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Water restrictions needed now

By Times editorial
Published May 7, 2006

What's the holdup? With the region suffering a near-drought, no rain on the horizon and water use skyrocketing beyond expectation, it should have been easy for Hillsborough County commissioners to restrict lawn watering to once a week. Instead the board, with the staff's moral support, watered down the need for conservation. This is reckless for a fast-growing community spending tens of millions for new water sources.

Commissioners put off until May 17 a hearing on whether to reduce watering to once weekly from two days. Some other area governments, such as Pinellas County and Brooksville, already impose that sound restriction. With the last heavy rain in February, and nothing significant expected for weeks, the region's demand for water has soared. Last month's demand was 22 percent higher than what utility officials expected. And for the first time, demand in Hillsborough outstripped Pinellas. Hillsborough commissioners should have seen the impact they could have made to help the region scrimp along until the wet summer months.

The city of Tampa deserves credit for moving Thursday to impose one-day watering, effective immediately. Beyond saving supplies, the move should induce residents to change wasteful watering habits. Hillsborough sent the opposite signal by sloughing off a decision during a height of the dry spell, and by having a county staffer dangle the "fondest hope" that voluntary efforts in the coming weeks would preclude commissioners from having to adopt one-day restrictions. Commissioners are silly to think they can duck the issue when the public's disregard of conservation is what worsened the problem. They should impose one-day watering and consider other measures, from water re-use projects to drought-resistant landscaping, that need to be part of a comprehensive conservation policy.

[Last modified May 7, 2006, 09:47:03]