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Apr 30, 5:40 PM

Taking a long, cool drink

BY JOHN J. GLISCH
FLORIDA TODAY

This morning, let's talk about water.

You know, the stuff you drink.

The liquid that comes out of your faucet, without which you can't make a cup of coffee or glass of ice tea, do the dishes or the laundry, brush your teeth or take a shower.

Without which, you can't live.

We're running out of water in Central Florida because there's getting to be too much of everything, and that everything is swallowing up the land, replacing trees and plants and open space with concrete and blacktop and people.

And when it rains, the water that used to reach the ground, filter into the aquifer or head to rivers and streams to provide us with drinking water doesn't get there because of development. Instead, it runs off on streets, roads and parking lots where up to half of it is lost.

So, while there's a rising demand for water, there's a shrinking supply.

I'd like you to think hard about that today and in the coming months because in November you may have a chance to help save some land and, in the process, save some of the precious water you need to drink.

Here's the deal:

Brevard County environmental officials want to take the tax money that has been spent since 1984 on saving land along the beaches and Indian River Lagoon, and be able to spend some of it buying land further inland before it's devoured.

For them to do that, you would have to approve it in a referendum.

It makes great sense, for us and future generations. But the local bulldoze-it-and-make-a-buck crowd -- and the politicians who bow to their interests -- are starting to rev-up their who-needs-the-birds-and-trees rhetoric.

They'll try to con you into believing more land protection isn't needed, and that it's better off paved and strip-malled. Well, even if you don't care about the birds and trees, you better care about saving the land because it helps save your water.

The folks at the St. Johns River Water Management District, who make sure water comes out of your tap, will tell you that loud and clear.

Jim Gross, a district senior project manager, says groundwater use "appears to be about or at its limit in many parts of Florida" and talks about the need to keep clean rainwater flowing into the St. Johns River, which Brevard and Central Florida will be tapping more to drink.

In fact, Rich Burklew, a district supervisor and regional hydrologist in Melbourne, says "the key thing for us locally in dealing with shortage issues in the next 20 to 30 years" will be St. Johns water.

In that respect, public land purchases have "been huge" in the river's upper basin in southern Brevard and northern Indian River counties to reclaim the floodplain and wetlands, store water and improve supplies for fast-growing communities, Burklew says.

But more land purchases are needed to shore up another water resource, the shallow surfical aquifer that is replenished every time it rains, and which is vital to many Brevardians.

For example, the city of Palm Bay alone has 38 wells drilled into that aquifer, providing drinking water for 67,000 people. Many more Palm Bay residents also have their own private wells for the same reason.

Setting aside land helps protect the surfical aquifer, Burklew says, which is crucial to deal with growth and ensure there's enough water during droughts.

Well, you get the idea. And I hope you to remember it -- every time you take a long, cool drink.

Contact Glisch at 242-3968 or jglisch@brevard.gannett.com.