Jax Daily

The head of the St. Johns River Water Management District on Thursday gave a briefing to the Northeast Florida Regional Council in which he forecast a crisis for water supplies in the state if the rapidly growing area of central Florida is not allowed to tap the St. Johns River.

Green spoke for about an hour to the Northeast Florida Regional Council about a controversial plan to draw 262 million gallons of river water daily in order to quench rapid growth in the Orlando region.

While there was no voiced opposition to the plan at Thursday’s meeting, regional council members asked Green to promote water conservation while keeping an eye on how the draw down could affect business interests, including Jacksonville’s port system.

Water supply throughout the district - a chunk of Northeast and Central Florida roughly the size of Maryland - is a concern over the next 20 years, but planners have turned immediate attention to Central Florida.

Important to note here is that these projections are for growth that is projected to occur, but has not yet happened.  It is possible to have “too much of a good thing” - but if the resources for a particular path of growth are simply not available, or place an undue burden on others, then it makes sense not to do that.  Orlando’s thirst was discussed previously as causing increased salinity in some areas of the river and generally not being good at all for Jacksonville.  While we should all practice water conservation (as annoying as low-flow faucets may be), Orlando’s growth seems to be the chief cause of the problem.  If they want to grow beyond the capacity of the state’s resources to handle it, then they should find their own means to support it - such as building a desalination plant, shipping water in, or some other means.  Otherwise, it’s possible they should consider the alternative of controlling the growth that they can’t support.