Know Where It Flows

Rivard Redding,
Water Resources Educator / Presenter for SWFWMD "Know Where It Flow" program.

July 20, 2007

Just the Facts

Over the past ten years about 100,000 new single-family, detached homes have been build on an annual basis in Florida. This points to the fact that Florida is a very active new residential community developer. Our population in Florida of about 16 million in 2000 is expected to increase to about 20 million by 2020. We are also a playground for about 40 million tourists each year. The fact is that along with this increasing population and development there is an increasing need for water. Florida does have a lot of water in the form of precipitation and humidity. We do have a lot of water in Florida and in fact we have more water falling from the sky (precipitation), on the average, than the water lost due to evaporation and plant transpiration (evaportranspiration). But we do need to remember that the fact is that we in Florida do not always experience "the average". We have more precipitation in the summer/fall than we do in the winter/spring time. In fact we also know that in Citrus County Florida our soil (mostly sand) has a very low water holding capacity. Therefore the fact is if the public wants to have a very high quality lush landscape irrigation is a must. We also know for a fact that between 1970 and 1995 Florida has had an increase of 135% in groundwater withdrawals. Another crucial fact is that if we increase our groundwater withdrawals faster than it can be replaced by rain than the remaining groundwater (fresh water) will be contaminated by salt water moving in from the ocean and up from the depths of the Earth. The fact is that 70-75 percent of our annual rain falls from May to October and that water must be "stored" during that wet season to be able to supply the demands during the dry months. The fact is that our area of Florida received 4.68 inches of rainfall in June 2007 and the average is 7.49 inches. Another fact is that our area of Florida has received 52.31 inches of rain from January 1, 2006 through June of 2007, with the normal rainfall being 77.32 inches. Our average rainfall for a year is 53.83 inches. Our recorded rainfall for 2006 was 38.73. The fact is that in our daily lives we use water for drinking, cleaning, personal hygiene, irrigation of our landscapes, agriculture and industrial purposes. Water is our life-blood. The fact is we could not live without a supply of water, especially clean, pure fresh water. We must have water to live - if the "well is dry" we will be dry. The fact is that what we do and how we use or misuse our water will determine our own human well being and our environmental existence. These are "Just the Facts", each of us must decide how to use them. "Just the Facts" have been compiled from publications from the edis (electronic data information source) web site, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ at the University of Florida and from Southwest Florida Water Management District (WaterMatters.org) public data information. For additional information and data along with free public presentations about these and related water topics please contact Rivard Redding at 352-476-4941 or