How can the Sarasota County Commission mandate water conservation for existing residents and then approve rezonings that allow for even more development?
To understand this dilemma, it is helpful to understand the relationship between rezonings, growth management and water supply planning. Sarasota County has both a short-term and a long-term water supply planning strategy. Short-term planning considers having adequate water to serve existing utility customers (about 187,000), new customers from homes converting from private wells to County water (about 300 per year), new homes built on platted lots and approved Developments of Regional Impact (about 2,000 per year) and rezoned property (200 per year).
Short-term needs are also two-dimensional; first water consumption varies considerably depending on the resident population and weather conditions. In the winter months when our population swells and rainfall is minimum, demand increases. However year round water supply must account for the peak demand. When a three-year drought stresses this water budget, conservation is a necessity, even if there was a moratorium on new growth and rezonings.
The County has adequate capacity to meet its short-term water needs with about seven years worth of reserve capacity. But this is no excuse to waste water and force additional, costly production that will be wasted when the rain begins and snowbirds return north. Rezoning does not commit the County to, or guarantee a developer water. If the County utility system does not have water when a rezoned property needs it, they don’t get it, period. Conservation enables the County to meet water need in times of peak demand and low rainfall. Conservation savings do not enable rezonings.
More safeguards needed
The County Commission recognizes that additional safeguards are needed to protect our water supply. On June 12 the Board will consider a new water commitment process that will bolster the analysis done at the time of rezoning with a second level of review. This process could require a developer to obtain a water commitment certificate prior to the issuance of a building permit. The advantage will be that water supply would not only be based on what is permitted (the long term view) but also upon what we are capable of delivering based upon the actual ability to treat and deliver water (the short term look).
Long range water planning is where Sarasota needs to be paying close attention. Considering present water supply sources Sarasota has enough water to meet its demands until about 2011, when contracts with Manatee County expire. The Water Management District has identified numerous potential future sources to meet the approximate 15 million gallons per day deficit. These sources include renegotiating with Manatee County, new surface waters (Myakka River) and seawater desalination. However not all of these sources are reliable due to costs, permitability or public policy. Linking Sarasota’s long-range growth management plan with realistic water sources is critical, and the time to do it is now!
Plan for the next drought
Droughts are cyclical. We will see another and it could be even more severe than the present one. Water resources are taking longer and longer to restore themselves, due to an ever growing population constantly using more and more water. So even less severe droughts in the future could have more devastating results, due to lower water tables, depleted aquifers, and drier lakes and rivers.
Without a coordinated planning effort that considers realistic, affordable and environmentally sensitive long-range water supplies, our next drought could make this one look like a walk in the park — a very dry park.