I ask this because of several relentlessly upbeat stories I\u2019ve seen lately about all the new developments planned for this year.<\/p>\n
Related: District expands hiring efforts to fill high-skilled roles shaping Florida’s water future.<\/a><\/p>\n The Fort Myers News-Press, for instance, reported last week<\/a> that \u201cnew county-level data released in December foresees massive growth to continue in Southwest Florida based in part on the latest research from the state that looks all the way out to 2050.\u201d<\/p>\n Every time I read one of these stories offering sunny projections about bringing in lots more residents who need new homes and apartments, one question runs through my head: What are they going to drink?<\/p>\n Look, I know the Florida economy operates like the world\u2019s largest Ponzi scheme \u2014 in fact, it\u2019s been suggested we call ourselves the Ponzi State<\/a>. The whole system depends on a never-ending supply of new people buying homes.<\/p>\n We continue packing in new people like we\u2019re stuffing more clowns in a clown car, but I feel compelled to point out that nobody\u2019s making new water to slake their thirst. There\u2019s no wild-haired Dr. Einstein in a lab repeatedly combining one part of hydrogen with two parts of oxygen. It doesn\u2019t work that way.<\/p>\n Instead, we\u2019re facing watering restrictions,<\/a> shortages, and widespread drought. Yet we act as though there\u2019s still plenty of water for all the new people.<\/p>\n Florida Taxwatch, not exactly a bunch of radical tree huggers, was warning two years ago that Florida is using so much water that parts of the state would start running out<\/a> if the Legislature failed to act.<\/p>\n Has the Legislature acted? Nope! Our duly elected dimwits have been more concerned about banning Pride flags<\/a> and restricting drag shows<\/a> than making sure everyone has water to drink, bathe in, and flush their toilets.<\/p>\n We\u2019re now seeing desperate local attempts to boost the dwindling water supply with experiments that may not work. One to revive the flow of the Suwannee and Santa Fe Rivers has yet to find a source of funding, yet Florida water managers are already counting on it to make up for draining the river basin.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not just putting all our eggs in one basket,\u201d Ryan Smart of the Florida Springs Council<\/a> told me. \u201cWe\u2019re throwing all our eggs in the air and hoping a basket appears.\u201d<\/p>\n A lot of people in Florida never think about where their water comes from.<\/p>\n If you asked, they\u2019d probably say it comes from the faucet. Or maybe the bottled water section of the grocery store.<\/p>\n The fact is, some 90% of the wate<\/a>r we use for drinking, bathing, and watering our lawns comes from under our feet. Utilities suck the stuff up out of the Floridan Aquifer, a vast pool of freshwater coveringabout 100,000 square miles.<\/a><\/p>\n The aquifer is huge, but it\u2019s not infinite. Refilling it takes plenty of rain. And right now, we\u2019re not getting enough.<\/p>\n Nearly 90% of the state is stuck in a major drought.<\/a> It\u2019s so dry that 14 counties have imposed burn bans, fearing a wildfire could sweep across the dry acreage.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t count on any significant rain helping improve Florida\u2019s drought anytime soon,\u201d the Tallahassee Democrat<\/a> warned recently.<\/p>\n Florida\u2019s water planning and policy is under the control of five water management districts run by a bunch of gubernatorial appointees.<\/a> Those appointees tend to be either developers or agriculture folks who donated to the governor\u2019s campaign, not experts in water supply.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why they rarely say no to any water-use permits, no matter how outrageously large. They\u2019re like Jim Carrey in \u201cYes Man<\/a>,\u201d always giving a green light, never a red.<\/p>\n We\u2019re seeing the result of that overly positive policy now. Too much pumping from the aquifer \u2014 to irrigate golf courses, boost crops, and provide lush suburban lawns \u2014 has lowered the pressure in a number of our taxpayer-owned springs<\/a>, lessening their once-forceful flow.<\/p>\n \u201cThe aquifer is enormous, so we have the luxury of sinking more wells and sinking them deeper,\u201d Smart told me. \u201cUnfortunately, the spring vents all stay the same depth.\u201d<\/p>\n While our water managers rush to accommodate the developers, he said, nature is the one that suffers.<\/p>\n Instead of the Ponzi State, we call ourselves the Sunshine State, but that\u2019s a lie we tell the tourists.<\/p>\n Many of our cities get more annual rainfall than famously soggy Seattle. Four are in the top 10 cities for rainfall<\/a> in America. The state is hit by about 58 inches of rain every year.<\/p>\n Except right now, our precipitation has dried up as if by prestidigitation.<\/p>\n If you look at the Florida drought map<\/a>, you\u2019ll see 91% of the state is in the iron grip of a drought. Much of the state shows up as yellow (\u201cabnormally dry\u201d), tan (\u201cmoderate drought\u201d), or orange (\u201csevere drought\u201d) from the lack of rain.<\/p>\n The worst spot is around Tallahassee, where conditions are as red as a stop sign, which means \u201cexceptional drought.\u201d No, that doesn\u2019t mean Florida\u2019s legislators drank up all the water. They prefer stronger beverages.<\/p>\n Florida\u2019s official climatologist, David Zierden<\/a>, said he foresaw this coming last year when we dodged all the hurricanes.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThat was our first indication that this was coming,\u201d he told me.<\/p>\n The Southwest Florida Water Management District has imposed watering restrictions<\/a> on Citrus, DeSoto, Hardee, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota, and Sumter counties, as well as portions of Charlotte, Highlands, and Lake counties. Those restrictions are scheduled to continue until July.<\/p>\n \u201cThe district received lower than normal rainfall during its summer rainy season and now has a 13-inch regional rainfall deficit,\u201d agency officials noted.<\/p>\n The South Florida Water Management District has also imposed year-round landscape watering restrictions across its 16 counties.<\/a> One of the areas facing serious limits: Cape Coral, billed in the 1950s as Florida\u2019s \u201cWaterfront Wonderland\u201d because it has 400 miles of canals, more than anywhere else on earth. But that\u2019s all saltwater, not fresh.<\/p>\n The St. Johns River Water Management District<\/a> is restricting water use, too. That\u2019s three water management districts limiting water use by existing homeowners. Yet not one has limited new development.<\/p>\n We used to plan in advance for the utilities, roads, and other needs of our growth, but that went out the window in 2011.<\/a> Still, the state has prepared a 2025 water plan, and it predicts that lots more water consumption is coming.<\/p>\n \u201cBetween 2020 and 2040, the population in Florida is expected to increase by 24%, from 21.6 million to 26.7 million,\u201d the Florida Department of Environmental Protection plan says.<\/a> \u201cDuring this same period, it is estimated that Floridians will require 14% more water, or approximately 0.9 billion gallons of water per day.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s why the plan calls for everyone to start thinking about alternatives.<\/p>\n But those are much more expensive.<\/p>\n I used to cover the state\u2019s largest wholesale water utility, Tampa Bay Water.<\/a> Over and over, I would hear experts say, \u201cThe era of cheap water is over in Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n What they meant was that you could no longer just stick another well down in the aquifer or pump a lot more water out. We saw the consequences of that during the Tampa Bay Water Wars<\/a>. It led to serious damage, to the point that lakes and wetlands dried up<\/a>.<\/p>\n Bringing those places back to life required finding alternate water sources. Tampa Bay Water built the state\u2019s largest desalination plant<\/a> using reverse osmosis to convert salty water into fresh.<\/p>\n Then the utility built a system for skimming freshwater from the Hillsborough River and a reservoir<\/a> that could hold more than 15 billion gallons of water, making it the largest in the state. That allowed the utility to stop pumping so much water out of the ground.<\/p>\n Thanks to the decreased pumping, the lakes and wetlands that had been sucked dry slowly recovered. But it wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n Now, to meet the needs of all the new people who have moved into the area, Tampa Bay Water got permission from the water district last year to take even more water out of the Alafia River.<\/a> It\u2019s increasing the amount from 60 million gallons a day to 75 million gallons a day.<\/p>\n As a result, Tampa Bay Water is now in a fight with people in Polk County who want the same water<\/a>. Welcome to Water Wars II: Electric Boogaloo!<\/p>\n But Polk County is also trying something even wilder.<\/p>\n A couple of years ago, \u201cImperial\u201d Polk County<\/a> was recognized as the fastest growing county in America. WTVT-TV<\/a> reported that \u201csubdivisions are springing up left and right to keep up with the growing population.\u201d<\/p>\n To keep up with that booming growth, Polk has handed out so many water permits that now it\u2019s become desperate. It\u2019s trying a $600 million experiment: Drill into the brackish lower level of the Floridan Aquifer<\/a>.<\/p>\n But the product from that level will be saltier than\u00a0George Carlin\u2019s most famous comedy routine<\/a>. That means it will require so much treatment that it will be much more expensive \u2014 by some accounts, 12 times more costly than fresh water.<\/p>\n One of the odder alternatives is coming from Jacksonville. The place known as the River City<\/a> is trying to make up for pumping so much water out of the ground in North Florida that it\u2019s harming the springs along the Santa Fe and Suwannee rivers, Smart said. The proposed solution: pumping treated wastewater out of the city and injecting it into the ground.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a controversial idea \u2014 Suwannee Riverkeeper opposes it<\/a>, for one, suggesting, \u201cHow about Jacksonville get a grip on its water usage?\u201d<\/p>\n At this point, nobody knows who\u2019s going to pay for this billion-dollar plan or even if it will work. But Smart said state water officials are already considering it the ideal way to make up for the water withdrawals and proceeding accordingly.<\/p>\n Otherwise, they might have to admit that we\u2019ve reached the point where we can\u2019t provide enough water for all the people who are jamming into our state now. Welcome to Dry 2026!<\/p>\n As usual when I have a growth and planning question, I called Wayne Daltry.<\/a> He was in charge of \u201csmart growth\u201d in Lee County waaaaay back when Lee County cared about smart growth.<\/p>\n He pointed out to me the other problem with so much of the development that\u2019s occurring right now is where it\u2019s being built.<\/p>\n \u201cOur water recharge areas are being developed, and that\u2019s an issue,\u201d Daltry told me.<\/p>\n Those are the places in the landscape where rainfall can soak down into the ground, refilling the aquifer. If the water can\u2019t soak in, it can\u2019t replace what\u2019s being sucked out. Too often, that water winds up being flushed out into the nearest stream or river and carried away, rather than being retained for consumption, he said.<\/p>\n Slap a slab of cement over a swamp, and the rain that does fall can\u2019t penetrate the earth to refill our drinking water supply. Fill in wetlands, and they can no longer screen out the impurities flowing toward our bays, streams, and rivers.<\/p>\n Then, when we realize that our water supply has shrunk to the point where we can\u2019t use it, it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n Fortunately, the solution to all this is obvious. It comes from the brilliant movie \u201cIdiocracy.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Ryan-Smart-via-Linkedin-150x150.jpg\")
\nRyan Smart via Linkedin<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/David-Zierden-via-FSU-150x150.jpg\")
\nDave Zierden via FSU<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Desalination-Plant-Aerial-View_jpg-1920\u00d71282-1.jpeg\")
\nThe C.W. Bill Young Reservoir via Tampa Bay Water<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/reservoir-hero-2.jpg\")
\nThe C.W. Bill Young Reservoir via Tampa Bay Water<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Wayne-Daltry-via-Wayne-Daltry-1-150x150.jpg\")
\nWayne Daltry, via subject<\/p>\n