Everything that makes sense should be done to ensure Florida residents have an adequate water supply.
As in every other issue related to public policy, the question is what makes sense.
Before we know that, we need to know how serious the problem is that we are facing.
Florida is growing, and has been since air conditioning and mosquito control came along. But, the water supply is not growing.
Luckily, unlike states in the West, we have a huge supply under our feet, and a substantial amount of rainfall.
We get 50-55 inches of rain each year, but only the equivalent of 13 inches refills the underground water supply. The rest evaporates or runs off into surface water, carrying a lot of gunk along.
Government agencies seek to gain support for programs to ensure an adequate water supply. Being government, they are not above exaggerating the problem, whether deliberately or with good intention.
Projections have suggested use is rapidly exceeding supply.
However, it appears that conservation and other remedies, along with a little extra rainfall, reduced the use of water by nearly 6 percent during 1975 to 2010, while population increased by 10 million and government agencies were predicting more than double the actual usage.
That does not mean we are in the clear. If growth continues, there probably is a limit to how much it can be offset by conservation. Lush green lawns can be sacrificed, for example, but only once.
With fresh water becoming scarce, the possibility of “water wars” looms. Counties with little water want more from those who have it, and counties upstream are not reluctant to tap surface water before it gets downstream. Florida, Alabama and Georgia already are in such a tussle.
Water storage, reuse, more desalinization and other methods may be necessary to keep up.
For example, Jacksonville, a large user of water, has a municipally owned utility that provides electricity, water and sewer. It has been reclaiming water for more than 15 years and currently 15 million gallons a day is being diverted from discharge in the St. Johns River to irrigation and industrial use.
Central Florida politicians would like to skim off water from the St. Johns before it gets to Jacksonville and, predictably, Jacksonville politicians are opposed. They need to talk.
Experts differ on the remedies, but if everyone agrees there is a problem there should be a way to find sensible and affordable solutions.
Associated Industries of Florida is holding its annual water forum later this month, to search for such solutions. More power to them. Business has a big stake in having an adequate water supply and therefore can be expected to seek and support serious answers.
It certainly makes much more sense to listen to business and industry, which have skin in the game, than to special interests whose main objectives are to eliminate private property, curtail private business and expand government.
Lloyd Brown was in the newspaper business nearly 50 years, beginning as a copy boy and retiring as editorial page editor of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. After retirement he served as a policy analyst for Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
