Dry South Florida On Brink Of Tightening Faucet More

If approved, the cutbacks would cut sprinkling to just three hours on one weekend day and for the first time impose significant limits on nurseries, commercial carwashes, golf courses and private landscapers.

Though the staff of the South Florida Water Management District is not yet formally endorsing what are called phase three restrictions, the governing board could consider doing it anyway at a Thursday meeting because of the severity of the state's historic drought.

"The executive director [Frank Finch] is poised to say he believes it would probably be better to go there sooner than later," said district spokeswoman AnEta Sewell. "If we do go to phase three, it would be the first time in the history of the district."

It's not clear if the board, which will swear in three new members today, will back the tougher rules. But some board members have been pushing for them, largely because mandatory restrictions to date haven't made much of a dent.

The district, 16 counties stretching from near Orlando to the Florida Keys, has only cut back about 10 percent on urban use overall - well short of the 20 to 30 percent target of phase two restrictions. The biggest counties aren't even close.

Broward County, the district said, is down about 13 percent, Palm Beach County about 10 percent and Miami-Dade County, by far the thirstiest county, lags behind at just 6 percent.

Phase three restrictions are intended to cut public use by 45 percent.

Gerardo Fernandez, a board member from Miami, said he was leaning toward further tightening the spigot but would consider interim steps to heighten public awareness.

"We haven't seen the reductions we thought we would attain by now," he said. "We've got to do something.'"

SERIOUS SITUATION. Patrick Gleason, a board member from Palm Beach County, agreed. "I think there is a lot of motivation here. I think we're in a very serious drought, and we're getting virtually no rainfall."

Roy Reynolds, director of the Broward County Water Management Division, said he would not be surprised if the district moved toward phase three restrictions. "So far, every time they update the forecast it gets worse," he said.

Broward already is seeing its key backup sources shut down.

Last week, the district closed the gate between Everglades Conservation Area I and the Hillsboro Canal, which feeds North Broward and Palm Beach counties. The gate has since reopened but only to allow a trickle of water that will keep the canal functioning at a minimum level.

Reynolds said water from Lake Okeechobee already is recharging the conservation areas - a last-resort measure usually reserved for much later in spring.

The lack of public response has Bruce Adams, the district's water conservation officer, planning to ask the board for about $500,000 to spend on increased enforcement and advertising from April through June, including more advertising in minority areas.

"We don't think that we've seen enough compliance at phase two to be sure that compliance at phase three would even work," he said.

YARDS IN DANGER. The biggest impact would be on the suburban yard, which the district said sucks up more than half of the urban water supply.

Under current restrictions, most homeowners can water lawns for four hours twice a week. Under phase three, at just three hours of sprinkling a week, many already parched lawns would likely wilt and die, along with some foliage - unless nature helped out.

Right now, long-term climate predictions don't foresee that. The dry season, which typically lasts until at least mid-May, is expected to be drier than normal, and some models indicate even the rainy season may be less than average.

The damage could extend beyond the suburbs to golf courses, which also would have to cut fairway watering to once a week, as well as other businesses like nurseries and carwashes, which would face a range of limits, said Ken Ammon, director of the district's water supply division.

Unlike the phase two restrictions, the next round will have definite economic impacts, ones that could potentially reach "into the millions," Ammon said.

There are also potential losses to farms and groves around Lake Okeechobee, which has plunged to historic lows.

Farmers have already seen their allocations cut in half. Salt water also could taint wells drawing from the underground Biscayne aquifer, South Florida's primary source of drinking water.

"It's a very large leap to go to phase three," Ammon said.

CLOSE TO DECISION. The district staff, which gauges the water supply based on a number of factors from weather forecasts to Lake Okeechobee levels, isn't ready to call for phase three, Ammon said - but they're close. He expected "a lively discussion" at Thursday's board meeting and a possible vote on the next phase.

One possibility, Ammon said, was imposing only portions of the tougher regulations, in an effort to gauge response.

Any new rules would go into effect about a week after adoption.

If the board decides not to back the tougher rules, Finch, the district's director, also could impose them before the next board meeting in April, Sewell said.

"If they decide not to go to phase three, we could go to phase three in the next week," she said. "We're at that point now."