Hillsborough and Polk County farmers used TEN BILLION GALLONS of water to protect their crops during the recent freeze, and in addition to the 85 SINKHOLES caused by using all that water, nearby residents found their wells had run dry.
The Southwest Florida Water Management District (Swiftmud) met Tuesday to figure out how to help those residents get their wells back up and running. Their short-term fix? Make taxpayers – not farmers – pay up now.
Even though Swiftmud board member Hugh Gramling said “13 berry farmers are responsible for the majority” of well complaints, AND farmers’ water permits specifically require that farmers pay the cost of wells that go dry from agricultural pumping, the Southwest Florida Water Management District will set aside $250,000 of taxpayer money to fix 60 wells.
Farmers may (or may not) reimburse Swiftmud. That remains to be seen.
TBO points out that this is just the latest in a string of you & I paying to fix trouble caused by massive pumping out east. Hillsborough County has already dedicated $2.6 million to repair sinkhole damage, and the State DOT spent $300,000 on fixing I-4.
Where are the insurance companies? Or is that what you and I are here for?
BG
6 months ago
Let us not forget that SWFWMD grants permits to other industries, like phosphate mining & fertilizer production giant, Mosaic, who can currently withdraw 77 million gallons a day. That’s a lot of water! Even though they reuse some of the water in their operations, the water is too polluted for anything else and must be stored forever in slime ponds. Meanwhile, taxpayer dollars are used to build expensive desal plants and reservoirs to keep up with drinking water demands because our elected officials approved too much housing in the first place.
Farmers must also be held accountable and steps must be taken to modernize their methods of dealing with freezes. And yeah, where are the insurance companies?
We are witnessing the results of poor planning and corporate influence on policy making.
Darlene
6 months ago
Perhaps I am jaded and barking up the wrong tree but, this really irks me. I have friends that had wells and the whole time the rest of us were dealing with water restrictions and learning to xeriscape, they were planting gardens and watering like there was no tomorrow. Sorry but, I have no sympathy or their dry wells and I am very angry that they think the taxpayers should pay for it. As for the farmers, if I have to pay to keep them in business, plus buy their product, I want a share of the profit.
Darlene
6 months ago
Perhaps I am jaded and barking up the wrong tree but, this really irks me. I have friends that had wells and the whole time the rest of us were dealing with water restrictions and learning to xeriscape, they were planting gardens and watering like there was no tomorrow. Sorry but, I have no sympathy for their dry wells and I am very angry that they think the taxpayers should pay for it. As for the farmers, if I have to pay to keep them in business, plus buy their product, I want a share of the profit.
Jill
6 months ago
I agree that the farmers should share in the cost of mitigation if only because they have been slow to implement less water-intensive methods for preventing freeze.
But, in the great scheme of things, they were here first.
Most of the blame for this goes to to Plant City or Hillsborough County for allowing so much development near agriculture and to the water management district for permitting the wells.
We have known since a 2003 Govenment Accounty Office report on expected water shortages that this resource is not unlimited. We are in a water war right now with Georgia and Alabama.
Why does this state continue to rely on attracting new growth as an industry when those of us who are already here are expected to live with water restrictions?
If there isn’t enough to go around for us, where is it going to come from to supply the 50 million or so more people who are expected to move here in the next 30 years?
RonW
6 months ago
I believe 10 billion gallons is a bit of an exaggeration. Yes, the farmers did have cause to use extreme amounts of water, but this winter was unprecedented in it’s extreme. These farmers are not some faceless corporation, they are family owned and operated for generations. It costs them around $10,000.00 an acre to plant strawberries and on a very good year, they may realize $12,000.00 an acre return. This will not be a very good year. The farmer has always been the first to lose and the last to gain, but we can’t survive without them.
This is Florida, we have sinkholes. We have sinkholes the year around and being a forth generation native, I can attest to this. Sixty years ago, anyone could drive a twenty foot pipe in the ground anywhere and have all the water they wanted. This is no more. We’ve allowed the developers to drain the swamps and aquifer recharge areas and cover them with houses and pavement. It’s for this reason, the wells have gone dry.
So remember, if you’re going to complain about the farmer, it’s impolite to talk with your mouth full.
tommy
5 months ago
Hey Ron…
According to the newspapers, 10 billion gallons is not an exaggeration.
And you are right – it’s not just the farmers that are to blame. Our system of development (sprawl) that has helped us to get into this situation.
Still, it’s up to all of us – farmers, developers, county officials, swiftmud – to figure out how to move forward from here.