An Audubon scientist sees a flash of pink hope in the return of roseate spoonbill to nests on the mangroves dotting Florida Bay (Miami Dade, 2/17/2012)

Suwannee River Water Management District Executive Director David Still has announced his resignation, making him the fourth water district chief to resign in the past year.

Suwannee River Water Management District Executive Director David Still, who warned a Senate panel on Tuesday that residents in his region are "mad as hell" and are taking revenge on water management districts, has announced he is resigning effective May 1. He becomes the fourth water district chief to resign within the past year.

Florida has five water management districts, established by the Legislature in 1972 and established in the Florida Constitution by voters in 1976. Some observers say the resignations are part of an effort to run the regional water management districts from the state capital in Tallahassee

Gov. Rick Scott last year directed the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to oversee the districts to ensure they focus on their core missions of water supply, flood prevention and resource protection.

Still, who spoke at a Senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday, said Wednesday he had no idea he would be asked to resign by the district's governing board later in the day.

"I think they [board members] were looking for somebody different -- that is the bottom line," Still said. He joined the district in 1994 and has been executive director since 2008.

On Tuesday, Still told the Senate Committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation that he had met Monday night with some Suwannee County residents and "they are mad as hell." 

"And they are going to get some revenge and they are getting it on us, the water management districts," he said. Still said Wednesday that he didn't think his resignation request was related to his comments.

The Suwannee River Water Management District is holding a series of public meetings in the coming weeks with Still and Hans Tanzler, the executive director of the St. Johns River Water Management District, to address groundwater issues. 

The Suwannee River Water Management District said the Alapaha River basin, the upper Suwannee River region and the upper and lower Santa Fe river basins may be short of groundwater within 20 years. Some studies have pointed to groundwater pumping in Jacksonville as contributing to water shortages in the Suwannee River region.

DEP and the Suwannee River Water Management District are supporting HB 157, which requires water management districts to identify water bodies that could be affected by water use in neighboring districts. Some environmentalists say the bill doesn't address over-pumping that already is occurring.

"Senators, we are at a crossroads with water supply in our area," Still told the Senate committee on Tuesday. "And what we need to do is look at conservation as the main key.

"We also need to look at alternative water supplies and implement those fully as we go forward. A lot of that burden falls on the Legislature, in my opinion, to set new water policy," he said.

Sen. Charlie Dean, R-Inverness and committee chairman, said his visits to the Suwannee region had convinced him that "there is nothing on the agenda in the state of Florida more precious or more at risk than our water supply."

"People have asked me, 'How you like what you're doing in the Legislature?" he said. "The truth of the matter is I really want to tell them -- you wont hear this out of me very often -- I'm scared. I'm scared what is going to happen in our future with water."

His committee on Tuesday voted to confirm Still and three other district executive directors.

Once Still resigns, Doug Barr of the Northwest Florida Water Management District will become the only executive director remaining from when Scott took office.

And Barr appears to be on thin ice with at least one senator. Sen. Jack Latava, R-St. Petersburg, signaled during the committee meeting his unhappiness with what he called "business as usual" at the Northwest Florida Water Management District, including the agency having $30 million in unallocated reserves. 

Sonny Vergara, a former executive director of the Southwest Florida Water Management District, said Still is "an extremely good person and was a perfect professional fit for the Suwannee district."  

"His departure reflects an assault that is endemic upon the water management districts," Vergara wrote in an email.

Reporter Bruce Ritchie can be reached at britchie@thefloridacurrent.com.

 

With a fast-growing medical school on a built-out campus, the university is pursuing state-owned land bordering the Everglades to exchange for the existing county fair grounds; environmentalists question the plans."

Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. — A federal study shows municipalities nationwide need more than $300 billion worth of essential upgrades to long overlooked water and sewer systems over the next 20 years.

The need is acute in Northeastern states with older systems like New York, which needs $29.7 billion worth of improvements, U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said Wednesday. But he said that price is a "just a drop in the bucket" compared to the higher cost of continuing to upgrade parts of sewer and water systems when emergencies strike. He is pushing a bill that would counter planned funding cuts in the federal transportation bill now being negotiated in Washington.

"EPA found that the nation's 53,000 community water systems and 21,400 not-for-profit, non-community water systems will need to invest an estimated $334.8 billion between 2007 and 2027," stated the federal Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Survey and Assessment, which is updated every four years.

The National Association of Counties' 2008 report estimated the need for water and sewer upgrades at $300 billion to $450 billion nationwide and the federal stimulus project provided just a fraction of that as the recession reduced local governments' revenues.

"This is a very serious concern," said Carolyn Berndt of the National League of Cities. "Many communities have a long-term plan to replace all their underground water infrastructure, but even if they do a couple percentages of pipes a year, it's still going to take over 100 years for some of them to replace it all."

She said local governments have been paying more than 95 percent of the cost of water and sewer upgrades since the 1990s as federal aid has declined. Schumer said federal aid covered 75 percent of local costs in the 1980s and 1970s.

"It's a huge undertaking," Berndt said. "Some of these pipes are 100 years old. That's why they continue to see water main breaks."

The group supports Schumer's effort, which comes as Congress works to cut spending.

—Copyright 2012 Associated Press