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Economic prosperity and population growth need not equal greater and greater water consumption. This is the point Cynthia Barnett is trying to get across. She spoke at the UCF Library Wednesday about Florida's water woes and her award-winning book Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.
"What assumptions are we making today that might seem farfetched fifty to a hundred years from now," she asks, noting that Florida Water Congress believes we must have more water by 2025 to meet future population growth.
Currently 92 percent of Floridians get their water from groundwater sources. Due to economic prosperity and population growth, Barnett said that future demand for groundwater will not be met if we keep consuming water the way we do. Still, per capita water consumption is on the decline, she said. In 2000 the per capita water consumption was 174 gallons per person compared with 158 gallons per person in 2005.
"Florida was blessed with plenty of groundwater but we didn't use it wisely," she said. In her book Mirage, Barnett points out that about half of Florida's freshwater - ground and surface - is not withdrawn for public supply but for agricultural irrigation. "Farmers use about one-half of Florida's water, and about one-half on those farmers still use flood irrigation," she said.
She joked that Florida should change the picture on its license plate from an orange to a patch of St. Augustine grass considering land that was once used to grow citrus is now being used to grow sod. Water is pumped on these sod fields and allowed to flow along the ground among the crops - the problem is, about half of the water ends up not being used.
"Helping farmers achieve efficiency could give us millions of gallons of water per day," said Barnett. But flood irrigation is cheap and she says farmers don't have the money to pay for other methods such as micro irrigation. Micro irrigation allows water to be applied onto the soil near the plant or below the soil surface into the plant root zone. This type of irrigation means less water waste because water is applied to each plant with small, individual devices.
Water conservation efforts like micro irrigation is what will lead to a sustainable water source for Florida in the future, said Barnett. But as she notes in her book, the Florida Water Congress is thinking of ways to keep up with the demand for water instead of conserving the water Florida has.
Barnett said $3.8 million has been allocated by Florida's government for the development of alternative water projects in South Florida, under the stipulation that none of that money be used for water conservation efforts. "These infrastructure projects are highly favored over conservation," said Barnett. She said we need to replace these infrastructure projects with demand management, keeping water in natural systems.
"Massive engineering of water always comes with unintended consequences," she said. Of the $3.8 million allotted to South Florida's water supply projects, $3.5 million is being subsidized with tax money. "We don't have the money needed to pay for all these projects," said Barnett.
She said that if Floridians were forced to pay for these water supply projects out of pocket they would certainly consume water wisely at home. Currently residential lawn irrigation is second to agricultural irrigation in water consumption. "We must redefine the idea of what a beautiful lawn is," she said, and encouraged water saving ideas like xeroscaping.
She said that if we spent our money on the demand-side instead of the supply-side we could conserve water and money. This means using technology such as low-flow toilets or cisterns to limit water consumption instead of developing new water conservation projects.
"I think people really want to live within their means and do right within our system," she said. One student who is trying to live within his means is junior Brett Haskell. Haskell grew up in California where water conservation is a habit. "In California water is more expensive which means you're never allowed to waste it," he said, "education as far as water conservation started really young."
After moving from California to Panama City, Haskell and his family acquired their water source from a well instead of through the state. "Living off a well we didn't live off water, we would conserve water," he said. Many times his family was forced to dig deeper into their groundwater source to account for lack of water. "Sometimes you'd go inside and turn on the faucet and nothing came out," he said.
Now as a college student Haskell is doing everything he can to conserve Florida's water by not taking advantage of necessities like showers. "I try to limit myself to five minute showers," he said.
Another student advocate for water conservation is junior Andrew Ivey. "Already there are droughts world wide and shortages in impoverished countries," he said. He and a group of others have formed a local chapter of Engineers Without Borders, a non-profit organization that partners with developing countries worldwide to improve their quality of life.
Ivey and his chapter are trying to find a sustainable water source for a village of 10,000 in rural Haiti. "I think there will be a world wide water crisis in the next twenty years," he said.
Although a world wide water crisis is uncertain, Barnett argues that if we do not wean ourselves from groundwater and diversify our water sources Florida's lakes and aquifers are in danger of drying up.
"Our future can look different than this," she said, but only by asking: "what are we doing today to ensure Florida water for the 21st century?"
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