Forget watering more: It may be less

Normal rains won't be enough to relieve a stubborn drought. So restrictions will stay and may even be tightened.

By JEAN HELLER

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 27, 2000

BROOKSVILLE -- After imposing tight new water restrictions last spring, water regulators said they would take another look at the end of the rainy season. They did that on Tuesday, and what they saw was scary.

The bottom line is that those once-a-week watering restrictions and a laundry list of restraints on mining and agricultural water uses are here to stay for the foreseeable future -- unless Swiftmud decides to crack down even more.

"We've been wanting to see if we can get off the one-day-a-week watering restrictions. Don't hold your breath. I don't think we can do that," Gene Heath, assistant executive director of the Southwest Florida Water Management District, told the district's board Tuesday.

Swiftmud sets water policy in a 16-county area that includes Pinellas, Hillsborough, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties.

The Hillsborough, Withlacoochee and Peace rivers are at nearly record low flows, some lakes are 4 feet below where they would be expected at the end of the dry season, and groundwater levels are lower than they were at this time last year.

"With these conditions at the end of the rainy season . . . it is a very strong possibility that we will be facing the same supply problem we faced last spring," said Granville Kinsman, hydrologic data manager for the district. "Given the normal rainfall of 2 to 3 inches a month during the eight-month dry season, don't expect any improvement."

Heath added: "The good news is, we survived last spring. We're still here. The bad news is we could be worse off next spring than we were last spring."

Looking at that bleak possibility, the district is compiling a list of possible new water restrictions that includes a total ban on outdoor watering. But agency officials said they are nowhere close to making that decision.

"We're only looking at that constraint if we get into a situation where public health is threatened," said executive director Sonny Vergara.

You know the situation is bad when you start hoping for hurricanes, Vergara added.

"We've spent the summer watching the coast of Africa for clouds to form," he said. "I grew up in Florida. To hope for hurricanes is an amazing thing given their potential for catastrophic damage. But the average rainfall is no longer enough to do it for us."

Currently, there are no special Pacific Ocean conditions, such as La Nina or El Nino, to affect weather patterns in the United States, Swiftmud officials said. Because of that, National Weather Service forecasters are having a difficult time predicting rainfall during the winter, Kinsman said. But they do predict a drier-than-normal spring.

Even normal rains over the next eight months will not allow lakes to cross the threshold for normal levels by May, Kinsman said.

The Floridan Aquifer, the source of most of the region's drinking water, is expected to fall steadily through spring. And normal rains will not permit stream flows to creep above the lowest percentages ever recorded.

The region is so dry, Kinsman said, that the impact of the 2.5 to 4 inches of rain dumped by a passing Hurricane Gordon two weeks ago is already gone.

Swiftmud board members said they would like to see renewed emphasis placed on enforcement of existing water use restrictions, perhaps even including newspapers' publication of the names of those cited for violating the restrictions.

In general, those limits on irrigation allow lawn watering during certain hours only once a week. Some jurisdictions assign two watering days, one to odd addresses, one to even addresses. Others spread it out over five days so water pressures aren't so severely taxed.

Other restrictions may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Generally, car washing is permitted, but only with a hose with an automatic shutoff nozzle. Hand watering of shrubs and flowers is permitted.

Any questions about watering restrictions should be directed to local utility departments, many of which have hotlines with recorded messages detailing local restrictions.

Also Tuesday, the district approved its final tax rate for the 2001 fiscal year.

For the eighth year in a row, the district's general fund is 0.422 mills, or about 42 cents in tax for every $1,000 of taxable property value. Eight local basin boards also levy their own tax rate. Seven remained the same as last year. The Pinellas-Anclote River Basin Board reduced its rate from 0.401 mills to 0.400 mills.

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