Thursday, the South Florida Water Management District's governing board voted 7-1 to make water restrictions year-round in Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Monroe and 12 other counties the district oversees.
The rule, intended to reduce suburban water use by 15 percent, faces one more board vote in December before formally taking effect in February.
Board members acknowledged the permanent restrictions will not make everyone happy -- notably some utilities concerned about lost revenue and operational issues when pumping slows.
''I think it's very hard to come up with a rule that is one size fits all,'' said board chairman Eric Buermann. He said the district was open to ''tweaking'' the rules in the future, and would continue to consider variances for unusual local geography or needs.
But the step is in line with a call from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to set consistent limits across the state as water demands, and costs, continue to climb. Two of the state's four other districts -- St. Johns River and Southwest Florida -- also are moving to twice-weekly rules.
The district says the cut to twice-weekly watering, initially imposed as an emergency measure, saved 138.8 million gallons per day in seven counties. Four of them -- Collier, Lee, Martin and Palm Beach -- cut use by more than 20 percent.
The restrictions are not intended simply to ensure supplies of adequate drinking water but to protect the Everglades, Florida Bay, coastal estuaries and the marshes of Lake Okeechobee from damaging dry-downs.
Still Not Enough
The undeniable reality -- despite a soggy wet season and street puddling in suburbia on Thursday -- is that South Florida doesn't have enough water to meet the thirsts of man and nature.
To protect the Everglades, South Florida water managers already have capped the amount of water that municipalities can draw from the Biscayne Aquifer, long the main underground source for Miami-Dade and Broward. Both counties, and others, are investing billions of dollars to develop new alternatives, such as systems to treat and reuse wastewater.
Tropical Storm Fay in August erased the lingering effects of long, deep drought and lifted Lake Okeechobee's level from historic lows. Now, at just under 15 feet above sea level, the lake is at the upper end of its seasonal range, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is continuing small but regular releases to keep it there as the dry season takes hold.
But recent history suggests the surplus will be only temporary. South Florida has endured droughts and water-use restrictions twice since 2000, and seesaw tropical weather and sprawling suburbs assure both growing demand and more shortages in the future.
''Show me a time every year when South Florida is not too wet or too dry,'' said governing board member Shannon Estenoz. ``Show me, and I think it will be about a week and a half long.''
When it rains heavily, like Thursday, water managers still drain billions of gallons a day out through canals to protect suburbs from flooding. Operating a flood-control system that is a half-century old and originally designed to protect about a third of the current population, they have few other choices and no place to store the water if they could.
Reservoirs
As part of the $10.8 billion Everglades restoration project, water managers are building massive reservoirs that will capture and store water from South Florida's 1,900 miles of drainage canals -- and from Lake Okeechobee when it rises too high -- but most of that remain years away.
Last month, the district's governing board lifted the 30 to 45 percent reductions imposed on agricultural operations and golf courses for almost two years because the industries had suffered millions of dollars in drought damage.
The board left restrictions in place for homeowners because district experts and assorted studies show suburban lawns and landscaping can survive on twice-weekly sprinkling during dry spells. During the wet season, sprinkling systems can pretty much be shut off, said Chip Merriam, the district's deputy executive director.
''People in Florida just should not be using potable water on our lawns more than two days a week,'' he said.