Water Supply Concepts for South Florida

1. Water Supply Conceptsfor South Florida For the Green Forum on Water Issues By Dr. Richard Punnett

2. Specific Points: • Definitionfor Drought • Levee Seepage • Sea Level Rise • Environmental Restoration

3. Definition of Drought • Webster: a period of dryness especially when prolonged. Dryness is defined as lacking or deficient in moisture. • CPC: Drought is a deficiency of moisture that results in adverse impacts on people, animals, or vegetation over a sizeable area. • Wikipedia: A drought is an extended period of months or years when a region notes a deficiency in its water supply. For most regions, drought is a normal, recurrent feature of the climate…

4. South Florida Definition: • Dry hydrologic conditions under which water supply needs* are not met. *environmental, agricultural, municipal and domestic

5. South Florida Definition: • Dry hydrologic conditions under which water supply needs* are not met. *environmental, agricultural, municipal and domestic • Regardless of how “dry” it is!

6. Groundwater Concepts • Before discussing Levee Seepage, Sea Level Rise and Environmental Restoration, a short presentation of groundwater concepts might be helpful…

7. Groundwater Concepts in the Miami-Dade Area

8. Miami Dade Groundwater

9. Groundwater Fluctuation

10. Groundwater Fluctuation

11. Levee Seepage

12. Levee Seepage

13. Levee Seepage: Friend or Foe? • Friend • Foe • Both • Neither

14. Levee Seepage: Friend or Foe? • Both! • In the LEC during wet periods, it is a foe. • In the LEC during dry periods, it is a friend. • To Everglades National Park, it is a foe. • To Biscayne Bay National Park, it is a friend. • Several management techniques available

15. Levee Seepage: Friend or Foe? • Both! • In the LEC during wet periods, it is a foe. • In the LEC during dry periods, it is a friend. • To Everglades National Park, it is a foe. • To Biscayne Bay National Park, it is a friend. • Several management techniques available • Salient Point: Seepage needs to be managed, not cutoff.

16. Sea Level Rise 1/64”/yr ¼”/yr

17. Sea Level Rise Almost 1/10” /yr

18. Flood control: Good and Bad News • Good news! Water still runs downhill…

19. Flood control: Good and Bad News • Good news! Water still runs downhill… • Bad news! We might become downhill!! (But not soon)

20. Miami Dade Groundwater

21. Miami-Dade Sea Level Rise

22. Sea Level Rise Effects: • Flood control • Coastal flooding issues • Slower rate of removal of flood water • Potential loss of flood storage • Water supply • Potential loss of storage for freshwater

23. Groundwater Fluctuation

24. Environmental Restoration How are water supply budgets affected by the Comprehensive Environmental Restoration Plan (CERP)?

25. Water Budgets Pre-CERPPost-CERP

26. Water Budget Warning! • Average annual values help us understand system changes and approaches to restoration • A restoration plan must include modeling to show water fluctuations and timing of flows throughout the system over a long period

27. Summary • Definition keys: • Not just dry hydrologic conditions • Not meeting water needs • Levee seepage is: • Both friend and foe • Must be seasonally managed (not cut off)

28. Summary Cont’d • Sea Level rise: • Requires increased flood measures • Reduced ground/aquifer storage • CERP will: • Capture freshwater currently sent to tide (lost from the system) • Provide storage to improve the timing of water deliveries throughout the system

29. Your turn… Thank You!

30. Your turn… Thank You!

31. 400,000 acre feet per year? 1 acre (football field), 75 miles high!