Article in the Palm Beach Daily News

This appeared in Local Voices section of the Sunday edition...

Global climate change, sea-
level rise and the current drought beg for a plan and swift implementation. Call the counter-measure the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.

Both the drought and sea-level rise pose imminent threats to the water supply in South Florida by saltwater intrusion into drinking water sources.

An assessment of the cause and effect of the current drought will to some unknown extent counter the consequences of global warming and sea-level rise. (Per Palm Beach Daily News, June 25, 2011: Planning and Zoning board looks for inspiration on climate change measures.)

Much has been reported regarding the current water shortage and blaming the “extreme drought” on global climatic conditions, such as La Niña, the Bermuda High and the North Atlantic Oscillation.

No doubt these conditions are having their effects to produce the current scenario of extreme/exceptional drought. However, in all the reporting, there is not one word about a significant cause of water shortages in South Florida and its links to the global scenarios.

The late Arthur R. Marshall called this scenario a man-made drought, and sought to address the cause and cure back in 1981. (Search for “Anatomy of a man-made drought” online.) The main water-shortage cause is the removal and draining of wetlands for development and agriculture, and the reduction of natural water flow from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades.

The Everglades wetlands, also known as the River of Grass, provided natural water retention, recharged the aquifers from which much water is drawn in Florida and filtered the water as it moved south. Moving water south (also southeast and southwest) will be a significant counter to sea-level rise.

A major volume of water that went south to the Everglades now is flushed to tide. One big result is decreased evapo-transpiration over what used to be the River of Grass, with surface water and plants sending water vapor into the atmosphere, unabated.

When moisture-heavy sea breezes combined with evapo-transpiration, South Florida was subject to rainfall deluges. Art Marshall dubbed this the “rain machine.”

The water supply in all of Florida, especially South Florida, depends on a rainfall-driven system. What is less touted in the science of the Florida water cycle, is that evapo-transpiration drives rainfall. The water cycle is also known as the hydrologic cycle. This is Geology 101 and visually described in a recently published poster by the South Florida Water Management District.

As Art Marshall declared in June 1981: “Water is the major concern of our coalition. If Lake O fails periodically to be adequate for all needs, what is to be done?”

Art Marshall also postulated that there was more dynamic water storage in the atmosphere over Florida than water storage in Lake Okeechobee.

The question persists today. As Art Marshall noted 30 years ago:

“Knowing that rainfall and its retention are the only satisfactory sources of water in the Everglades system, we support the re-establishment of sheet flow in the basin to the greatest possible extent. We cannot ignore the efficiency of the pristine system which often extended the wet period in the Everglades for four months or more beyond the four or five months of the rainy season.

“Dr. Patrick Gannon, meteorologist, has written of the positive effects of wetlands on rainfall in South Florida. Waters evaporated from the basin return to the basin in a form of natural recycling. In addition to this in-basin recycling, the most air rising from the basin can trigger additional rain to fall from water-laden oceanic air masses as they blow inland over South Florida.”

Conservation measures may help alleviate drought situations — such as xeriscaping, drip irrigation, cisterns and rain barrels, low-flow shower heads, doing away with unnecessary irrigation of medians, creating codes that don’t require thirsty green lawns. However, projected population increases, more rooftops and unmitigated destruction of wetlands will only make for more frequent extreme/exceptional droughts, and increased water supply costs, when they can be met.

There is a counter to the man-made drought and a counter to sea-level rise: Restore the river of grass to the maximum extent possible, thus restoring evapo-transpiration, and the rain machine in South Florida.

As Mr. Marshall also pointed out, rainfall always exceeds evapo-transpiration in Florida. If this were not true, Florida would be a desert.

We are way overdue — by 30 years — to address the cause. Now we need action on the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and its robust implementation to restore the River of Grass. This will provide South Florida with plenty of low-cost water and avoid costly droughts.

How much is the man-made drought costing the people of Florida? That next.