Saturday, September 6, 2008

Recent rains from passing hurricanes and tropical storms have soaked the state and helped replenish Lake Okeechobee, the state's main water supply. However, it still was not enough for water managers to back off proposed year-round water restrictions.

The South Florida Water Management District is scheduled to discuss a series of year-round water restrictions and conservation incentives at its meeting Thursday, weather permitting. The discussion will lay the groundwork for a series of restrictions that could be in effect within the next year.

Draft recommendations call for lawns to be watered twice a week, with a prohibition on watering from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. New sod or landscaping could receive an extra day of watering on the first day it is planted, the draft states.

The water management district also will continue funding or facilitating state and federal grants that reward conservation and the creation of alternative water supplies, such as retrofitting defunct cisterns.

The district has been working on restrictions and conservation policies since last year's drought, which dried up lakes and canals and brought Lake Okeechobee to well below historical levels. The district's governing board will make recommendations and send them back to its staff for tightening and some public comment, said Chip Merrium, the district's deputy executive director.

More than 547 million gallons of water per year will be saved by the projects supported by the district's Water Savings Incentive Program (SIP) next year, officials said. The governing board has authorized funding for 44 projects for fiscal year 2009, more than twice the amount of SIP grants it awarded for this year.

SIP projects utilize the latest in water conservation technology, including rain sensor installations, irrigation system retrofits, low-flow showerhead exchanges and water-saving fire hydrant flushing device installations.

Since 2002, the district has invested $2.3 million in 72 SIP projects throughout the district's 16-county region, saved an estimated 1.56 billion gallons of water per year, official said.

The Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority has received or applied for matching SIP funds for the replacement of leaky toilets and cistern retrofit projects, spokeswoman Colleen Tagle said.

"Our motto is don't buy our product," Tagle joked.

Last year's drought and accompanying water restrictions underscored the need for new ways to collect and conserve water. Marathon resident and engineer Steve Grasley and his wife have redesigned their home and changed their habits to cut back on water consumption. They have cut their reliance on the water utility's supply. They built a 3,000-gallon plastic cistern and installed fixtures to cut their consumption to a level far below that of the average Keys' couple. Their weekly water consumption is 150 gallons a week. The average couple in the Keys uses about 1,500 gallons a week, Grasley said.

"We don't starve ourselves," Grasley said. "We take comfortable showers. We have a washing machine."

Grasley's project will be one of a handful that will be spotlighted in the Green Living Energy Education's (GLEE) upcoming Cistern Solution Manual. The book details what some forward-thinking Keys residents are doing to collect and conserve water. GLEE President Alison Higgins, who has worked closely with the water utility, is still working on the publication and welcomes more stories from water conservation-minded people in the Keys. She can be reached by e-mail at ahiggins@tnc.org.