South Florida Water Management District - November Agricultural Highlights Report

Date: November 19, 2007
To: South Florida Water Issues Network & State Water & Natural Resources Advisory Committee
From: Charles Shinn, Assistant Director Government & Community Affairs
Re: South Florida Water Management District - November Agricultural Highlights Report

Northern Everglades Plan

The SFWMD is modeling to determine the flow of water coming in and going out of basins within the Northern Everglades. They are also noting water use and water sources within these basins. This region extends north of Lake Okeechobee to Reedy Creek and Shingle Creek just south of Orlando. The Northern Everglades also encompasses the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie River basins as well as the area immediately surrounding Lake Okeechobee as shown in the following graphic.

The draft report for the Northern Everglades was released last week and is available on the web at https://my.sfwmd.gov/portal/page?_pageid=.... In addition, public meetings will be held in Okeechobee on November 27 and Clewiston on November 28 to discuss the plan and answer questions.

The plan will be presented as a discussion topic to the South Florida Water Management District’s Water Resources Advisory Committee (WRAC) in December. This committee has representation from all user groups including agriculture. The plan will then be presented for approval to the District’s governing board in January 2008. The final draft goes to the Florida Legislature in February 2008.

This plan does not provide details as to the location of additional storage in this region but instead focuses on the total amount of storage needed as well as other measures that will address water quality that ultimately flows into Lake Okeechobee. The water storage will help augment the flows into Lake Okeechobee during the dry season and reduce the high damaging flows into the lake during the wet seasons. Florida Farm Bureau Federation will review this document extensively to determine potential impacts to agriculture.

FFBF Requests Public Comment Extension from EPA

Florida Farm Bureau Federation has asked its County Presidents in south Florida to send a request to the EPA asking for a six month extension for public comments for newly proposed TMDL’s.

The water bodies (WBIDs) being targeted by the EPA are 3252A, 3252B, 3252C, 3260, 3263 and 3265B. All of these WBIDs are located in Hendry, Broward, Palm Beach and Dade Counties and are denoted as the red shaded areas.

Florida Farm Bureau Federation and other agricultural organizations need time to evaluate the technical feasibility of the proposed TMDL’s and the impact it would have on current agricultural operations in and around the Everglades Agricultural Area.

State Legislators Discuss Drought Impacts

Recently, the House Environment and Natural Resources Council held a workshop on Lake Okeechobee and impacts to the region. Presentations were made by Carol Wehle, Executive Director of the South Florida Water Management District, Charles Bronson, Commissioner, Florida Department of Agriculture Consumer Services (FDACS), Tom MacVicar of MacVicar, Federico, and Lamb, Nelson Mongiovi and Chuck Aller, both of FDACS.

Overall, the summation of the presentations painted a very bleak picture for the area, and for those who depend on water from Lake Okeechobee.

Lake Okeechobee is over 1.3 foot below the record low level and four feet below where the lake should be to supply a sufficient amount of water during the dry season (November – May). The situation gets worse when coupled with forecasts of an extremely dry La Nina (a very dry, dry season). It is predicted that by April of next year, the area may be out of water with the lake 7 feet to 8 feet in elevation.

Agriculture in the region has lost between $700 and $800 million and may reach $1 billion by the end of the year. No one is really sure how much of the ag industry will survive next year. In the last two months four of our largest tomato growers went out of business.

The legislators got the message and began asking questions as to what can be done. The only real answers require a lot of rain and funding. Unfortunately, unless predictions are way off, the state won’t have much of either next year.

Monthly Reports Available on Florida Farm Bureau Federation’s Website

This report is also available on Florida Farm Bureau Federation’s website (www.floridafarmbureau.org).

If you do not wish to receive this report in the future or are receiving multiple copies, please contact me at the email address below.

Charles Shinn, Asst. Director
Government & Community Affairs
Florida Farm Bureau Federation
PO Box 690342
Vero Beach, FL 32969-0342
E-mail: charles.shinn@ffbf.org