As the drought intensifies in South Florida, every drop of rain brings with it a glimmer of hope that the rain cycle is resetting to “normal.” This cautious brightening is followed by a cynic’s pause that the new “normal” has a long way to go if the summer rainy season deluge - long presumed as a no brainer in our tropical paradise - is to refill South Florida’s empty cup. This assumption of an endless cycle of replenishment is just one of multiple, free passes to promote South Florida’s unsustainable march toward infinite growth. You might say the wood storks have come home to roost - that is, were there any watery roosts left to come home to in Palm Beach County.
As public officials grapple with dwindling water supply, lowering standards for water quality, and now the aggressive pursuit of water better left in roadside ditches where it belongs, landscape magnates are having sleepless nights in Palm Beach over how to balance competing priorities for water use - 18 foot hedges or West Palm Beach’s drinking water? If you are struck by this version of Sophie’s choice as just too surrealistic for words, then take comfort in knowing that is because it actually is surrealistic. This momentum toward irrational rationality has gone pandemic on multiple fronts.
The Florida legislature is on a seemingly relentless march toward a future occasion when Floridians will shake their heads and wonder sadly, in the full clarity of hindsight, “what were they thinking?” On that day, our legislature will likely be a strong candidate for the receipt of a dubious grand prize. The erosion on their watch of the state’s commitment to preserve and protect Florida’s natural environment is as questionable as the durability of the Lake Okeechobee dike. To be sure, the controversies surrounding growth management have been with us a long time. The laws and policies didn’t go as far as some would have it, and for others, the commitments to protect and preserve went way too far. But the exercise of finding, like Goldilocks, just the right compromise between not enough and too much stewardship has ended abruptly with a flourish of bill-signing by the new Governor. Metaphorically speaking, I think the hedges are winning out.
A couple of years back the Community Foundation took a closer look at the water issues confronting South Florida’s long term future and published an urgent report. The report promoted area residents to begin to more seriously envision an alternative future for managing and sustaining our region’s water resources. Climate, human demand and the infrastructure to manage water resources each have a pivotal role in ensuring the sufficiency of a clean water supply to meet the future needs of agriculture, recreation, commercial activities, and personal consumption.
But the report noted, “In 2000, and then again in 2006-2008 insufficient rain fell to replenish the increasing demand of water being by people and ecosystems. Water managers have tried to manage droughts by increasing supplies and by implementing measures to limit water use and decrease demands. But what does this drought suggest about the future? Has the region passed a tipping point in which the wells literally run dry and insufficient water is available to meet rising demands? Or, is this a relatively short-term phenomenon after which rainfall will return? We know that a drought occurs every year, but is this one indicative of an altered climate that poses new challenges for water managers and residents?”
William Matthews, the then-chairman of the Foundation’s Board, urged the public, in the preface to the report, to become more involved in these critical issues. He noted “The Community Foundation does not claim to have all the answers, yet we do have a sense of urgency… We must act now as though our lives and those of future generations depend on it.”
Since the publication of the study two years ago, we are again reminded by present circumstance, how very few strategies exist to cope with changes in rainfall, most especially the absence of rainfall. Shallow storage, the high rate of evaporation, low rate of conservation, and the practice of dumping fresh water are become a devil’s dance of balancing on one foot while the rhythm and predictability of the music is constantly changing. The result is chaotic and unpredictable but, far worse is the risk we are taking that the well will run dry if things don’t change.
The views expressed in this blog are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Community Foundation.
