[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by LeeM

So I see in an online Villages News issue that there is a water shortage for certain areas of the Villages and possible water limitations will be set in future. With that being the case how did a nearby bottling company get approved to bottle many, many gallons of water?

Originally Posted by mickey100

I agree. It appears to be politics as usual. There are numerous studies showing the correlation between increase in development vs. the quantity and quality of the Florida water, and politicians are ignoring the issues. Big business is partly to blame - they have the $$ to successfully lobby the politicians. To say that "the rainy season is coming" is much too simplistic an approach. Florida is one of the fastest growing populations in the country, and the Florida Acquifer is not limitless. Water demand goes up while water supply goes down, and our politicians are on the side of big business, and are ignoring the environmental issues. For example, the state only loosely monitors agricultural practices such as amount of fertilizer used and fertilizer/pollution runoff, which of course contaminates our existing water supply. During Gov. Rick Scott’s term, budget cuts have affected water management districts and the state Department of Environmental Protection, and clean water standards have weakened.Central Florida, with the large amounts of land available for development is projected to incur significant water shortages in the upcoming years, unless we have better water management.

To add that the appointments to these various water boards made by Gov. Scott, are political in nature. Most of the appointments have little or no background in environment management or science. Thus the water bottlers just make their donations........ and start pumping.