Drought’s environmental toll is broad, deep

The Miami Herald reports: The ecological damage from one of South Florida’s worst droughts is deepening, water managers said yesterday, and rain is going to have to arrive soon —and in big buckets — to heal it.

Barring a tropical storm or hurricane, there is growing concern that the rainy season won’t be enough to end a severe water shortage after the driest dry season in 80 years. Over the first nine days of June, when the cycle of seabreeze-driven afternoon storms typically kicks in, districts gauges have recorded less than an inch of rain — a startling two percent of the average amount.

The drought has dropped ground water levels in parts of the Everglades below “environmental floors’’ intended to protect plants and wildlife. It’s also forced the district to install pumps to keep Lake Okeechobee water flowing to surrounding sugar, sod and vegetable growers.

“This has essentially overwhelmed and taken a toll on the entire natural system from top to bottom,’’ said Linda Lindstrom, director of restoration sciences for the South Florida Water Management District.

The drought is just one challenge confronting the district, which also began the process yesterday of meeting demands from the Legislature and Gov. Rick Scott to reduce property tax rates and slash $128 million from the budget of an agency that oversees the water supply and flood control for 16 counties.

Melissa Meeker, who took over as executive director last week, laid out a broad series of proposals. Among them: reducing water quality testing and maintenance of an aging network of flood control levees, pumps and gates; cutting helicopter use; selling or leasing surplus lands, and laying off some of the district’s 1,933 employees.

The district’s governing board took no sweeping steps to address the fast-worsening water shortage – largely because most farmers and cities in the region is already under water restrictions, declining water levels have limited options of replenishing marshes or well fields.