If you can't get villagers to agree on dog poop and driving roundabout opinions how? Would you be able to coordinate everyone to water their lawns at the same?

You can read the monthly reports on the florida aquifers HERE

You will read that they are a bit low but nothing severe, however weare behind on rain for 2023 and the November levels in many wells was below the November normal range.

Also found is data on stream flow, lake surface level, output of springs etc. Lots of information.

Exactly! The Commissioners just rubber stamp everything and then
the quality of life goes down.

Close the water bottling plant.

Just about everywhere in the U.S. there is a proclaimed water shortage and drought conditions, and that's been the case for many years. We seem to continue to survive our shortage of water despite the growth in population. Will the population exceed the capacity for fresh water in this country? Possibly someday it will, but it seems that will take population exceeding the Planet's capacity. The issue may extend beyond water as we deplete other resources as well.

I agree. To me, it is not about running out of water, it is about the cost of water. Desalination plants can even convert seawater into drinking water. How could the planet ever run out of seawater?

They need to stop selling water to Nestle, and get rid of lawns. Maintaining grass lawns increases greenhouse gasses, pollutes ecosystems, wastes water, and diminishes biodiversity. Grass lawns are expensive, unsustainable, and poor investments. While more environmentally friendly than pavement, grass lawns and their upkeep come with heavy carbon costs. (Copied on Google)

I agree, but the more environmentally conscious among us (I state it circumspectly) are already over THAT idea like flies on dung. Their major complaint is that by discharging water heavier on salt back into the oceans after separating out fresh water (which is how it is done) it changes the salinity of the seawater at the point of discharge, thus conceivably harming ocean plant/animal life. I'm not sure if there is any credible research done on this topic, but that is the argument. It is not new technology, by the way: Titanic had desalination equipment to produce fresh water for the ship. And anyone who has taken a cruise on any of the larger cruise ship knows that with their desalination equipment, they produce enough fresh water to not only assure that the cruisers have all the water they want but also enough to supply the fun and games aboard. The Flow Rider on RCCL ships for example needs 30,000 gallons of fresh water in order to operate.

But in reality this agonizing over this perceived water shortage is merely another sky-is-falling histrionic. Lake mead, for example, received plenty of attention on the part of the environmentally conscious after the water level sank over several years to what were termed dangerous levels. But after 2021 Mama Nature took over, replenishing the lake water by natural means. An article in Newsweek (12/8/23) states, in part: "Lake Mead, which is in Nevada and Arizona, reached drastically low levels last summer after years of drought, but water levels have since started to recover because of above-average precipitation and snowpack that have melted this summer. Stunning photos comparing this year's levels to those of 2022 have abounded on social media, including how the rising levels again submerged a previously sunken boat that was revealed during the drought.

The lake has blown past 2022 water levels by more than 20 feet, and last Saturday, Lake Mead reached another milestone when it surpassed 2021 levels for the first time this year, a feat AccuWeather senior meteorologist Dave Houk previously told Newsweek was unlikely to happen given forecast trends."

This is why I don't give the gloom-and-gloomers much attention. Hysteria makes for poor science.

lol. ^^^This. Where I come from we have Kentucky bluegrass too. St August is more like the quack and crabgrass we are trying to kill.

Why do they call it blue grass if it is green?

Rolling out the "Mission Accomplished" banner already?

I hope you are right but I'm going to hold my applause for at least one more dry-wet cycle.

Besides most of our irrigation water coming from reclaimed water from the ponds, how do they expect everyone to adhear to these water conservation rules in effect until July 1 without sending a notice to every homeowner? Do they actually believe everyone effected reads Talk of the Villages or reads the Villages News?

Too many people moving into Florida!

If you are following the watering guidelines available somewhere off districtgov.org and likely posted in your low-power box (irrigation box, white box) in your garage then you are already in compliance with the "new" rules.

The Golf courses are the biggest users of water by far. Why will the Villages not allow more water friendly landscaping? We should be allowed to have a much larger % of stone landscaping in our yards subject to approval of course!

The story goes that the developments in Florida need to get some sort of approval from the area Water Management District (SWFWMD for most of the Villages). That approval came with a requirement for a certain percentage of permeable area. Stone is allowed in some Villa types and not others in order to maintain that percentage.

Yes, stone is permeable in that the water can move around and past the stone. However, much/most/all stone landscaping is placed over a weed barrier. Accurate or not, the claim is the SWFWMD considers the stone + barrier combination to be impermeable. Replacing sod with stone + barrier changes the agreed upon percentages putting the Villages out of compliance with their agreement with the SWFWMD.

Again, that is the story as I have heard it but I have not seen any documentation supporting the story.