Florida – Water conservation essential, Everglades restoration overseer says

STUART — After three days of serious discussions about the science, politics and litigation of cleaning, moving and storing water needed to restore the River of Grass, the Everglades Coalition’s annual conference ended with lively debate on water conservation.

“If you sit there and brush your teeth with the water on, shame on you,” said Col. Alfred Pantano, district commander of the Army Corps of Engineers. Pantano, the Corp’s no-nonsense, shaved-head overseer of Everglades restoration, jokingly chided women in the audience with long hair about the amount of water they use to shampoo and rinse their hair.

“I do believe as Americans we got to get real about conservation,” Pantano said. “If you water your lawn every day, shame on you. You’re a hypocrite.”

Pantano’s comments came amid a panel discussion about managing Lake Okeechobee’s water: “Who gets what, when and how much?” The Corps is responsible for the lake’s level, which dropped so low during last year’s drought that gravity could not pull the water south to the Everglades or through the canal that provides West Palm Beach with its drinking water.

Competing interests for what little water was left in the lake heightened tensions among agriculture and environmentalists, perennially at odds over the lake’s water quality and supply. Echoing Pantano’s warnings, Maryann Martin, owner of Roland and Maryann Martin’s Marina and Resort in Clewiston, offered her own gritty opinion.

“There’s going to come a day when you turn on the tap and nothing comes out,” Martin said. “We are spoiled rotten – rotten fat people.”

Lake Okeechobee is considered the heart of the Everglades. Water flowing from as far north as Orlando feeds the massive lake, which, in turn feeds man-made canals at the south end of the lake. Those canals supply water – polluted by runoff from farms and urban areas – to the region’s billion dollar agriculture industry and the Everglades.

When asked to identify the biggest hurdles facing the lake, Pantano turned his back to the audience and faced the panelists, which included representatives from environmental groups and agriculture.

“I think your greatest challenge is your relationships,” Pantano said. “I think you get too consumed in fighting your battles. You gotta win the war here. You all are gonna have to figure out how to get along, children.”

That theme permeated the conference, which brought together an unprecedented contingent of environmental officials from Washington, including Lisa Jackson, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; state leaders, including Gov. Rick Scott; and environmental groups.

“It’s not that we don’t have enough water, it’s that we waste it,” said Paul Gray, the Lake Okeechobee science coordinator for Audubon of Florida. Billions of gallons of storm water is flushed to the ocean every year because there is no storage. “The biggest barrier is we are boneheads.”

By Christine Stapleton

January 7, 2012

via Palm Beach Post