The Miami Herald

Posted on Tue, Jan. 27, 2006

MIAMI-DADE

BY TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE AND CURTIS MORGAN
tfigueras@MiamiHerald.com

Water supply puts crisis on tap for Dade

Miami-Dade's long-term water plans could sink future growth, state officials warn.

State water managers warned Miami-Dade County on Thursday to come up with a new plan for supplying water to its booming population over the next two decades -- one that doesn't blatantly ignore state conservation requirements and threaten to suck Everglades wetlands dry.

Miami-Dade, they said, doesn't have more water to give, at least not from the cheap source the county's utility currently taps.

The stern warning does not mean there won't be enough water to flush toilets or fill bathtubs for current Miami-Dade residents.

But it does have profound implications for the coming years, from hiking water rates to derailing new development -- including a push to build thousands of new homes, shops and offices on the fringes of the Everglades.

STORM BREWING'

''We have a perfect storm brewing here,'' said Colleen Castille, the head of the state's Department of Environmental Protection.

Castille, along with a contingent from the South Florida Water Management District, traveled to Miami-Dade this week, sternly urging the county to improve how it sucks water from an already beleaguered ecosystem.

Add to that the spate of applications to expand development in Miami-Dade, and regional water managers say they have good reason to talk tough with top county leaders.

''We are not going to issue any more permits that [affect] the Everglades,'' said Carol Ann Wehle, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District. ``End of discussion.''

County Manager George Burgess said the county has to come up with some solutions -- soon.

''Frankly, I didn't have any arguments with what they said,'' said Burgess, who met with Wehle and Castille on Thursday.

Miami-Dade currently uses about 346 million gallons a day -- and has asked the water management district to issue a permit allowing the county to draw an additional 100 million gallons a day to meet the 25 percent population increase expected over the next 20 years.

The county's water and sewer department has been in talks with the water management managers since it applied for the new permit in 2004.

But the district says it won't approve the permit until Miami-Dade comes up with other ways to increase its water supply without drawing down on the Biscayne Aquifer.

Miami-Dade's current plan relies primarily on taking more water from the aquifer, long the primary source of drinking water for the county.

But that approach falls woefully short of state goals to aggressively pursue ''alternative sources'' -- such as reusing wastewater or desalination of seawater.

Under new growth management laws the Legislature passed last year, counties are supposed to show they have the water to supply the demands of new development.

Wehle and Castille said they hoped to drive home the seriousness of the problem with a two-day blitz of closed-door meetings with commissioners, Burgess and Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Alvarez -- who said he was ``surprised and dismayed.''

''I didn't know this had come to such a critical point,'' said Alvarez, who said he was frustrated that county staff had not raised the alarm sooner.

''Now we're in crisis mode,'' he said.

Burgess said the water and sewer department ''held out a belief that there was another way to address this, and that there was perhaps more time to come up with a way to draw more water'' from the Biscayne Aquifer.

''Obviously that is not the case,'' he said.

Miami-Dade, while one of the thirstiest counties in the state, does a poor job in reusing what water it does have.

Most of the 16 counties in the district reclaim an average of 60 to 70 percent of their waste water. Lee and Collier counties, on the drought-stricken West Coast, recycle 80 and 100 percent, respectively, of their water.

But Miami-Dade reclaims only 5 percent of its wastewater -- and almost all of that is used to wash down a county sewage treatment plant.

''Quite frankly, our patience as worn a bit thin with Miami-Dade County,'' said Nicolas Gutierrez, a district governing board member from Miami. ``There are more people and more finite resources now. It's not business as usual.''

COSTLY REVAMPING

Revamping the county's water supply will likely require millions of dollars in new infrastructure and technology.

Alternative water supply projects are eligible for millions of dollars of funding from the state and the management district.

There also are new laws in play.

Under a key agreement that Gov. Jeb Bush and President Bush signed as part of the $12 billion Everglades restoration effort, the state is responsible for ensuring that that area gets enough water.

Beyond that, the growth management laws overhauled last year for the first time linked water supply to development. Communities are supposed to develop new sources of water supply at the same time they allow new growth.

The recent push by developers to build outside of Miami-Dade's urban development boundary -- which separates sensitive land from sprawl -- has lent an immediacy to the water issue.

The applications are currently under review by state agencies, although final approval rests with the Miami-Dade County Commission.