Vanishing point — disappearing north Florida waters

So far, most of my drought postings have focused on the unprecedented Southern California five-year drought.  Relieved somewhat by the Santa Anna winds bringing some rain, the State of California remains under siege.  Calif. Governor Jerry Brown’s  mandatory resrictions  on water usage remain in place.

My review of the U.S. Drought Monitor on the East Coast has revealed only a few areas of drought over the Florida peninsula for limited periods of time.  These areas of drought have been for the most part. in the southeast Florida area. But little has been written about north Florida.

At the mouth of the Apalachicola River, south of the state capital (Tallahassee). and the source of the Apalachicola Bay or, if you wish, Apalachicola Basin,  a water war between Florida and Georgia has been waged for decades. So contentious the war become,  Florida has filed in the U. S. Supreme Court a lawsuit against Georgia for an equitable apportionment of the waters of the Apalachicola River between Georgia and Florida.

I wrote in a post some months ago a few generalities about the procedure for making the judicial apportionment of the waters.   Most of the river runs through the State of Georgia.  Florida argues that unless there is a reasonable apportionment of the water, the Apalachicola River Basin will lack the necessary river nutrients for the growth of shrimp and other seafood.  An entire industry will die off while Georgia continues to retain and impound water upstream for Georgia’s future needs that Florida regards as bogus and unsupportable by the facts.

Notwithstanding the ‘water wars’ in Florida’s panhandle, north Floridians have been noticing the drying up of north Florida lakes for at least two decades.  What is the source of the drying up?  Is it the slow but noticeable drop in the lakes through sinkholes, leaving residents to do battle in the summer with mosquitos thriving in the marshes where the larger lake once thrived? Is it the drying up of the underground Florida aquifer from fertilizing agriculture leading to out-of-control vegetation deadly to the ecosystem similar to one of the problems plaguing the Everglades?  Whatever the source touch this link for one author’s ‘call to action’.

Vanishing point — disappearing north Florida waters