Selling Florida\u27s Water up the River

While Florida has the second highest rainfall in the United States, from the northern Okefenokee Swamp to the southern Florida Everglades, these bountiful ecosystems are still dependent to a great degree on the level and flow of underground watersupplies. Yet these life sustaining water bodies are under threatby the very government agency tasked to protect them. By sellingmillions upon millions of gallons of water from the Floridan aquiferto out-of-state bottling interests, Florida\u27s water managementdistricts are causing an unnecessary, yet life threatening, depletionof the aquifer waters. Over the last forty years of regulation by thewater management districts, many of our springs have declined inquality and flow while others have dried up altogether.In Central Florida, the St. Johns River Water ManagementDistrict issues numerous Consumptive Use Permits, or CUPs, topublic and private development interests. Often selling millions ofgallons each year for nothing more than a few hundred dollars inpermitting fees. In recent years, the St. Johns River WaterManagement District has issued hundreds of millions of gallons inCUPs despite outcry from both local governments and local citizens.This article reviews two of the most controversial of these permits