1/13/08

South Florida Homeowner Slams SFWMD

Okay, so, it's me. I am slamming the South Florida Water Management District.

Before I get hate mail, I should say,
  1. I comply all with water restrictions
  2. I have installed 3 drip irrigations systems in an effort to be proactive
  3. I know some people from the SFWMD and like them

That being said, why do ALL their website links return "Error 500" when trying to access the latest info on restrictions? ...........and why do their top officials get to use state aircraft for personal use? The SunSentinel just completed an investigation on this abuse. Here's the link.

I am slightly bitter about how the water restrictions have been handled, but understand and accept it's GOING TO HELP and is a RESULT OF OUR INTERFERANCE. So, I don't resist this move, I just wish it wasn't so, and wish everyone abided by the rules.

Labels: , , at 1/13/2008 09:03:00 PM

4 comments:

  1. The point of the point of the Sun Sentinel article on SFWMD board travel is what? As a former auditor, I can tell you the board member travel is not "personal" use and is restricted to business only. Flying board members to agency meetings or mission-related conferences is no different from flying scientists to water monitoring stations or engineers to a remote Everglades restoration project - they are all doing a specific business -related job they are responsible for and are members of the same team working for us as citizens. Why penalize a board member, yet allow a scientist or other staffer to use the resource? As the article points out, eliminating travel by management or board would not eliminate any of the aircraft, which perform a much larger mission. Also, seems to me that most of the 4 or 5-year old data used in the article, and the 22 -year old auditor's report, are old and irrelevant to their current day policy which prohibits travel not directly related to the organization’s business.
    ReplyDelete
  2. It started off with no sprinklers or watering grass (no one-day window on that one) and hard surfaces. Then it went to drip systems and no hoses and no pressure hoses. People put in drip systems and they did get a few months use from them.

    And now it's bucket watering 3 days a week between 7pm and 7am and you can sponge your car off if you want to, but that's it on outdoor use. A total outdoor ban has happened in other places.

    People stick to the rules so well that the target of 140 Litres per household was achieved. You need water to drink (recyled sewerage water isn't pleasant to think about), for food (well not really, it just becomes more expensive as it's all imported and you'll be eating stuff that's not so great), for electricity and for your sewerage system to work (blocked pipes). But for those who don't get it..there are excess water bills, fines and they can have their water disconnected.

    When it started I guess I worried about people cheating on water restrictions, fairness and whether the government was also doing it's bit too. It's certainly not fun when it comes to gardening. Hoping for rain your way.
    ReplyDelete
  4. Danielle, have you been looking at SFWMD's regular site or their public site, www.savewaterfl.com? The latter may be easier to use. Keep up the good work with following water restrictions and exploring the Florida Yards & Neighborhoods program. Unfortunately, a *lot* of people don't understand that those restrictions are in place so that we have water in five (or twenty, or one hundred years)! It's our water -- *all* of us. We have to share. And the average Florida homeowner uses 150 gallons of water a day, which is just too much!

    Let us know at UF if we can help you figure this stuff out. It can be confusing...
    ReplyDelete

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