Responses

Post: (Amanda Bertine)

The big question on every Floridians mind seems to be about water. With the increase of Floridas permanent population begs the question will there be enough land for everyone that is living or want to live here in the future? But in my opinion land isn’t the biggest problem we should be worrying about at the moment, water depletion is. In this article, it emphasizes the present and future problems that Florida will and already have been facing pertaining to its water depletion.This is becoming a main problem considering the fact that Floridas main revenue source comes from tourism and they come for the different types of water sources, including but not limited various fresh and salt water sources. Like I said earlier there will be people who want to move here permanently and that mean more resources are being used up including the water resources. This becomes a major problem for different parts of Florida in different ways. For example in areas on the coast they have to deal with salt water intrusion which happens when the aquifer become depleted and salt water fills in the empty space. If we go more inland there becomes slightly different issues. The aquifer will still become depleted but it never fills back up with water. That causes the formation of a sinkhole. The aquifer resides in the limestone layer this then,“starts to dissolve the limestone. The pores and cracks are the enlarged and carry more acidic water/ rain water.”( St. Johns River Water Management District, 2020). This is the optimal environment for sinkholes to form when “ the lands surface above collapses or sinks into the cavities or when surface material is carried downward into the void.” (St. Johns River Water Management District, 2020). There have been rumbling of possibly require big water companies to “provide extra money for conservation”.(Kim Slowey, 2017) There have been a number of great strides in the right direction concerning water conservation including construction companies using rainwater in cisterns, decrease stormwater buildup, and making it required to use “gray water systems that convert sewage into water for irrigation”(Kim Slowey, 2017).

   I always knew that water depletion has been a reoccurring problem, but not to the extent where there has to be major conversations about conservation of our water usage. I also don’t think it helps with the fact that we have so many tourist attractions that help boost the economy but cripple our water resources. Some people, like me, don’t realize its a major problem because they grew up surrounded by water and I think there should be more of a push to raise awareness for this issue. I also believe that there are great strides being taken at the moment but it’s not enough for how rapidly we’re consuming water.