The Identification of Drinking Water as a National and Regional Strategic Resource, Within a Coastal Zone Management Framework, in Broward County, Florida

This paper will identify drinking water as a limited resource in a coastal community and recommend a Coastal Zone Management (CZM) protocol. It will include a global perspective and a United States (national) and County (regional) response to drinking water challenges. This perspective will include international comparisons of water as a decreasing global commodity and reflect security issues through a Threat and Risk Analysis, which will focus on biological contamination, accidental and terrorist initiated. The analysis will include a literature review and economic comparisons of municipal tap water costs vs. national and regional trends towards commercial bottled waters. This paper has five primary objectives. The first three are to define the sources of Broward County drinking water, provide usage by industry and municipalities and project future costs based on population growth, alternate sourcing and infrastructure costs to include protecting water sources and delivery systems. The fourth objective is to utilize a literature review to present the economic impact of the commercial bottled water industry, its effects on local water usage, projected costs, markets, and regional growth. The fifth objective considers a specific industry, Coca Cola, which is one of the largest receivers of Broward County drinking water. The conclusion includes a review of the impact of alternate water source costs incorporating security and threat assessment costs. Analysis compares Broward County municipal water prices with commercial bottled water consumer pricing via a survey format. The paper presents an economic based model of resource management, which includes recommendations for future strategies with which municipal authorities and professional water managers can maximize freshwater resource within a Coastal Zone Management paradigm