Eric Draper

Florida’s recent drought and its effect on water supply and the environment should lead to serious discussions about water management and how water supply decisions are made.

Water is a public resource in Florida, and the state’s water laws provide guidance for balancing water needs. 

As long as the resource is not being harmed and no one else needs the water, the assumption of long-term use for such practices as sugar-cane irrigation and lawn watering makes sense. But when Florida’s largest lake is drained below legal levels for a prolonged period and people have to worry about whether water will be there when they turn on the faucet or flush the toilet, it’s time to reconsider how water is being used and conserved. 

In a recent letter to the South Florida Water Management District, I suggested that the drought was made worse by water supply decisions. Despite widespread and well-known forecasts of severe drought, recent water supply decisions favored supporting continued delivery of Lake Okeechobee water for sugar-cane irrigation and other consumptive uses. Instead of rationing water earlier, the district released about 22 inches of water from the 730-square-mile Lake Okeechobee for consumptive use. That is a huge amount of water, and while the exact quantity is unclear, a significant amount of this water was delivered via publicly owned canals to irrigate sugar cane.  

One key measure for the appropriate use of water is impact on the environment, including fish and wildlife. Scientists studying Everglades restoration use the Everglade Snail Kite as an overall indicator of success. The highly adapted bird also provides a means of measuring the health of Lake Okeechobee and the impact of drought and water supply deliveries. 

The Everglade Snail Kite population declined from about 3,400 individuals in 1999 to fewer than 700 now. Scientists at the University of Florida conducted a statistical analysis of snail kite population trends and concluded that if conditions do not improve, kites could be virtually extinct in Florida in as little as 30 years. Lake Okeechobee is designated critical habitat for kites, which depend on the lake’s shallow marshes for nesting and foraging. Excessively low lake levels for prolonged periods dry out the marshes and wipe out apple snails, the kite’s primary prey. 

Largely as a result of drought and water management there were no successful nests on the lake in 2007, 2008, and 2009. The 14 nests in 2010 were a start to recovery. Of the 41 nest attempts this year, only 13 fledged young and it is not yet known whether those young birds have survived the drought. As FWC biologist Don Fox said in an interview with Sunshine State News, by comparison, there were hundreds of nesting kites on the lake in the 1980s. 

Audubon has been at the forefront of Lake Okeechobee recovery strategies. We have recommended practical, workable solutions for controlling nutrient pollution sources, for compensating farmers for private water storage and for water conservation. The record of our efforts is available at audubonoffloridanews.org. We work with many farmers and with water management districts across the state. We do not hold back when we believe a practical solution is in order. 

My letter to the water management district contained one practical suggestion for dealing with drought and water supply: Revisit the rules and permits that allow sugar-cane irrigation to use the wasteful practice of flooding fields with Lake Okeechobee water. Just revisit those rules and permits. Look for efficiency just like many other water users have done.