Water's
Journey - The Hidden Rivers of Florida
Check local listings for your area - it
is showing between 10-14 to 10-19
Program Preview:
Over eight billion gallons of water a day bursts forth from Florida's
springs - the most unique concentration of springs on the planet. At
one time, it was thought to be an endless supply, but now the demands
of man are starting to exceed availability. We join a team on a daring
journey into the Floridan Aquifer - to find out what's going wrong. As
the team follows the connective path of water through the landscape,
their discoveries lead viewers on a thrilling adventure about the
miraculous course that water takes, and the places we don't want to
believe it goes. Is it too late for the Floridan Aquifer?
It was made by Karst Productions, Inc. You can also buy the video at the
Karst Productions website. A special edition DVD will be coming out
sometime soon.
Info about the video production:
http://www.wesskiles.com/
Info about Florida Springs via DEP:
http://www.floridasprings.org
...from CURG, 10/15/03
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Says Council's report a prescription
for environmental damage and future water shortages
Contact: Susie Caplowe, (850) 567-2448
Rosalie Shaffer, (850) 215-7070
John Swingle, (239) 693-3854
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: OCTOBER 8, 2003
In a recently released report, the pro-development Council of 100 has
advocated widespread changes in the way water resources are managed in
the state of Florida. It attacks the current system of public
ownership and local control of distribution of water, replacing it
with a politicized system and privatization.
The "Gang of 100" seeks to impact areas of the state that have not yet
outstripped their water resources, by having large amounts of this
vital resource taken from them, to supply areas that have allowed
uncontrolled growth to outstrip the availability of cheap water. The
Gang's plan will have the added effect of continuing the unbridled
growth of South Florida, with all its impacts on the environment and
quality of life.
"With all of its potential impacts to our state's water resources,
growth management and the environment, it's probably the worst idea
we've seen in a long time," said Greg Kalmbach, Chairman of the
Florida Chapter.
Who is the Gang of 100? Business, industry and development leaders and
lobbyists. It is the same group of industry lobbyists that has pushed
for the weakening of the Everglades cleanup criteria, and the
injection of wastewater into the fragile underground aquifers that
they call "storage".
Due to unmanaged growth in South Florida, and a reluctance to conserve
the resource, business and development advocates are trying to push a
proposal that would, among other things, set up a statewide Water
Supply Commission. Its far-reaching authority would supercede that of
the existing Water Management Districts. Ironically, the state
government that always advocates for "less government" appears willing
to consider adding another layer of bureaucracy to an already complex
system.
This politicized Water Supply Commission appointed by the Governor
would take away county and regional control of the public's water
supply. It will decide how water is to be distributed throughout the
state, and will likely set up a water transfer system from the North
to the South.
This dangerous idea will create a new "Civil War" based upon water.
The statutes that protect areas of the state from "water grabs", the
Local Sources First laws, will be thrown out the window, replaced by a
politicized system of distribution for our most precious resource.
What priority will the needs of natural systems have? Likely, dead
last.
Contrary to the "Gang of 100s" perceptions, there is no excess water
in the state of Florida. Every drop is being fully utilized by people
and natural systems. When too much water is taken out of these
systems, we see grave damage such as the Everglades, the subject of a
multi-billion dollar cleanup, and Tampa Lakes, where draw downs have
created an ecological desert. The health of all our estuaries is
dependent upon freshwater inflow.
Who will need water in the future? Those areas in the north which are
seen by the Gang as water-rich, and ripe for the plucking, are growing
as well, and will someday need all their water. Then where will they
pipe it from? This plan will discourage conservation and result in
even worse water shortages in the future.
Another of the Gang's dangerous ideas is the privatization of water
resource development and distribution. This proposal would set up a
massive for-profit industry controlling the public's water and
regulated only by politicians susceptible to influence from election
contributions. Other places in the country where this idea has been
tried report horror stories of dramatic increases in costs and reduced
availability of water. Private control of the public's water is an
invitation to exploitation and disservice.
"People cannot live without clean, affordable drinking water," said
John Swingle, Conservation Chair of the Sierra Club Florida Chapter.
"And our water reserves should not be doled out as a reward to big
dollar campaign contributors."
"This plan is a prescription for disaster," said Rosalie Shaffer,
Chair of the Florida Chapter's Water and Wetlands Committee. "And the
real truth is that it is unnecessary. With good conservation measures
in place and wise growth management, it is not needed." She points out
that according to a recent series on water in the Orlando Sentinel,
about half of the water used by people in Florida is used for
agricultural purposes. Half of the non-agricultural use is for
landscaping. "It's been estimated that half of that water can be
conserved through water-saving technologies and reuse," she said.
However, the Gang's report hardly touches on conservation; the
emphasis is on water transfer and privatization.
This plan will exacerbate future water shortages, drive up costs, and
damage water-dependent ecosystems and wildlife resources. In addition,
any water transfer system of pipelines will cost the taxpayers
billions of dollars-money that would be better used for conservation
measures and stormwater control.
"What this is really about," says Susie Caplowe, Florida Chapter
lobbyist, "is the hijacking of the public's water supply to encourage
more runaway development in South Florida, and create a multi-billion
dollar industry for water profiteers. The public needs to say NO loud
and clear."
--
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"Water water everywhere and not a
drop to drink" - coming soon to your neighborhood:
This is going on NOW!!!
Statewide water board proposed
The possibility of a piping water to from rural North Florida to
populated South Florida took a step closer to reality today with
recommendations from a business group with close ties to Gov. Jeb
Bush.
Stop the flow of bad water ideas
Recently, an elite business group (Council of
100) made known its intentions to convince the Legislature and Gov.
Bush to radically alter Florida water law so that limited drinking water
supplies in Central and South Florida don't impede future growth and
development there. A different perspective, which puts people and the
environment first, is the preferred approach if we want to maintain the
environment and quality of life now and in the future. Here's why. (see
also
Bad Idea for Florida's
Water Supply)
FLORIDA COUNCIL OF 100 TASK-FORCE MEMBERS
9/26
And in India and many other places (not
just in the "third world") business interests are buying up the water
- can we even imagine what this is doing to these people?
Here's only one example:
Firstly, the
Cola companies mine water for their bottling plants, robbing the poor
of their very fundamental right to drinking water.
Secondly, the bottling plants are a source of toxic waste, which
threatens the environment and public health.
Finally, the soft drinks themselves are a toxic brew known to be
hazardous to health. For more than a year, tribal women in Plachimada
in Palaghat district have been sitting in protest against Coca-Cola
because the company has drained their aquifers dry. Wells and tanks
have dried up with the water table dropping from 10 ft. to 100 ft. As
Virender Kumar of Mathrubhumi has written, "People are bringing
headloads of potable water from afar, while truck loads of soft drinks
are leaving the Coke Plant."
The plant draws more than 1 million litres a day, forcing women to
walk 5-6 kms to bring headloads of potable water. 8.5 truckloads leave
the plant daily, loaded with soft drinks. Each litre of coke wastes 9
litres of potable water (Virendra Kumar, Open letter to Chief Minister
10.8.03)
(more...)
Here's another: actually just one of
many segments from Bill Moyer's NOW on PBS:
http://www.pbs.org/now/science/bolivia.html -- Search his sight
for other pieces on water
Council of 100
The rumblings were correct. A Florida business group is
following through with plans to privatize drinking water supplies. Though
the Council of 100 says it is planning ahead for growth and trying to
avert water wars among Florida's supplier and consumer regions, the agenda
boils down to seizing a public resource. 10/3/03
Task force leader defends water shifts
Water management officials are wary of plans for a statewide panel to
oversee diversion from areas of plenty to high development locales.
TAMPA - Facing a skeptical crowd of water managers Friday, the head of a
business group studying the state's water supply defended a proposal to
create a statewide commission that could route water from rural counties
to booming areas. 10/4/03
Sea of voices urge no water rerouting
At a public hearing on the Council of 100's report, a lone supporter
from Pinellas is heard.
LAKELAND - Farmers, politicians and utility executives turned out
Wednesday to argue against several proposed changes in the way
Florida's water supply is divvied up.
In the first of five public hearings, about 100 people crowded into
Lakeland City Hall to tell five state senators what they thought about
a report recently unveiled by the Council of 100, a group of business
leaders who advise Gov. Jeb Bush. 10/9/03
Panel: Florida needs water commission
TALLAHASSEE — An influential business group has recommended
wide-ranging changes to Florida water laws, including creation of a
statewide commission to route water from rural to booming areas and
encourage private water development on state land.
The proposals, developed in private meetings over the past year by a
task force of the Council of 100, were forwarded to Gov. Jeb Bush and
may come up during a special session of the Legislature as soon as
October, the St. Petersburg Times reported.
A spokeswoman for Senate President Jim King, R-Jacksonville, said
water is a possible topic for the special session, but no decision has
been made on whether the recommendations would be part of such a
discussion. 8/20/03
... See also
"Bad ideas for
Florida's water supply"
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No water no matter who did not pay
If you don't pay your water bill, Pinellas County Utilities will cut off your water.
9/25/02
Utility accountability
- Lawmakers need to assure Florida Water Services customers don't get soaked.-
Lawyers, a Minnesota-based power and automotive conglomerate and the tiny Panhandle cities of Gulf Breeze and Milton stand to make millions from the pending sale of Florida Water Services.--
But what about the company's consumers -- more than a quarter-million strong in 27 counties, including 60,000 customers in Central Florida? What's in it for them?
9/25/02
Reclaimed water teeming with parasites
More than 100,000 lawns and 400 golf courses in Florida are irrigated with treated sewage, a practice the state endorses as a way to reduce lake pollution and conserve drinking water.-
It may also spread potent germs through sprinklers. Kids play in recycled sewage, golfers walk through it and landscapers are doused by it.=
For two years, state regulators have required sewer utilities to test for the parasites giardia and cryptosporidium. Both bugs, which can cause illness and death, were found in high levels.
9/16/02
Two small Panhandle cities buying 26-county water system
GULF BREEZE — Two small cities in the Florida Panhandle are planning to purchase the state's largest privately held water and sewer utility group, with 150 systems in 26 counties. Orlando-based Florida Water Services, which has 500,000 customers, has accepted a $471 million bid from a new utility authority created by Gulf Breeze and Milton, both Pensacola suburbs in Santa Rosa County.
10/1/02
Bill's delay worries Glades backers
Three Everglades-related projects were to be in this year's Water Resources Development Act. 10/1/02
Water's
Flow From Private Hands
Thirsty, Growing States Turn to New Sources to Meet Demand --
CADIZ, Calif. -- This is one big, dry state, and Keith Brackpool
wants to slake its thirst.
The politically connected British wheeler-dealer is pressing ahead
with an ingenious plan to sell billions of gallons of drinking
water to Southern California from his company's aquifer, buried
here beneath the broiling badlands of the Mojave Desert.
Contentious? They don't call them "water wars" for
nothing. 8/12/02
Salt
and rain
With shortages looming, Florida must find new
water sources.
Desalted seawater will pour into thousands of drinking cups in the
Tampa area by next year.--
And with those first sips, Florida will harness a new water source
that will help clear the way for future decades of growth --
building booms that might otherwise be stifled by water
scarcity.--
Making oceans and other surface waters drinkable are responses to
the relentless strain that population growth has put on Florida's
fresh, underground water supply. The Tampa Bay desalting operation
is the first large-scale plant in Florida, and it heralds a future
with a drought-proof, eternal source of water.--
Today, chapter nine of the Orlando Sentinel's yearlong series on
Florida's water crisis examines how a state bumping up against the
limits of one of its most important natural resources looks for
salvation in salt and rain.--
But what looks like an escape hatch today may only be a gateway to
more trouble tomorrow.--
"We are getting into an area of technological quick fixes to
try to get past the natural limits to growth," said Charles
Lee, senior vice president of Audubon of Florida. "Viewing
desalination as a panacea which will let us grow on forever -- and
I think our political leaders are falling into that trap -- would
be disastrous for Florida."... 8/12/02
Everglades
restoration: Don't switch priorities
Proposed rules are too vague on commitment.-- Even before work has
begun on the first project of the $8.4 billion state-federal effort to
restore what remains of the Everglades, the restoration is under
assault. -- Last week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which will
build the structures to retain, redirect and store water, released the
final draft of its blueprint for repairing the Everglades. The rules
are supposed to specify details of the most ambitious environmental
restoration in the country's history, but they still are too vague.
They don't require that 80 percent of "new" water supplied
through restoration be sent to the Everglades, with 20 percent
reserved for public utilities and farms. That percentage has been the
objective since work on the plan began. The rules don't list interim
goals, to make sure the plan is working, and they fail to give the
Interior Department a strong enough role. The rules lack standards
that would make them enforceable. 7/28/02
On
the bubble: Volusia must get serious about water woes
Volusia County sits on an aquifer -- an ancient bubble of fresh water
trapped in the limestone layers that lie under much of the county.
That bubble provides the water that comes out of taps and showers. It
provides the water to irrigate ferns in northeast Volusia and lawns in
New Smyrna Beach. It provides the water that sustains wetlands and
flows through springs. 7/28/02
The
body toxic -
The newest water-pollution threat starts with a simple cup of coffee,
a smoke break, a spray of cologne, a few headache pills or some
cholesterol-lowering medicine.-
Thousands of man-made chemicals and drugs are designed to soothe,
clean and heal the human body. But when we wash off the remnants in
the shower or flush them out of our bodies into the toilet, the
byproducts of our individual habits can accumulate to corrupt our
common water sources, new research suggests. 7/28/02
Water
cleanup rolls on
The state would set pollution limits for Lake Lafayette but not for the
Ochlockonee River or Lake Jackson under a draft cleanup list that has been
circulated for public comment. 7/22/02
White
Springs lauds water plant
The new plant is replacing the last publicly owned facility that
discharges wastewater into the Suwannee River.7/3/02
Development
And Water Needs Require Careful Stewardship--
South Hillsborough residents are furious that they are saddled with
an outdoor watering ban this summer, while Hillsborough County
government allows apartments and subdivisions to be constructed
throughout the area.7/3/02
States'
water-sharing debated
Environmentalists on Monday pressed Florida officials to craft a
flexible water-sharing agreement for the Apalachicola River system
that protects fish and wildlife. 7/2/02
Lawmakers
fight sale of huge private utility-- KISSIMMEE ... State Rep. Frank
Attkisson, R-Kissimmee, is trying to block the proposed purchase of
Florida Water Services, which operates in Osceola and 26 other counties,
by the Florida Governmental Utility Authority for $520 million.-- The deal
would affect 260,000 people statewide, including 19,000 customers in
Osceola and 59,745 throughout Central Florida. -- Attkisson said if
Florida Water Services is bought he will push legislation to ensure
accountability because residents will have no protection from excessive
rate increases.6/15/02
The
perfect lawn
The pursuit of Florida dreams fouls our precious
water supply.6/15/02
Water
levels hit record lows: Summer rain predictions mixed
Water levels in two Central Florida lakes fell to record lows at official
monitoring stations in May and groundwater levels dropped 2.5 feet in
Volusia County.6/13/02
Proposed
land buy would link conservation areas
The St. Johns River Water Management District is poised to preserve 19,377
acres in Volusia County today to help protect and replenish underground
water supplies.6/11/02
FLORIDA
NEEDS A WATER-CONSERVATION POLICY
Perhaps it's coincidental that Florida's Department of
Environmental Protection issued its Water Conservation Initiative
report at the opening of the rainy season. Just when we stop
worrying about brown lawns is a good time for this report's
sobering information. Consider: Floridians use more water per
capita than residents of any other state.5/19/02
New
Rule On Polluted Waters Raises Some Valid Concerns - A state
administrative law judge has approved the Florida Department of
Environmental Protection's proposed rule on polluted waterways
that opponents claim will provide loopholes to polluters.
The judge rejected environmentalists' claims that the proposal
does not comply with the 1999 state law requiring polluted waters
to be listed and cleaned up.
The finding may be legally correct, but the rule does appear to
weaken standards used to identify and clean up polluted waterways.
Environmentalists plan to sue in federal court to invalidate the
measure, but regardless of the legal results, Florida residents
should watch closely to see how the rule is administered. At stake
are Florida's rivers, lakes and bays. 5/17/02
Administrative
judge upholds Florida pollution rules change
TALLAHASSEE — An administrative judge has upheld a disputed
state rule on just when bodies of water are considered polluted.
Conservationists argued that a change made by state environmental
regulators would weaken rules on when a river, stream, lake or
pond must be cleaned up. 5/16/02
