. Long.
The opposing groups also disagree on another part of the sweeping bill that would exempt urban areas from a regional review process for large developments.
Pattison said that is a critical issue. For example, he asked what would happen if Daytona Beach approved a large project and "all the impacts get dumped onto Volusia County?"
But Hukill said such issues already exist under the current review process. She also said oversight of large developments will continue through such things as comprehensive land-plan changes.
Hukill and supporters also say the bill includes other important steps, such as extending development-related permits for two years.
With construction largely stalled because of the economic problems, builders and developers worry that permits will expire before they can start projects. The extension would help them avoid having to get permit approvals again when the market rebounds.
"It's extremely important to our industry," said Edie Ousley, a spokeswoman for the Florida Home Builders Association.
Wanted: People to protect Blue Spring
By DINAH VOYLES PULVER March 16, 2008
Environment Writer
A quick primer on where the water in Blue Spring comes from and just what has happened to that water over the years will be presented during a Monday meeting to form a new spring working group.
The effort will mirror similar working groups in communities around the state that have springs.
Carol Lippincott, a Gainesville consultant who will serve as the working group coordinator, hopes to draw the interest of the average homeowner or business owner, as well as local government officials and groups such as the native plant society.
State officials hope the group can help promote the need to protect the spring by conserving water and preventing pollution from getting into the groundwater in the region around the spring.
"The group is primarily a forum for exchanging information and ideas and for catalyzing people to go out and do good things," Lippincott said.
One group, for example, sponsored a sinkhole amnesty day to convince property owners to allow volunteers to clean up their sinkholes in exchange for taking the garbage to the landfill for free. One Rotary Club sponsored a springs promise campaign with the Boy Scouts to distribute yard signs to people who committed to do three things to make their yards more springs-friendly.
In Levy County, officials have taken the information they've learned in the working group to amend their comprehensive plan to include a plan for springs protection.
On Friday, Lippincott said she hadn't received any responses from the four cities around the spring but Volusia County plans to participate in the group. County officials here have not made springs protection part of the comprehensive plan.
Anyone who lives in the spring basin can participate. The basins, the area where rainwater that falls on the ground flows toward the spring, are often much larger than many people realize.
Scientists with the St. Johns River Water Management district put together a map of the Blue Spring basin four years ago.
They concluded the water in the spring comes from most of Deltona and much of DeLand. The basin's northernmost boundary is the intersection of State Road 44 and State Road 15A and on the east it reaches almost to Osteen.
The Blue Spring working group is being sponsored by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as part of its Wildlife Legacy project, which aims to keep common species common, as well as to protect threatened and endangered species.
The three-hour meeting is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Monday in the meeting room at Blue Spring State Park, on west French Avenue in Orange City.
Participants will be asked to share stories of when they first visited a spring and will hear presentations by officials with the wildlife conservation commission and the state Department of Environmental Protection about springs and spring working groups.
At 4:30 p.m., park manager Bob Rundle will give a tour of the spring run. The second meeting of the spring working group is planned for June 18.
Can you imagine a world with no water?
-
Amy C. Rippel | Special to the Sentinel June 19, 2008
The top winner was a student from Jacksonville with Our Responsibility.
The contest, sponsored by the Jacksonville-based environmental group that opposes withdrawing water from the river, aimed to put a spotlight on water conservation. Jimmy Orth, the group's executive director, said members were looking for inventive and original ideas and they got them.
"We were very pleased with the outcome of the contest, especially since we received 20 entries and half of those were from students in Central Florida," he said.
"I am sure that the opportunity to win $1,000 had something to do with their interest, but I do think that this shows that kids throughout the watershed of the St. Johns River really do care about protecting the river and our groundwater resources"
According to the Riverkeeper Web site, residents along the St. Johns waterway use as much as 150 gallons of water daily, about 50 gallons more per day than the national per-person average.
The organization wants lawmakers to look at other means before tapping the St. Johns River to solve the water crisis.
The contest was a way to bring younger people into the discussion. The local students who entered the contest did much of their work during school time. Many spent more than 20 hours putting it together, including shooting video and editing.
Seminole High School student Gabe Best, 17, along with fellow students Alek Compton and Anthony Rozzo St. Johns River Conservation. Their video shows images of the river and water use, punctuated by a teen pulling a wagon filled with water jugs. In the end, she puts the water back into the river.
Gabe said the contest was more than just winning or losing.
"Even though we didn't win, we still gained experience," he said. "We can do something for the environment."
Bobby Arnold, a Seminole High student who worked on a video with students Autumn Cohen and Dalton Flint, said it was an eye-opening experience.
Their video, Water Conservation, won first place in the people's-choice award at jacksonville.com.
Their 54-second video is punctuated by harsh music and a hurried man walking back and forth with a bucket of water.
"What happens when it's all gone?" the narrator on the video asks.
Bobby said since the contest and a high-school environmental-studies class, he has changed his ways.
"My entire family is different with the way we use water," he said, adding that taking shorter showers is one way they conserve water.
Brittany Cyb, 16, along with Kayla Nelson, 17, and Kayleigh Laderman, 15 -- all Deltona High students -- spent hours trying to determine what they would do. In the end, they knew most students would lean toward a serious video. So they decided to make theirs funny, including scenes of the girls shaving their legs with cranberry juice and shampooing with mustard.
After all their work was done, Brittany said, she was pleased with the final product. And it has helped her change her ways.
"It made me realize how much we really need to conserve," she said. "It makes you realize that the water can be gone."
For the contest, Riverkeeper had three judges review the entries. One of them was Neil A. Armingeon, a member of the St. Johns Riverkeeper group, and he said all the entries were impressive.
"Overall, I was blown away," he said. "It gave us encouragement that people understand the water issue."
Orth said the contest was a way to open the water-conservation discussion to a wider group.
"Our youth do not often have a say in the decisions that are made about how we use our water resources," he said. "Yet, they have as much at stake, if not more, than older generations, and they are the ones who will ultimately have to deal with the consequences from those decisions."
video titled "St. Johns River Conservation." Their video shows images of the river and water usage, punctuated by a teen
"I take every day the good Lord has left for me,
and I pray I did some good
while I'm here."
-Henry Swanson
August 16, 2007
Like the Old Testament's Jeremiah shouting unheeded warnings
in the wilderness, Henry Swanson never lets naysayers stop his prophecies of an environmental doomsday.
Starting in the late 1950s,
Swanson rattled political cages around
Starting in the late 1950s,
Swanson rattled political cages around
Central Florida
with his words of a future water
crisis in a landscape dominated by a booming, thirsty population.
"We're going to hell in a handbasket,"
Swanson said recently, sitting by his kitchen table covered with news clippings and reports of
"We're going to hell in a handbasket,"
Swanson said recently, sitting by his kitchen table covered with news clippings and reports of
Central Florida's efforts to slake the thirst of
development.
The
Instead, Swanson, 83, is a retired agricultural agent who got his
environmentalist start in a 4-H club, raising Plymouth Rock hens in
There's a stoop to his 6-foot-3 frame and his voice wavers a little, and his
still-firm handshake comes with effort.
But his hard-won fame is still with him.
"When I saw what the problem was, I took it
on to tell every city slicker and business fellow just how our water system
works," Swanson said. "I took it as a crusade and never let go of
it."
When Walt Disney's famous
"I'd talk to every church club, garden club and tell them that people are
coming, and change is coming with them," Swanson said.
Apopka Mayor John Land, 86, who was Apopka's mayor even back then, remembered
Disney's speech and Swanson's warnings of water troubles.
"He was right all along," Land said of
his longtime friend. "Right now we're getting into re-use water and we
can't get enough of it. We never thought we'd see these days, but Henry
did."
Swanson recalled that, in the 1960s, "it was a Sentinel newspaperman who
first called me Jeremiah, and it stuck all right."
Swanson slowed down on his crusade for a while, especially when his wife of
more than 50 years, Billie M. Swanson, was ill.
The woman who caught his eye a lifetime ago working in a garden shop near the
His calls and letters don't rumble in the political landscape as they did in
the days when reporters from CBS' 60 Minutes, National Geographic and The Wall
Street Journal sought his opinion about the changes Disney was making to the
citrus belt.
Some in the new crop of politicians who know him say Swanson's efforts were a
success, citing him as the force behind the 1996 Swanson-McEwan Bluebelt Act. It is a state law designed to keep
growers and farmers from being forced to sell their land if they are frozen out
or facing disaster.
The idea is to keep the land open, so rainwater can better reach nature's
underground rain barrel, the aquifer of porous limestone beneath our feet.
But Swanson sees it as his biggest failure.
"We got suckered," Swanson says with some bitterness.
"They passed the law all right, but then by night the hatchet men came in
and gutted it."
The law, which
offers tax breaks for anyone who would keep their farmland undeveloped, comes
with so many onerous penalties that in the 11 years since it passed it has had
not a single taker, Swanson said.
"I'm still crying about that one," he
said.
The plaque he got commemorating his namesake law doesn't hang on his wall with
his five Agricultural Hall of Fame awards.
He is still on his water conservation mission, which he sees as an unfinished chore with the stakes as high as ever. He still sends
out letters to politicians warning them of the consequences of unchecked
development.
"I've asked myself when I'm going to get off this," he said.
"I'm not sure. I look back at my life and try to
Monday-morning-quarterback it. But that doesn't do much good."
So Swanson is content. "I take every day the good Lord has left for me,
and I pray I did some good while I'm here."
But he's not done hanging awards on his wall. If he doesn't miss a Rotary Club
meeting between now and mid-September, he will earn an award for 50 years of
perfect attendance.
"I expect I'll find room for it on the wall," he said.
Rich McKay can be reached at rmckay@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5470.
Copyright ©
2007, Orlando Sentinel
Global
warming may put
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer 42 minutes ago
"Water is connected to everything we care about —
energy, human health, food production and politics," said Glieck, who was not part of either panel. "And that fact
alone means we better pay more attention to the security connections. Climate
will effect all of those things. Water resources are
especially vulnerable to climate change."
As water fights erupt between nations and regions and especially
between cities and agricultural areas, Stanford scientist Terry Root said there
will be one sure loser low on the priority list for water: other species.
From
the
House Passes Water Quality Financing Act
By The Associated
Press Fri Mar 9,2007
The 303-108 roll call Friday by which the House passed the Water Quality Financing Act of 2007.
Feeney, X; Keller, N; Mack, N; Mica, N; Miller, N; Putnam, N; Stearns, N; Weldon, N;
Sometimes, local earmarks can create controversies.
This year, Feeney, R-Oviedo, wants $4 million to study
S.R. 46 to S.R. 415 in
-- would encourage sprawl along the rural corridor.
"Build it, and they will come,"
said Deborah Schafer. She said four lanes would enable large area landholders,
such as Miami Corp.,
to plot new subdivisions.
'A tipping point'
Janet Bowman, a spokeswoman for The Nature Conservancy, said the proposal comes at a critical time.
"We're reaching a tipping point at some of the springs, and we won't be able to restore the water quality," Bowman said.
The state is already doing a lot to protect the springs, but more can be done, said Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Sole.
"When you look at not only the recreational value that those springs provide but the ecological value, they're critical to our state, and they need good protection," Sole said.
Increased nitrogen and phosphorus levels have become a problem statewide, said Jerry Brooks, a deputy director with the department.
A major source of nitrogen and phosphorus is fertilizer from lawns, sports fields, golf courses, farms and ranches.
Another major source is
human waste, either waste that's been treated and pumped from sewage facilities or
oozing from septic tanks.
The springs should also see a reduced threat from septic tanks, since Wakulla County has set stricter standards.
The county passed an ordinance in October 2006 that requires all new homes built to use septic systems that remove a much higher level of nitrogen, said Padraic Juarez, the county's environmental health director.
The springs protection bill (HB 31) has one more stop in the House before reaching the floor.
An identical bill (SB 2078) has two more stops in the Senate before reaching the floor of that chamber.
Rotary Clubs Always Pumped for World Water Day
To: NATIONAL EDITORS
Contact: Wayne Hearn, +1-847-866-3386, wayne.hearn@rotary.org, or F. Ronald Denham, +1-416-824-0039, ron.denham@atkearney.com, both of Rotary International
EVANSTON, Ill., March 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ --
While the United Nations designates March 22 as World Water Day,
Rotary members around the globe are focused on the issue 24/7,
volunteering their time and resources
to provide safe water and sanitation to communities wherever there is need.
State seeks volunteers to monitor lakes
Debbie Manis | Sentinel Staff Writer March 16, 2008
Florida Lakewatch is looking for residents who are ready to roll up their sleeves and make a contribution to the future of Florida lakes.
The University of Florida group authorized by the Legislature monitors water quality. If you own a boat and have a few hours each month to volunteer, you might be a candidate for the lake-monitoring program.
Lakewatch trains volunteers to collect water and algae samples and water-clarity information that document a lake's nutrient levels. Baseline data are established, providing residents and water managers with a useful tool for managing lakes, said David Watson, Lake County's regional coordinator for Florida Lakewatch.
In return for participation, volunteers receive training in monitoring procedures; supplies and use of sampling materials; periodic reports of their monthly data, including an annual report concerning their lake; quarterly educational newsletters; access to aquatic-sciences experts at the University of Florida; and invitations to Lakewatch activities.
Details: 1-800-525-3928.
Rich McKay | Sentinel Staff Writer
January 21, 2008
Raw water worries
Wary of risks in haste to injection wells
A little more caution, please, as Daytona Beach punches test holes below ground to inject raw water into deep storage wells.
These aquifer storage recovery wells can save the city money in storage and treatment costs. A typical ASR system can store 20 times the water at a fifth of the cost of an above-ground storage tank or reservoir. But, if poorly designed, injected or monitored, deep injection wells could pollute the sole aquifer that supplies potable water to area residents beyond Daytona Beach. And if climate change or other factors exacerbate an already challenging problem with saltwater intrusion in local groundwater, the recovery wells could prove of little benefit. Experience in South Florida counsels a more guarded public response to the widespread embrace of this technology by engineers and utility managers.
ASR isn't new to Florida; the first well was drilled in South Florida in 1983. Scores are there now and about 330 more are planned to capture excess surface water and store it for use in the Everglades restoration. The St. Johns River Water Management District has proposed similar injection storage for our area for several years, and water providers other than Daytona Beach -- recently Volusia County and DeBary -- are planning wells of their own.
Daytona Beach plans to store raw water; the more common approach is to inject treated or partially treated water into the deep wells and pump it out for use during dry spells to prevent overtaxing normal supplies. All water injected into ASR wells must meet federal standards for safe drinking water. But here's a chief concern: Those standards don't include tests or regulations for many of the contaminants -- especially inorganic contaminants -- in raw water. Sending that water into a well where it can mix with the aquifer is risky.
The U.S. Geological Survey evaluated ASR wells in South Florida earlier in this decade and in 2004 noted the following concerns:
· Poor recovery caused by mixing within the aquifer.
· Issues with the quality of water injected.
· Release, or potential release, of arsenic, radionuclides and other unhealthy content into stored water from its interaction with the aquifer.
· Salt intrusion in the aquifer detrimentally affecting the recovery of stored fresh water.
· Inadequate monitoring of the recharge/recovery cycles.
The Sierra Club commissioned its own geological study that faulted the design of several wells and addressed some of the same concerns cited by the Geological Survey.
We're not suggesting that Daytona Beach abandon its test drilling, or that ASR doesn't offer a safe and cost-effective way to improve the drinking water supply. Certainly, the technology for these systems is improving as hydrologists and engineers learn from past mistakes. And to be sure, injecting raw water for storage in a well-confined space below ground poses less concern than the potential cumulative effects in South Florida of deep injection of wastewater below the aquifer. But we wonder how much interaction the deep aquifer can absorb from our direct surface interventions before we overstress an already strained resource.
It hasn't been so long ago that engineers, similarly prodded by the growth machine and policymakers, jumped all over the idea of draining swamps and diverting a river in this state, an ecological boondoggle that we taxpayers are now spending billions in a desperate effort to correct: Think Kissimmee River, Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades, Florida Bay.
This time, let's get some more science and think through the potential consequences in worst-case scenarios before the ambition for drilling drowns out reason -- just on the off-chance all those wells utility managers want aren't quite as harmless as they think. The one thing we Floridians should know by now is that after the wells are in the ground, it won't be as easy to abandon them as their proponents are saying.
January 21, 2008
In din for more supply, conservation voices fading
As local officials search for ways to supplement this area's growing thirst for water, they should also be looking to every bathroom, kitchen sink, hot tub and -- especially -- lawn in their jurisdictions.
To their credit, leaders have advocated for conservation. But the patchwork of efforts so far leaves much water wasted. Volusia County's water-wise ordinance requires the use of drought-tolerant plants and native species -- but the rules only apply to new construction. The St. Johns River Water Management District mandates watering restrictions for households and businesses, but when the weather gets dry it's still not uncommon to see lawn sprinklers running in the middle of the day (a violation of water-shortage rules.) Meanwhile, the area's water consumption continues to grow. Water management district officials predict that by 2025, the general public in Volusia County will demand nearly twice as much water as it did in 1995. The district's water supply plan dryly notes that there is "some expected shortage" in groundwater supplies -- but Flagler officials learned last week that they could be short by as much as 4 million gallons per day within the next two years, forcing county residents to look beyond wells to desalination plants or other alternatives.
The effects of the water shortage are already being felt -- most notably in west Volusia's signature springs, including Blue Spring and DeLeon Springs. To protect the springs, the state has set a goal of reducing water withdrawals by 30 percent in the watersheds around Blue Spring -- but the plan stops short of banning development in the areas around Blue Spring. Instead, it asks for "reasonable assurances" that new development won't impact efforts to restore spring flow, while cutting down on the amount that west Volusia utilities are allowed to withdraw from the aquifer near the springs.
The water management district and local governments seem to be placing the most emphasis on alternative water-supply projects. But they shouldn't give up on conservation. Unfortunately, the best mechanism to promote conservation -- the Water Authority of Volusia, a once-promising joint venture between 13 local cities and the county -- has faltered. Regional partnerships have sprung up to take its place, but they are already showing signs of the old east-vs.-west mentality that had local governments ignoring conservation in a scramble to secure rights to continue pumping inexpensive water from the ground.
To their credit, some cities are still pursuing conservation options. This month, DeLand kicked off a water-saving incentive program that rewards builders who install low-flow toilets and landscape with native plants -- an effort that takes the county's water-wise program a step further. The incentives are awarded as credits against impact fees. Like the county, DeLand's efforts don't reach existing homes or businesses.
Regional officials are also talking about interconnections that would allow local water utilities to shift pressure from one wellfield to another when demand spikes.
But the real answer may lie outside Volusia County. At one point, the water management district appeared ready to get tough with Volusia cities, holding water permits hostage in an effort to force better water policy, more cooperation -- and a focus on conserving water rather than hoarding it.
That emphasis seems to have faded.
Water officials should make it clear that before Volusia is able to tap any additional water supplies
-- including alternative sources --
its
water utilities should be able to prove that they're making the best use of the water they have,
and doing as much as possible to control waste.
Water war summit planned
posted by Mark Skoneki on Jan 4, 2008 2:57:10 PM
Kevin Spear just filed this report:
Alarmed that Central Florida is planning to drain the life out of the St. Johns River,
leaders of 33 downstream cities and counties will hear later this month from Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty
and then decide whether to escalate a water war.
The Northeast Florida Regional Planning Council plans to hold a summit in Jacksonville on Jan. 25 over the future of the St. Johns River. The 310-mile waterway flows north from Central Florida and then carves through Jacksonville to the Atlantic Ocean.
In recent months, Jacksonville area communities have rallied to oppose plans by Central Florida to pump as much as 250 million gallons daily from the river and its tributaries. For now, some North Florida leaders want to head off hostilities by holding the summit and meeting with Crotty.
"Arguing, bickering and fighting will not get us anywhere," said Harold Rutledge, chairman of the Clay County Board of Commissioners and president of the planning council. "I’d hate to see us dig our heels in and not be able to compromise."
At stake in the growing conflict over St. Johns River water are the billions of dollars Central Florida plans to spend to build treatment plants along the river’s edge. The St. Johns River Water Management District contends that Central Florida has virtually no other option during the next several years but to pump from the river to supply fast-growing communities with drinking water.
The region’s primary supply, the underground Florida Aquifer, now provides more than 500 million gallons daily. Aquifer water is relatively cheap to pump but taking any more could harm springs, rivers and wetlands.
Only recently has the water-management district begun to tell Jacksonville-area communities that the St. Johns River has plenty of water to spare for Central Florida. Many leaders from downstream communities also have never heard from Orlando-area elected officials their rationale for taking that water.
That’s a role Crotty expects to fill at the summit. His Orange County Utilities department is working with other local utilities to build by a St. Johns River treatment plant in the southeast corner of the county.
"My role would be to highlight the many environmental successes in Orange County," Crotty said. "And I’ll convey to those assembled there a spirit of cooperation."
TURKEY POINT
FPL asks panel to allow two more nuclear reactors
State utility regulators heard FPL, and nuclear-power critics, make the case for and against two proposed new reactors near Homestead.
''Nuclear power is the backbone for FPL's system, providing safe and low-cost energy, 24-7,''
FPL attorney Wade Litchfield told the Public Service Commission, which opened a three-day hearing in Tallahassee on what could be the state's first expansion of nuclear power in decades.
Environmentalists and a state-assigned consumer advocate questioned FPL's claims, arguing the utility hasn't calculated some big-ticket costs -- starting with the bill for up to 80 million gallons a day of cooling water.
CRITIC
Dawn Shirreffs, an organizer for Clean Water Action, told commissioners that FPL has yet to identify where or
how it will get that much water in a county already on severe rationing.
''You can't evaluate the cost of pumping, the cost of piping,'' said Shirreffs. ``FPL has not addressed the most basic issues regarding cost.''
FPL's plans face years of state and federal reviews on environmental, safety and design issues. But the PSC hearing, despite a limited mission of gauging whether the plant is needed and would supply consumers affordable power, is a critical hurdle that could clear the way for major expansion of the complex near Homestead. A decision from the five commissioners, appointed by the governor to oversee power, phone, gas and water utilities, could come as soon as mid-March.
BIG PRICE TAG
Turkey Point's two existing reactors, the state's oldest, provide power for some 450,000 homes. FPL is weighing two designs that would more than double output -- 2,200 megawatts costing $12 billion to $18 billion or 3,000 megawatts costing $16 billion to $24 billion -- and go online around 2018.
Environmentalists told commissioners that tougher conservation efforts and expanded use of alternative fuel, such as solar power, could offset the need to expand.
Filed under: Water
Toxic gas fills the air; we blame the
canary
By
C. RONALD CARROLL
Agenda 2007/Conservation
The slogans of the shortsighted are numbing our sense of complex
realities: "We cannot give away our precious water to protect a few fish
and mussels in the
I am reminded of similar mantras a decade ago. Then, the cry was,
"We can't take jobs away from loggers just to protect the spotted
owl!" Bumper stickers in the rural
We have endangered species
because we have a legacy of being poor stewards of the environment. We have allowed
ourselves to be dominated by a "tyranny of small decisions" that,
when added up, create crises and panic responses.
Year by year, metro
It is not just
We are better stewards now than in past decades, but rapid
development, population growth, and short-term delusional decisions are serious
threats that must be confronted.
Ask yourself these questions:
What rational business
would undercut its essential resources as we are doing with the environment?
How could a religious
person justify being a poor steward of God's creation?
Why should politicians be
allowed to shirk their responsibilities for protecting natural resources and,
why don't they listen to their own agency scientists?
Why should
the rest of us remain apathetic when we know what must be done?
We know what we should do. Fundamentally, we need to accept an
ethic of conservation, not develop beyond what our natural resources can
support, and respect the rights of the "downstream" communities.
Our policies, law and our elected officials need to reflect these
realities.
My grandfather used to tell me stories about his father who was a
mine inspector in
Our endangered species are sentinels, like the mine canaries,
warning us of growing environmental degradation. Blaming the endangered fish
and mussels for our water woes is as silly and misdirected as blaming the sick
canary for shutting down the mine.
Carroll is director of science for the
OTHER VIEWS
Wallowing in water
woes
Thomas
V. Dibacco | Special to the
Sentinel
Much of the
Worse, neither the cause of the pollution nor its solution has been identified
for certain, although a commercial laundry business is suspected of making an
illegal pipe connection to city water from its well. Thus, as of Friday, the
boil-water alert continued for portions of the district.
Worse still, West Palm's crisis may
not be unique, with Central
Florida communities experiencing not
dissimilar preconditions in terms of significant population growth, aging
infrastructures, other government priorities in terms of encouraging tourism,
and diminishing rains.
Here's
the story for
The city of
Although schools are receiving bottled water and the city has distributed
24-packs to low-income and disabled residents, there are simply too many cracks
in the water mosaic that are left unfilled. For example, when my wife and I
were in
The real villain in this tragic story may not
be just water quality, but the quality of government that oversees the crisis. When the original
alert was issued on Sept. 28, Mayor Lois Frankel of
According to news reports, the mayor would like to lift the alert in areas that
show no evidence of contamination, but the county health department disagrees.
Still, with the Health Department's approval, the boil-water alert was lifted
late Friday for the south end of the city and for Palm Beach and South Palm
Beach
Experts have been called in, and more tests done, but the lag time for
laboratories to report the results sometimes has been as long as 48 hours.
And then there's the matter of water history: Residents for years have
complained of the stinky odor of the city's water. Water-plant machinery is
old, with estimates for upgrading running as much as $34 million. Recently, the
city during the recent drought when water supplies were perilously low, decided
to pump highly treated waste directly into city well fields -- a fact that was
not disclosed to the public until six weeks after the fact.
Not surprisingly, the crisis is steeped in politics. One city commissioner
wants the mayor to fire the administrator in charge of the water utility, but
the mayor has stood firm. And the mayor and city commission are overwhelmed
with other pressing problems: the city's violent crime problem has attracted
national attention, as has a decision to ban feeding the homeless in downtown
areas. Worse, an appellate court ruling last week stated that the
halfway-constructed $154 million
Still, the mayor in particular has had time to participate in extracurricular
activities, such as antiwar demonstrations, which in an ironic way is bringing
her story full circle. Namely, she now may well have the opportunity to be
privy to some of the infrastructure conditions in her mayoralty that exist
rather routinely in various parts of war-torn
Thomas V. DiBacco, an emeritus professor at
American University in Washington, D.C., is a longtime resident of
GOVERNMENT
WATCH
Which city is better
protector of rural land?
Bush chided
Oviedo officials note that for years it
was Winter Springs that tried to encroach upon the Black Hammock for
development, until a dramatic reversal last year.
Residents Fight
Back Against Expensive, Bad Water
Tue Jun 26,
Stacey Moberg just turned on the
faucet in her kitchen, and by her estimates it's going to cost her and arm and
a leg and she said it tastes bad.
"About the water quality, yeah I don't drink it. We buy
bottled water, not that it's always much better -- I just know it's not great
quality water," Moberg said.
Moberg said she's not the only one paying
out the nose for water. She said it's a quality of life issue.
"The bill is already high and we forgo buying new cars
and vacations to put our oldest Amanda into gymnastics. And to have to tell her
she might not go because I'm going to be paying triple, you forgo a lot as a
parent," Moberg said.
Moberg said her average monthly water bill
is $280.
Aqua Utilities said it is looking for a rate hike, WESH 2
News reported.
Aqua
"What we're asking for is what any public utility would
need to do when you put a significant amount of investment in the
infrastructure. If you can't get those back in recovery in a rate increase, how
can you keep up the infrastructure and continue to
provide quality water?" said Maenza.
Moberg said going from $32 before
receiving a bill to $95 will hogtie them to their current house.
"We'll never be able to sell the house. Who's going to
want to buy a house when you have a water bill that's $800?" Moberg said.
Lake Okeechobee's low water levels threaten South Florida
water supply
By Jennifer Kay | The Associated
Press
Posted May 29, 2007, 5:39 PM EDT
``If we have below-average or even average rainfall, we could come out
of rainy season and still be in a drought,'' said Carol Wehle,
executive director of the South Florida Water Management District.
Water
scarcity: Global warming to deepen thirst for blue gold
by Richard Ingham and
Anne Chaon Thu Mar 22,
PARIS (AFP) - Fresh water, the
stuff of life, is set to become even more precious as global warming
begins to bite, experts warned ahead of World Water Day.
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
"Everybody
is complaining about their taxes right now -- wait till they see what water
will cost them in the future,"
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
March 31, 2007
18 words
imperil 3-million acres
A
single sentence added to a bill passed
this week by a House committee would wipe
out strict protections for wetlands in 20
"It's
a huge step backward for wetlands protections in
Wetlands play a
critical role in
Please email your state representative and urge them to vote against H.B. 957, which
would weaken wetlands protection. Then, ask your family and friends to help by
forwarding this email to them.
To contact your legislator, click on this link or copy and paste it into your
browser:
https://www.environmentflorida.org/preservation/wetlands?id4=ES
Background:
An investigation by the St. Petersburg Times found that, between 1990 and 2003,
84,000 acres of Florida wetlands were lost to development. A
number of counties across
Last week, Rep. Will Kendrick (R-Carrabelle) proposed an amendment to House
Bill 957 (H.B. 957) that would prohibit counties from enacting wetlands
protections that are stronger than those we have on the state level.
Unfortunately, despite strong opposition from the conservation community and a
number of counties, the House Environment and Natural Resources Committee
passed the bill with this amendment.
The proponents of this measure claim that they are merely trying to streamline the permitting process
for developers,
and that counties wishing to enact more stringent protections for wetlands
could do so by seeking approval from the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection (DEP). However, Rep. Kendrick's amendment would actually
require counties to ask the Florida DEP to delegate the state's entire
environmental permitting program, a huge undertaking that counties have neither
the budget nor the staff to undertake. The bottom line is that this
amendment would effectively prohibit counties all across
The good news is that Governor Charlie Crist said in
an interview last week that he would likely veto this bill if it
makes it to his desk. However, we need to send a strong message to the
Florida Legislature that our wetlands are valuable resources that need strong
protections, and that they should drop any attempt to weaken these protections.
Please email
your state representative and urge them to vote against H.B. 957,
which would weaken wetlands protection. Then, ask your family and friends to
help by forwarding this email to them.
To contact your legislator, click on this link or copy and paste it into your
browser.
https://www.environmentflorida.org/preservation/wetlands?id4=ES
Sincerely,
Mark Ferrulo
Environment Florida Director
MarkF@environmentflorida.org
http://www.EnvironmentFlorida.org
P.S. Thanks again for your support. Please feel free to share this
e-mail with your family and friends.
Rivers
likely to help slake area's thirst
An
Robert Sargent
and Ramsey Campbell | Sentinel Staff Writers
Posted
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With the region's enormous growth already
outpacing precious underground-water supplies,
local governments will be forced to pump an additional 70 billion gallons each
year by 2025 from lakes, rivers and other alternate sources to keep up with the
incredible demand.
Already, regional water managers are considering a slew of alternatives as the Floridan Aquifer gets closer to
reaching its limit -- everything from removing salt from seawater to pulling
water from the
And today, water-management
officials will unveil a new proposal: a 24-inch pipeline running 70 miles from
the
Another option is to share that supply with
The
idea of draining water from rivers doesn't sit well with environmentalist(think
voter) Nadine Foley of Umatilla. Foley said any water taken from the rivers for
drinking, particularly in dry years, needs to be balanced by protecting
waterways and wetlands. She said
"We use an
astonishing amount of water for landscaping," she said.
As part of
ongoing efforts to devise an escape plan for growing groundwater
withdrawals, St. Johns River Water
Management District officials will discuss ideas in Minneola with elected
officials from across
"We saw a
shortfall of groundwater on the horizon," said Barbara Vergara, the district's director of water-supply
management.
Experts say
Treated-wastewater use to rise
About 60 different projects are designed to lessen demand on groundwater. Many
will provide treated wastewater for irrigating lawns -- a few will use
surface-water bodies for irrigation.
Proposed treatment plans include desalination and possibly
tapping major inland rivers such as the Ocklawaha, St. Johns and the Withlacoochee -- a search for alternative water sources
that has become urgent with predictions that Central Florida will(could) be
home to nearly 5 million people by 2025.
For decades the area has relied mostly on the underground aquifer -- an inexpensive, easy way to provide drinking
water -- for a population that now tops 3 million spread across seven counties.
Experts say water withdrawals are expected to almost double as the region
continues to grow. But digging more wells just won't cut it.
Water-management officials fearing serious environmental impacts
could stop issuing new permits for groundwater withdrawals within six years. So local governments likely
will be forced to collectively invest hundreds of millions of dollars for alternative
water projects that other parts of the state
such as
What it means to residents is that Metro
"Everybody is complaining about their
taxes right now -- wait till they see what water will cost them in the
future," Lake County Commissioner Elaine Renick
said.$$$$$$
But even as the St. Johns takes steps in hopes of curbing the aquifer spigot,
Still, the idea of using surface water to slake a thirsty populace
has taken hold in some counties. In Seminole, for instance, permitting has
started on new water-treatment plant in the northwest part of the county that
will take water from the
In the first phase, up to 10 million gallons of river water will be drawn daily to
supplement the county's reclaimed-water system. Plans call for construction to
begin on the $55
million project in September and be completed by May 2009.