Florida Town Digging Itself Deeper in Water Problems

This is a tale of two seaside cities--one in California, one in Florida--and the way they deal with chronic water shortages due to local growth.

I had just returned from a visit to a place in Florida, where water conservation is practically unheard of, and was comparing public attitudes there and here with Pam Cosby, utilities manager for the city of Ventura. “People have really adjusted their way of life,” she said. “They’re conserving but it doesn’t degrade their lifestyle.” We don’t know how lucky--or how clever we are.

What I had heard down in Sarasota, Fla.--a town similar in size and demographics to Ventura--was that they are in a state of denial about water problems. Authorities in that region, when faced with the choice of conserving or consuming, opted to dig more wells. “This is a time bomb,” observed Allan Horton, an editorial page writer on the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Last week his paper carried a headline: “Swiftmud Draws The Line.” Translation: The Southwest Florida Water Management District, known thereabouts as “Swiftmud,” is about to ban the use of well water from a facility two counties just spent $30 million to build.

In the past, there had been few restrictions on local pumping--the source of most of their fresh water. As a result, Florida folks have almost emptied their aquifer in the middle and gulf regions of the state from Orlando to the Everglades. In case you were wondering, the surface water, of which there is plenty from the rains and swamps, just runs into the Gulf of Mexico rather than seeping promptly down into the aquifer. Nature is cruel in Florida and it also abhors a vacuum. Fresh water takes millennia to get from the surface back down into the aquifer, but the salty water of the gulf, according to some Florida experts, is sneaking in to fill the subterranean void as much as a foot a day. That’s the time bomb. That’s why the aptly named Swiftmud all of a sudden won’t let the locals use the expensive new wells they’ve just paid for.

The citizenry isn’t taking this news very well. According to Horton, farmers, for instance, have made it clear that changes in their water consumption habits will happen “over our dead bodies.” Meanwhile, city folks routinely use as much as a 100,000 gallons a month on their lawns. (That’s 10 times what Ventura County folks use.) One of them spoke for the many in saying, “It may be a problem but it’s not a crisis.” And remember, this behavior goes on in a state where, during their last water crisis, a drought in l985, they pumped so much that whole houses and even car dealerships fell into sinkholes caused by the pumping.

Meanwhile, back in Ventura County, we’ve been more sensible, it seems. Cosby reports that, even with mandatory restrictions lifted, we have kept our fresh water consumption way below what it was in l989. City and county officials in cahoots with local water agencies are evidently having some success installing a permanent new water-conserving infrastructure in our county. Everything from low-flush toilets and low-flow shower heads to water reclamation plants, rainwater diversion facilities and, where necessary, a Denver Boot on the plumbing of water scofflaws. It hasn’t been easy and it hasn’t been cheap. But we got results. As Cosby opined, “It’s encouraging to me that (we) have not gone back to business as usual.”

As a learning experience, it was so effective that water use didn’t soar again in our county when the drought “ended” and many restrictions were lifted. “Conservation is now a way of life,” observed Lana Sherman, spokeswoman for Ventura County’s Water Conservation Program. No Pollyanna, Sherman reminded me that there are still things to be done and provided a phone number you can call to get information on the latest tricks to save even more water. And Cosby reported that the Ventura City Council continues to tighten the rules for water use in newly constructed homes and offices.

But last week down in Swiftmud-land, they had hearings at which they just timidly began to talk about conservation as a possible response to their drought. But according to the local paper, testimony about the rate at which the wells were emptying was being hotly debated. One local worthy--a member of the group that doesn’t want tabs kept on pumping--was quoted as saying, “It sounds like somebody’s saying something and y’all are saying something else.” Yeah, meanwhile they’re just standing there. As long as they keep arguing, they will never have to get around to the question of conservation. I’m glad I’m back here, 3,000 miles away in Ventura County.

* FYI

For the latest information on ways to use water more efficiently, call Lana Sherman of the Ventura County Water Conservation Program at 654-2471.