Water District agrees to lift "back-pumping" ban

August 10, 2012|By Andy Reid, Sun Sentinel

An old source of Lake Okeechobee pollution could return after South Florida water managers Thursday opened the door to renewed "back-pumping."

In a bid to boost water supplies, the South Florida Water Management District board agreed to explore pumping some of the polluted stormwater that drains off South Florida farmland back north into Lake Okeechobee for storage.

The district stopped that controversial practice five years ago because of environmental concerns about sending water containing polluting phosphorus as well as pesticides into the lake.

 

 

But the district, now under new leadership, has agreed to pursue a watered-down back-pumping proposal that would redirect less farmland runoff water back into the lake than in the past.

Supporters say back-pumping during the rainy season would make more water available for agricultural and environmental needs during droughts.

"Let's look at every option," said district Board Member Daniel DeLisi, who pushed for the back-pumping measure. "We can not back down from looking for a solution."

Environmental groups and the U.S. Department of the Interior counter that the potential increase in pollution isn't worth the water supply boost that comes from allowing back-pumping.

They favor cleaning up the water and using it to replenish the Everglades, instead of pumping it north.

Twelve environmental groups, including Audubon Florida and the Sierra Club, signed a letter opposing the back-pumping proposal.

"The lake is a lake. … It's not to be used as a reservoir," said Mark Perry, of the Florida Oceanographic Society. "[Back-pumping] adds pollution to the lake and to the estuary downstream."

More phosphorus, nitrogen and other nutrient-rich pollutants that result from farming would flow into the lake if back-pumping resumes. That can lead to algae blooms, fish kills and other damage to the lake's ecosystem.

Back-pumping also seems to run counter to multibillion-dollar Everglades restoration efforts aimed at getting more Lake Okeechobee water flowing south to Everglades National Park.

"Anything that takes water supply from the Everglades is not a good thing," said Joan Lawrence, of the U.S. Department of the Interior. "I'm just skeptical."

District officials say their proposal makes use of water that otherwise would get drained out to sea for flood control and would not lessen water going to the Everglades.

They plan several more months of computer modeling to try to gauge the water supply and water quality effects of back-pumping. The district also still needs state and federal approvals before it can resume back-pumping.

The goal of getting the board's OK Thursday was to revive back-pumping as an option, according to district Executive Director Melissa Meeker.

"Let us go down that path to see if it's possible," she said.

Decades of draining land for farming and development eventually led to corralling Lake Okeechobee with a dike for flood control. It also turned the once free-flowing lake into South Florida's primary backup water supply.

That water supply has been strained more than usual in recent years, because the Army Corps of Engineers has been keeping the lake about a foot lower year round due to safety concerns about the lake's dike, which is in the midst of a slow-moving rehab.

District officials bill back-pumping as a way to find more freshwater that could be stored in the lake and help the Caloosahatchee River during dry times, without lessening the amount of water that Big Sugar and other South Florida agriculture rely on for irrigation.

Sending Lake Okeechobee water into the Caloosahatchee River during droughts provides an infusion of freshwater needed to help protect West Coast water supplies and fishing grounds.

During recent years, West Coast communities have periodically cut off from those lake water releases due to South Florida water supply concerns.

Back-pumping supporters say it provides an interim water supply solution while waiting for long-term fixes that include building costly new reservoirs.

"This is a good plan," said Tom MacVicar, a consultant for South Florida growers. "It's a very targeted, sophisticated … limited pumping plan."

Environmental groups say there are other water supply-boosting options to back-pumping. That could include more limits on how much lake water agriculture gets in order to make more water available to the Caloosahatchee.

"We've tried [back-pumping] before, and we know the result," said Cara Capp, of the Clean Water Action environmental group. "We need to try something different."

abreid@tribune.com, 561-228-5504 or Twitter@abreidnews

BY ERIC BUERMANN
eric.buermann@usa.net

Can you imagine turning on the faucet but having no water come out? Or, after a tropical storm, grappling with standing water in the streets, or even your living room, because there isn’t an adequate flood-control system?

Florida’s water-management districts protect against these unpleasant situations and fix them when they occur. In addition to performing these important duties, our regional water-management district, the South Florida Water Management District, is the state partner in Everglades restoration. Lacking snow-capped mountains that melt into reservoirs, South Florida depends on the Everglades to recharge underground aquifers as our source of water. Unfortunately, in just the past 60 years since our modern flood control system was built, the Everglades have been severely damaged because of the disruption of water flow and other human activity such as farming and development. Restoring the Everglades, aside from having obvious environmental appeal, is imperative for maintaining our only supply of water.

Last year’s massive funding cuts to water-management districts severely compromised those agencies’ ability to carry out core missions of water supply, flood control, and in South Florida’s case, Everglades restoration. In just the past two years, SFWMD’s water supply budget has been cut almost 70 percent. This is the program that ensures you will have running water tomorrow and 20 years from now; develops alternative water supplies as upper aquifers become tapped out; and fosters water conservation. SFWMD has also severely cut its science, education, and monitoring programs. As Everglades restoration progresses, it is crucial to have adequate science programs to monitor and adapt to changing conditions and to maximize our restoration investments. Land stewardship programs that allow recreation on district-owned lands such as trails, horseback riding areas, and waters have also been greatly reduced.

Initially this year it appeared things might be headed back to the right path. Gov. Scott signed new legislation that lifted his artificially imposed spending limits, ostensibly allowing water-management districts to raise revenues needed to sustain their missions.

Recently, however, the water-management districts set their tax millage rates for next year to establish the revenue they will raise through property rates. Even though the South Florida Water Management District reported an almost $5 million shortfall, it decided to set a millage rate that further reduces its tax revenue — even less than last year’s funding after the draconian Scott cuts. To make matters worse, these reductions will have cumulative impacts in the coming years.

Sadly, politics, rather than science and common sense, have driven the decision-making. It’s understandable in an election year that raising the funds necessary to carry out even legislatively mandated missions might paint a district as increasing taxes. With recent legislation virtually ceding budget decisions to Tallahassee, SFWMD’s Governing Board rubber-stamped these crippling cuts without meaningful discussion.

In exchange, do these cuts produce actual savings for South Florida’s tax payers ? For the owner of a $300,000 house, the reduction in this year’s millage rate will save about $1.50 — less than the cost of a half-gallon of gas.

Gambling with our region’s water supply for fear of appearing to “increase taxes” is irresponsible and a disservice to Floridians. Whether politically popular or not, investing in long-term water supply, restoration, and science is a necessity and best serves the public interest.

Eric Buermann is former chairman of the Governing Board of the South Florida Water Management District.

 

The Miami Herald EditorialPosted on Sun, Jul. 29, 2012

A broken water line in Little Haiti floods homes and some streets waist-high. The aging wastewater treatment plant on Virginia Key spills 19 million gallons of untreated waste into the ocean. A water main break in Hialeah creates a sinkhole. A burst pipe pours untreated sewage straight into Biscayne Bay.

Over the past two years broken sewer pipes have spewed 47 million gallons of stinky waste onto roads and homes and into Miami-Dade waterways all the way from farmlands in the southern tip of the county to the northern border with Broward, which also is facing major sewer system breakdowns.

With 7,500 miles of sewer lines built into Miami-Dade County’s antiquated system, which is a half-century old in some sections, and with 15 municipal water and/or sewer utilities and the county’s Water and Sewer Department responsible for the upgrades, there has been a lot of finger-pointing but little action to tackle this billion-dollar mess. Indeed, 20 years ago a Miami-Dade grand jury warned that “the Miami River and Biscayne Bay would experience the worst environmental catastrophes in modern history” if nothing got done.

Now, the Environmental Protection Agency is demanding action and the county is in negotiations with federal authorities to come up with a solid plan to fix the treatment plants and faulty pipes.

The last time EPA stepped in because of the county’s neglect was in 1996 when stormwater drainage problems were harming the Miami River and Biscayne Bay. The county has spent $600 million over that time, saving about 100 million gallons of water a day.

Yet the sewer part of the job keeps getting put off — at residents’ peril and with great economic risk to the area’s vibrant tourism industry. Instead of having a pro-active program that repairs aging pipes and upgrades wastewater stations, the county for years used excess money from the residents’ sewer fees to balance the county’s overall budget.

It’s time to increase fees and target that money directly to the repairs that are needed. As it is, the fees county water users pay are among the lowest of any comparable-sized area.

Whether Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez is re-elected or Commission Chairman Joe Martinez gets the voters’ nod, the most important issue affecting the health, safety and economic well-being of the county’s residents is the antiquated water and sewer system.

Last year, Mr. Gimenez offered a budget that took $25 million from the sewer funds as a “loan” to balance the county’s books — an effort aimed at not having to lay off more county workers or reduce crucial services to residents. This year’s budget proposal does not dip into the sewer funds and the loan will start getting repaid in 2014. That’s the right thing to do.

Complicating the problem are about 100 miles of substandard piping laid out by a now-defunct company, including the sewer main running under Government Cut to Virginia Key — a potential catastrophe for this area’s tourism.

Mr. Gimenez and Mr. Martinez have pledged to work on a solution, and Mr. Gimenez’s proposed budget includes fee increases that would be staggered over several years to help pay for the upgrades. The mayor also says the county can bond about $300 million and is working with the EPA to come up with a plan to meet federal clean water requirements. Good.

True, this is an inherited mess. Past administrations delayed the inevitable. But no more excuses. Let’s fix this economic disaster in the making. It’s past time.