Florida water managers tell homeowners who lost homes to sinkholes...they are on their own.

The meeting was supposed to address the sinkhole situation that arose from the billions of gallons of water a day pumped from the aquifer by the strawberry growers and farmers.

It sounds as though the needs of the homeowners were very casually addressed in the meeting. The water management executives said they should deal with their insurance, and that cities were responsible for the sinkholes that closed roads.

Sounds like the real issue was being treated evasively.

Sinkholes from Overpumping Gobbling Homes



That is a terribly naive or perhaps arrogant statement by Owen. These homeowners were actually victims of unregulated pumping of the aquifer. Either it was a careless statement without thinking, or deliberately misleading.

Here is more about the meeting from the Tampa Tribune. Seems it pretty much echoes the other article. The water management executives seem to place the main responsibility for sinkholes on the home owners, apparently unwilling to admit their role in allowing billions of gallons a day to be used by growers without regulation.

300 turn out for meeting on sinkholes, overpumping


Residents of east Hillsborough County spoke at a Southwest Florida Water Management District workshop Wednesday evening to discuss with officials the problems they faced when farmers and nursery owners were forced by cold weather to pump millions of gallons each day on their crops and plants to prevent freeze damage.



I believe there are more than 20 who lost their homes. There has not been that much coverage of it overall. A family we know were told by Swiftmud to leave the day before the latest freeze. They were told that the growers might be pumping again.

Homeowners were not being irresponsible during the freezes this year. They were victims of the unrestricted water use by the growers that took the aquifer down 60 feet.

It is not just the growers' water, not just their aquifer...it affects everyone in the area and state.

The farmers in the Plant City area pumped billions of gallons of water daily for 11 days.



One of the residents said that soon people would be wary about buying property in the area.

The Tribune article points out that Governor Crist has not become involved in this, and that he needs to do so.



Did I tell you that we as homeowners have been under strict water restrictions for many years?

My ex-wife lives in Plant City, had issues because of this. Next year, there may be blood.

there are more problems than are being covered by the media. There are still no regulations in place for the growers.

Something fairly benign to higher life forms. Something that, after application, could be answered with a palms up "What? You put it on your field, YOU deal with it."

No regulation of the water pumped from the aquifer

I am guessing that Homeowners insurance does not cover sinkholes caused by something like this....or they will find a way not to cover the homeowners..

This is the America the Republicans want......well this is how it's going to happen.

From the Sticks of Fire blog:

http://sticksoffire.com/2010/01/27/taxpayers-cover-farmers-asses/

"Hillsborough and Polk County farmers used TEN BILLION GALLONS of water to protect their crops during the recent freeze, and in addition to the 85 SINKHOLES caused by using all that water, nearby residents found their wells had run dry.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District (Swiftmud) met Tuesday to figure out how to help those residents get their wells back up and running. Their short-term fix? Make taxpayers – not farmers – pay up now.

Even though Swiftmud board member Hugh Gramling said “13 berry farmers are responsible for the majority” of well complaints, AND farmers’ water permits specifically require that farmers pay the cost of wells that go dry from agricultural pumping, the Southwest Florida Water Management District will set aside $250,000 of taxpayer money to fix 60 wells."

.."TBO points out that this is just the latest in a string of you & I paying to fix trouble caused by massive pumping out east. Hillsborough County has already dedicated $2.6 million to repair sinkhole damage, and the State DOT spent $300,000 on fixing I-4."

who shunted water from the Everglades a few years back (ruined my trip to Sanibel island) and the year after were implementing water restrictions because of drought...

These idiots deserve a serious :wtf:

They do not learn from errors.

They will do the same things again.

Some pictures:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1334

I remember arriving in Sanibel expecting the nice warm blue-green water, lots of shells and good fresh seafood. Instead, what I found was a cold brown stinking brackish mess, no shells (relatively) and frozen seafood. This was the high period of the vacation season. :puke:

It totally sucked.

So yeah, expect these guys to always get it wrong.

They were compromised a long time ago, approving shit structures around private retention ponds which are now collapsing.

I think that bell tolling, is for thee-ums.

I have been posting about the sinkhole problem in GD for a while.

This took it off front page as well from the journals section.

This should be a general topic that everyone would be interested in, water regulation.

he commented on how tired he was of the rain we were getting. "The lakes are all full around here. There are no more water advisories. I'm ready for some sunshine."

When I mentioned that he was only talking about surface water and that our aquifers are still low and getting lower, he looked at me like I was crazy. Turns out he didn't even know what an aquifer is. So I explained it to him. Also informed him of how we are pumping precious water from aquifers with no regard for the long-term consequences. Then we talked about how some industrial facilities in our state are pumping CHEMICAL WASTE INTO the aquifers so they don't have to dispose of it per EPA regulations regarding surface waste. He was quite astonished about all of this. Had never heard of any of it.

We are a woefully ignorant population. I appreciate your efforts to educate us about these issues, Madflo. Don't give up.

Kick.

You are right that many have no idea. During Jeb's reign, terrible things were done to the aquifers. I remember something about storing the wastes underground next to the aquifer. I have forgotten the details, but I think he got away with it. Could already be seeping into our drinking water.

Yes, we are woefully ignorant on such things.

out that there was validity to my comments and a basis in reality. If that makes him THINK about water conservation or if it makes him tell someone else about it, then it will have been a worthwhile conversation. If he starts doing something about it, then I'll be ecstatic.

:hi:

This is a consequence of industrialized food production.

There are many ways to eat clean: not buying produce out of season is one of them.

Florida normally produces strawberries in winter just fine, because we don't really have a winter, save for this year, where we actually DID have record cold temperatures the state never had before.

The reason the Strawberry farmers are getting away with thos is because, surprise surprise, they are a major source of GOP wealth. Of course, these are the same folks who complain the developers are running them out of the state.

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/water/uic/index.htm

I've seen the sink holes in that area a few years back, also in other areas around Orlando - its crazy. No under-ripe, chemically dyed, rush to market plant material with the taste and consistency of damp cardboard is worth this kind of devastation.

I wonder who is monitoring.

"The injection wells are required to be constructed, maintained, and operated so that the injected fluid remains in the injection zone, and the unapproved interchange of water between aquifers is prohibited. Class I injection wells are monitored so that if migration of injection fluids were to occur it would be detected before reaching the USDW. Testing is conducted on all Class I injection wells at a minimum of every five years to determine that the well structure has integrity."

Every 5 years they test to the integrity of the wall structure?

Not good enough.

into the deepest part of the aquifer that does not communicate with the water-supply part. In the long run, yes, a bad idea...

Aquifer storage and recovery is currently under development, too...only arsenic is mobilizing from the aquifer and contaminating the "bubbles" of freshwater injected in the wet season and then pumped back out during dry months.

What's even more disturbing is the actual raw sewage that is allowed to be pumped into the ocean and gulf...they are called "ocean outfalls" and are allowed by state law. Several municipalities around the state do this instead of treating and reusing their sewage. Disgusting...

I live in Polk County, though well north of any sinkholes in the county. My dad is a citrus grower since 1974 or so, though he has turned day-to-day operations over to a family member, who largely has other people do the work needed. But anyway...

Citrus groves planted after a certain year were required to have low-volume irrigation systems. You know, the ones that work just as well but save water? Dad planted a new block in 1991 and was required to have low-volume. Same when he later planted new trees in an existing grove. But his oldest grove (which he sold a while back) had the old irrigation system which uses way more water. Such systems were grandfathered in and growers can still use them and maintain them.

Many of the groves (and strawberry fields in areas around Plant City) have the old irrigation systems which use more water. This is the problem, IMHO. Had they been on more water-efficient systems, perhaps that wouldn't have happened.

These days, watering is protection from freezing temperatures. Back in the older days, diesel heaters (with fuel lines running through the grove) or "smudge pots" (where fuel had to be added to each pot) were used to raise the temperature within the grove. That's a dead technology for some reason, though I don't know why.

The homeowners should not be on their own. The growers are partially responsible for the sinkholes for their wasting water. Just an opinion of someone who lives in the area and kinda knows about citrus.

They covered whole areas in soot and smut, and the smell lingered for days.

Draining the aquifer down 60 feet harms all of us whether near a field or not.

I guess growing up around them in a working environment made me immune to the soot and smell. I'll agree.

And yeah, growers should not be allowed to pump the massive water like they did. It does harm us all.

All these home owners HAVE to be Progressives. Otherwise, how could they look at their fellow beer drinking moose clubs buddies? "We don't need no damn stinking government

regulations," replied delmuss smith, head of the local klavern, I mean manager of the moose lodge #1668 in Plant City. "I'd rather have my house fall into a huge hole than have any

more government regulations... DOH!"