Is that grass growing in Hillsborough County’s reservoir?
March 4, 2009 at 7:12 am by Kelly CorneliusJudging by the picture in this article in the Times, there is something green growing in the Hillsborough County drinking-water reservoir…….it looks like grass. Hey, my pastures are looking kinda rough with this drought and I do live almost next door…. I wonder if they would consider leasing it out as grazing land since even if we had water it isn’t so good at holding any?
The article is about Swiftmud voting not to tighten water restrictions……….drought? What drought? Drink up and more importantly BUILD UP! The conversation that nobody really wants to have is that while local and state politicians are scrambling to weaken rules for building and raping the environment all in the name of economic development (think developer welfare) what they are really avoiding addressing is the severe water shortage we are in.
Somebody should really break the news to Team Sprawl that should their wet dreams come true regarding restarting the building boom, the truth is they would be dried up before the permits were issued. WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH WATER for the people that live here now! Hellllloooo anybody? Why isn’t water the number one consideration on land use decisions? They “look at” infrastructure (supposedly) and schools, and the environment (what is left of it) yet never in all of the rezonings, comp plan amendments and DRI meetings that I have suffered through attended have I ever heard one elected official ask the question Do we have enough water for more rooftops? NEVER.
According to the historians in the activists circles this is because when Tampa Bay Water (a regional water authority) was created (by the Partnership) they agreed to supply whatever the water need was/is. How convenient. This alleviates officials from asking the question with regards to growth because it isn’t really their problem. Two of our BOCC members (Sharpe and Higginbotham) do sit on TBW and I hope that they will start addressing our water concerns with respect to growth. I did bring up the issue once to Sharpe and he seemed to understand the need to tie growth with water supply.
The sad part is instead of having the real conversation about our future water needs, the powers that be just keep coming up with shitty ideas to increase our water supply, such as dumping shit in the aquifer (they call this recharge) or dumping shit in the river (they call this downstream augmentation). How about limiting growth (so those of us that already live here don’t have to drink shit) and putting more restrictions on water use. It makes sense that they restrict current residents from watering sod, it smells very rotten that they don’t ban new homes from doing so. Check out the developer backgrounds on the Swiftmud board members and that should tell a story.
We are paying a fortune for that desal plant that cranks out 20 million gallons a day and yet Mosaic still legally pirates 6 million from the Alafia. The over-pumping of ground water appears to have caused these sinkholes in Plant City. NICE. They blamed it on watering the strawberries (couldn’t be the growth in the area is sapping what would have otherwise been there for farmers could it? Nah) Ironically officials had just voted to increase groundwater pumping by up to 80% for regional needs.
Wake up, Hillsborough. You too elected officials. Unless you want your grandkids and my grandhorses to be drinking shit start tying water supply to your growth conditions. It is very telling that some of our BOCC thinks an economic development task force should be top a priority (with a pre-determined committee) led by a developer of course but did anyone form a “What happens when we run out of water” Committee? Nope. I am all for conserving and drinking wine instead of water but unfortunately I can’t shower in it!
