Bay Soundings Recommends:
Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.

There’s no shortage of irony in the sobering reality that one of the nation’s wettest states now faces a water crisis the likes of which could scarcely have been imagined 200 years ago. For most of the state’s history, Floridians have viewed water as an impediment to development. Wrote one settler in 1872: “From what I have observed, I should think Florida was nine-tenths water and the other tenth swamp.”

Enter Mirage, a book by longtime environmental reporter Cynthia Barnett that skillfully blends lively prose and artful storytelling in a compelling and rigorous look at Florida and the vanishing water of the southeast – a must-read for citizens and policymakers who care about Florida.

Tracing the state’s history, Barnett, associate editor of Florida Trend, documents our all-too-successful initiatives at pushing water out to sea quickly, as well as our more recent and much less successful attempts at providing fresh water to millions of new residents without adversely impacting the environment.

Putting a value on water, she argues persuasively, would encourage conservation. Tampa Bay residents, who saw widespread environmental damage during the Water Wars of the early 1990s, are beginning to understand the value of water. Even environmentalists increasingly view water through an economic lens, Barnett notes. “Groundwater and surface water, when no one has to pay for them, will be abused until no one can use them.”

Higher prices and efficiency, rather than relying solely on multiple new sources, are likely to be the answer, she contends. A 2005 study of water use in 16 Florida communities showed that people do conserve when prices increase appreciably. And the most recent data from the US Geological Survey indicates that per capita water use in Florida is declining, from about 174 gallons per day (gpd) in 2000 to 157 in 2005. The lowest usage – 137.6 gpd – was in the area served by SWFWMD.

“One lesson Florida has not learned, and maybe it never will, is that increased growth and economic prosperity do not have to equal increased water consumption,” she writes. “Water use in the United States stopped rising in the 1980s, yet population as well as gross domestic products have grown steadily ever since.”