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The Drought: Water Management Policy Doesn't Hold
Water
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| by Howard Melamed |
Coral Springs Florida.
06/07/07:
It rained today. Mother Nature obviously
didn't hear the directive from the City of Coral Springs
saying you are only allowed to water your landscaping once a
week. She is so uncooperative sometimes with government
agencies. This of course is driving the public
workers crazy who think they are the only ones that control the water supply.
"Our rules apply to everyone including Mother Nature"
said the chief of water management whomever that may be.
"She needs to pay attention or we will fine her" he added.
 According to the water management people it did rain
confirming why the grass was wet, and explained why those
rain
droplets were on the cars. However they were adamant
about the fact that it rained in the wrong places. My
grass was not good enough for them. However a spot in the
middle of Lake Okeechobee a few hundred miles from me was
where they designated the "right spot" to be. Had these aliens
from another planet been involved with say another agency,
like homeland security, we would all be dead by now.
"Not in the right places" say the people
that control whether or not we can water our lawns and keep our
gardens from dying. However, the government agencies that
control water are stacking up behind the 'Drought' cause without
asking the right questions, as if it will never rain again in
South Florida.
 So here we are again with the local government agencies restricting
the use of water that is so badly needed to irrigate the plants and
vegetation that removes carbon dioxide from the air and brings about
oxygen. At the same time, as the plants die due to their
imposed restrictions, they will surely
invoke local city ordinances that force you to replace the dead trees, shrubs
and grass.
These restrictions are to say the least stupid and to say the most
typical of government agencies that may be run by idiots rather than
sane individuals. We have heard from no one from the South Florida Water
Management agency to tell us why there is a real need for these
restrictions other than a phatom order telling us that we
will be shot if we water our lawn on the wrong day. How can
a day be wrong? Tuesdays are bad, Saturdays are good?
The same government official that is dictating the
restrictions is probably the same idiot
responsible for giving money to the
other idiot , Dr. Grey, in Colorado who is predicting the amount of
hurricanes that will appear each season. This is nothing but another instance of
government 'idiocracy' , a word that I made up which means: a bureaucracy run by idiots.
( I like making up words. Another one:
Commucratic: What you get when you blend a Communistic
system with Democratic system.)
For your information the enforcement of measures to
reduce the level of consumption of ground water is baloney.
We are but a small part in the removal of water from the ecosystem
of the everglades. Most of the water is either evaporated naturally
due to the vastness of the everglades, or by the natural flow of
water out to the sea, which amounts to millions of gallons every
hour. No one, not even the government, can stop this from
happening. ( I like making up words. Another one is 'commucracy
That is , communism trying to look like a democracy.
There are three sources of water for irrigation in Coral Springs and
South Florida.
One source is natural rain. It always rains in
South Florida during the summer months. Hundreds of inches. It
has never failed to happen because we are in something
called a 'TROPICAL CLIMATE' (Please shout), surrounded by water and in the flow of
natural air currents that constantly churn up Hurricanes. The water
management people know this. That is why they actually lower the
level of Lake Okeechobee before a hurricane is to hit.
However, they make mistakes often lowering the lake too much or too
soon. They are not rocket scientists. Those guys are at
NASA.
The second source of irrigation water is ground water. This is the water
under our houses about 30 to 50 feet in total depth that is constantly
flowing to the sea from the everglades. This water can be seen in our canals at
natural levels, and when you dig a hole in Coral Springs you can see
that the water
table is about a few feet below the surface irrespective of whatever
the government is telling you.
When you have a well or use the canal system , you are using this
water. When you irrigate your lawn the water you are using either goes back
into the ground, evaporates or gets consumed by the vegetation you
are feeding. The amount of evaporation depends on the air humidity.
The higher the humidity the less the evaporation. In South Florida,
the humidity in the summer time is high. Evaporation is low.
Therefore there is little effect on the levels of the everglades.
The third source for most residents is the City of
Coral Springs water. This H2O comes from the Biscayne Aquifer
located 180 Feet below the surface underneath layers of rock.
This is where we also get our drinking water. There are numerous wells in
Coral Springs that all feed the water purification plants.
Over many years this aquifer fills up from seepage of the surface
water. Any changes in surface water conditions in the short
term rarely affect the amount of water that replenish this source. In
fact the biggest threat to this supply is infiltration of seawater
coming from the ocean.
When you use this water you are not lowering any water tables connected
to the everglades. So for Coral Springs citizens using city water there should be no restrictions in its use. However government
cannot trust you to know the difference.
Water taken from sewage treatment plants is another source that our government
prevents us from using.
This is called Grey water. It is completely odorless and in fact has
a high nutritional value for plants. It can be sprayed over
landscaping and even filtered and placed in the canal system with no
pollution concerns. However we are not using this. Instead, in
the southern areas of Coral Springs the Coral Springs Improvement
District dumps it 1500 feet below the surface in deep
salt caverns . Other waste treatment facilities like Broward
County's plant on Sample Road dump the grey water directly
into the ocean through a discharge pipe located two miles off shore.
The question of course is how do we sit back and let these
incompetent government agencies dictate these restrictions to us
without anyone complaining about it. I think it is because
very few people know what really is going on with the water and
sewage management. With little or no opposition, these
organizations do what they please.
Once again., the citizens are suffering from poor management of
government resources and being feed a lot of information that just
doesn't hold water.
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