Attorney General Bill McCollum addresses audience at 2010 Water Forum in Orlando. Credit: Lane Wright, Sunshine State News

Attorney General Bill McCollum told some 500 business leaders and water experts in Orlando Friday that he has a specific plan -- in fact, a two-pronged policy initative -- for keeping groundwater flowing in Florida.

McCollum, a Republican candidate for governor, said that as the state's chief executive, he will sign an order creating a Florida Water Strategy and Action Commission.

"We're not going to sit around and talk about (water solutions) for a number of years," he said. "This is going to be an action group."

The second leg of his water policy, he said, is to find funding for alternative water sources -- desalination, for example, among other cutting-edge technology.

"We're going to develop it here, encourage it here and use it here," he said.

McCollum, speaking to the 2010 Water Forum sponsored by the Associated Industries of Florida (AIF) and the American Water Works Association, was addressing the real concerns of the state's populous zones that available sources of drinking water are drying up.

According to the Florida Water Alliance, Tampa Bay, southeast Florida and the greater Orlando area "have effectively run out of available groundwater." The three largest water management districts have determined that increased pumping in these regions will result in "unacceptable environmental impacts, such as drawdowns of wetlands and lakes, reduced flows to springs and rivers, and increased risk of saltwater contamination into fresh groundwater resources."