South Florida Water Management personnel unable to comment on drought due to flooding.
by Howard Melamed
August 5 20013rd Drought (draft)
We have had a tremendous amount of rain the past few days, and all of our canals are filled to the top. The ground is saturated and so are we all, due to the unexpected tropical wave that hit South Florida this week. With all of this rain, do you really expect the politicians and bureaucrats to declare this water shortage hallucination over? I don’t think so. I suppose that now, they will have to do the appropriate studies to spend taxpayers money to determine if there is sufficient water present in our canal systems and lake Okeechobee to remove the water restriction they imposed on us several months ago. They even came out with a statement that says that although Lake Okeechobee is at 11 feet, well within tolerances, they want to wait until the Dry Season to remove the restrictions. The Dry Season is when? The Wet Season is now. We just got a small glimpse of it last week. Within a few months, and more rain, I am sure we will be looking to these water management people as to why the State of Florida is now flooded.
Let’s examine this whole process: Last May , the water management people lowered lake Okeechobee 2 feet as they expected us to get hit with a very large hurricane and subsequent flooding. The storm never materialized and the amount of rain from that point in time until now did not reach the normal rainy season. As a result of their mistake, the very same experts declared a Phase 2 water shortage, and we all had to suffer the consequences. However, none of them lost their jobs due to their bad decisions and the municipalities made money on this deal as they were able to collect revenues from citations handed out to those people that violated the watering restrictions. The police now wasted their time (and currently continue to do so) in chasing down illegal watering violators, that were mostly turned in by their neighbors. (No one said that Coral springs was the city of brotherly live). All of this was being done under the auspices of that we were under draught conditions and the level of Lake Okeechobee was falling interrupting the wild life ability to survive. Really what was going on was that the Sugar production plants in central Florida were having a problem due to the lower water levels in the lake. According to the Department of Natural resources, it is Agriculture that uses most of the fresh water in our aquifer/canal/lake system and not us human beings.
The Engineers declared that the sky was falling and that since there was a drought, something better be done soon or else we will not have any water. So Mother Nature intervened and gave us ample water, just like always.
Even though water restrictions were put into place as of March this year, the water management people admitted that little reduction in water usage actually had taken place. So they decided to impose there will and reduce all of our water pressure, making it increasingly more difficult on us. Then they wanted to impose even stricter restrictions but it would not have been politically prudent. What they really needed to do was to stop the nonsense and declare that we can expect it to rain in South Florida, ‘so let’s not panic’. They should agree never to lower Lake Okeechobee .
All of this time, the water continued to flow through our taps, uninterrupted. There was ample water in the wells to supply irrigation to our lawns and plants. The City of Coral Springs Water Department was never without water to supply us. If you didn’t know any better a Coral Springer would think that there was no water shortage at all. Come to think of it, maybe this whole water issue was a big ‘Gaff” imposed on us to show that our taxpaying dollars is well spent in giving money to the water management people. After all, they got to do something to justify the money spent. So they lowered the water in lake Okeechobee last year, causing the self proclaimed shortage and causing us to worry about it. What me worry? Let me give you some facts that you yourself can attest to :
- It will always rain in south Florida. True
- We will get at least one or 2 tropical rains every season. True
- South Florida is a peninsula surrounded by water. warm water. water that produces storms. Sometimes Hurricanes. True.
- There was no reason to declare that we have a water shortage. True
- The cause of the water shortage were the very same people that told us there was a drought. True
- Therefore, we are all fools for listening to them in the first place. True.
Now, ask yourself one final question: Why have they not lifted the water restrictions even though the Lake is within nominal levels and that we have had ample rain to cover any drought? They have to wait for their next meeting. Or maybe, they can’t get to their computers to write the press release since they were too busy dealing with the unexpected flooding due to the tropical weather….Duhhhhh!
Interesting Links:
NOAA Map of South Florida Showing above normal surface water conditions
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