LeakBird

(June 2, 2009, UPI.com)
A Tampa, Fla., couple said it took them several months to resolve the issue of a monthly water bill for more than $21,000.
Ralph and Diana Salgado said their water bill usually falls between $21 and $110 each month, but their July 2008 bill from the Tampa Water Department totaled $21,600, indicating that [...]

(May 11, 2009, The Miami Herald)
The states of Florida and Alabama are meeting Georgia in federal court in Jacksonville over the allocation of water from Lake Lanier, which is the city of Atlanta’s water supply.
U.S. District Judge Paul Manguson will hear arguments Monday from the three states over the legality of the water supply allocations [...]

(April 21, 2009, The Wall Street Journal)
A severe drought gripping Texas is causing unusually salty conditions along the Gulf Coast, upsetting the region’s ecological balance and threatening coastal wildlife including oysters, crabs and whooping cranes, the most endangered crane species.
The drought is one of the driest on record for Texas and is currently the worst [...]

(April 9, 2009, The Miami Herald)
Everglades marshes and Big Cypress swamps are drying up. Estuaries at the mouths of the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers are turning too salty. Lake Okeechobee, brimming from Tropical Storm Fay less than a year ago, is slipping into the low zone again.
If smoke wafting from Palmetto Bay brush fires [...]

(April 2, 2009, The New York Times)
For about a mile, a steady stream of water flows down Bear Canyon before finally petering out in the sand near a golf course. The arroyo is not supposed to be wet this time of year; the spring snowmelt does not usually occur until later in the season. But [...]

(March 29, 2009, Tampa Bay Online)
On Friday, turning on your lawn sprinklers will become a crime in Tampa under the toughest water restrictions in the state.
Everyone else in the Bay area, meanwhile, will be allowed to turn on their sprinklers once a week. Their lawns may struggle and shrivel but likely will survive until the [...]

(March 21, 2009, Treehugger)
Last summer I posted on Tampa Bay Florida’s new desalination plant, an expensive technology that was needed to cope with the growing demand for potable water, amidst falling supplies (due to extended drought). See Tampa Bay Florida Area Drinks Oil-Fired Water for details. Since then, surface water supplies have fallen off further [...]

(March 13, 2009, MSNBC)
With local lakes and rivers at critically low levels, the region’s water provider has virtually shut down the surface water supply to the Tampa Bay region.
“The reservoir’s level is so low we are unable to provide water, consistently, to the water treatment plant and we are unable to pull water from the [...]

(March 10, 2009, The Orange County Register)
When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called on Californians to reduce water use in the face of severe drought conditions, 78 households in The Reserve neighborhood of San Clemente were resting easy.
Those residents had signed on to participate in The Reserve Outdoor Sustainability Project, a study measuring the effects of efficient [...]

As the growing demand for all things water escalates across the United State (hydrologists, water conservation systems, water lawyers, new sources of water, et cet.), the drought environment, such as regions in Georgia, Florida, Nevada and California, has the highest market demand water conservation technologies for three reasons:

 
Timeliness
Fast Payback
Higher Water Rates

 
Timeliness
This is perhaps the most [...]

(March 6, 2009, MSNBC)
Cape Coral’s mayor is concerned some homeowners have contaminated well water. He wants to continue the Utilities Expansion Project, even if federal funding doesn’t come through.
“There’s a concern that the water may not meet drinking water standards,” said Cape Coral Public Works Director Chuck Pavlos.
A report from Lee County and Florida health [...]

(March 5, 2009, The Miami Herald)

Lobbyists for the bottled water industry are offering an olive branch in the impending tax fight over their product. They’re agreeing to let lawmakers to remove the exemption on bottled water and impose the sales tax in lieu of the governor’s plan to impose a six cents severance tax on every gallon of [...]

(March 2, 2009, USA Today)

Gov. Charlie Crist wants Florida’s water bottlers to start paying for the water they pump from aquifers in the state, The Miami Herald reports.
Outside the rural north Florida town of Lee, “every day, Nestle Waters of North America sucks up an estimated 500,000 gallons from Madison Blue Springs,” the paper says. [...]

(Feb. 25, 2009, West Volusia Beacon)
Imagine 15 or 30 years from now, turning on your kitchen faucet. A few drops dribble into the sink, then the water stops. It’s gone.
That’s what could happen without a large-scale plan to supply water to Central Floridians, DeLand Public Services Director Keith Riger said.
A couple of years ago, the [...]

(Feb. 24, 2009, MSNBC)
Water and sewer customers can expect to see higher rates in March.
City commissioners adopted a new rate structure that could raise the average customer’s bill $5.46 a month.
Customers who live outside the city limits will be charged 25 percent higher rates, meter fees, deposits and connection fees.
City Manager Billy Poe said the [...]

(Feb. 4, 2009, Orlando Sentinel)
ORANGE COUNTY
Residents of the Wedgefield Golf & Equestrian Community, a 1,500-home planned development, are facing their first week of paying about 83 percent more for water. Rob Goderis, president of Wedgefield’s homeowners association, said: “We’re not real happy with it. That’s a big jump.” The east Orange community near Christmas gets [...]

(Feb. 4, 2009, Florida Today)
WEST MELBOURNE — Developers will pay four times as much to join West Melbourne’s water system and almost 1½ times more for sewer connections.
Fees for all new water and sewer hookups will go into effect in 90 days, under the plan the West Melbourne City Council approved Tuesday night by a [...]

(Jan. 30, 2009, The Orlando Sentinel)
Armed with a judge’s OK, Seminole County says it will soon begin pumping millions of gallons of water per day from the St. Johns River. It’s a smart move from the County Commission’s perspective, as it will provide an abundant source of “cheap” water for future growth while generating revenue [...]

(Jan. 15, 2009, Stan Cox, AlterNet)

A thousand people a day move to Florida, but with development gone wild, the state’s natural systems have passed the brink of sustainability.

The monumental stone signs and freshly paved entry road appear to lead to nothing but wide-open, semitropical countryside. But a second look reveals a skyline of sorts [...]

(Jan. 20, 2009, JCFloridan)
A new water bottling plant in Marianna should be in full production some time next month, according to T.J. East, the plant manager for Ice River Springs’ local operation.
The Canada-based company will be drawing water from White Springs in Liberty County’s Bristol community, and Gainer Springs in Bay County’s Fountain community, [...]

(Jan. 15, 2009, Orlando Sentinel)
Possibly 10 years from now, a converted oil tanker could offload desalted ocean water at an Atlantic port, with that water pumped to Mount Dora, Leesburg and DeLand.
A dozen utilities want to figure out whether that’s the best way to supply drinking water in the future.
The Coquina Coast desalination group on [...]

(Jan. 15, 2009, The Auburn Plainsman)
The United States Supreme Court turned down a petition Georgia filed reviewing a ruling that favored Florida and Alabama Monday.
Lake Lanier, Atlanta’s main source of drinking water, will be providing less water for the capital.
Georgia filed the petition against the federal appellate court’s decision last year. The Supreme Court will [...]

(Jan. 13, 2009, MSNBC)
A Florida administrative law judge has recommended that the St. Johns River Water Management District approve Seminole County’s plan to withdraw 5.5 million gallons daily from the river.
The permit for diverting the surface water for use in Seminole County’s water supply was challenged by several entities, including the the city of Jacksonville, [...]

(Jan. 13, 2009, Jacksonville Business Journal)

The U.S. Supreme Court Monday declined to hear Georgia’s appeal of a lower court ruling in the long-running tri-state water wars.
The high court denied a request to review a decision handed down nearly a year ago by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington invalidating a 2003 agreement to let [...]

(Oct. 30, 2008, Florida Today)
“The cities are realizing that the need to rebuild, upgrade and modernize will have to be paid for locally,” Berg said. “The public is much better off paying 4 percent (more) every year for their water, because that’s what the inflation rate is. I would at least expect the price of [...]

(Oct. 15, 2008, CBS4)
North Miami recently added a nearly 50 dollar fee to every quarterly water bill for residents. That increase has pushed Francisca’s dreams of a shower at home again, even farther out of reach.