The Worries About Water

What can the City of Bradenton do with 24-plus inches of rain in one month’s time frame? Processing it to avoid polluted discharges doesn’t seem to be an option, with 25 million gallons of unsafe water being sent into the Manatee River. Manatee County, the city of Bradenton, and Sarasota counties struggle to manage their excess water, sewage, and its retention, while the Tampa Bay region is working diligently to fill the C.W. Bill Young Reservoir up to its 15.5 billion gallon capacity. How can two counties in the same SWFWMD area have such different responses to feet of rainfall while sharing similar growth and expansion?

Check out real time updates of the C.W. Bill Young Reservoir here!

There’s no need to dive into the numbers on the Manatee County’s damn flood and the rainfall that wreaked havoc on Sarasota County; this has all been well reported on. The impacts are still catastrophic, leaving homeowners spiraling not only for safe places to live but with severe doubts about their future and the places they call home. A news report by Tampa Bay 10 News shows how many gallons of sewage were released in each county area during Hurricane Debby, and the numbers speak volumes.

The Manatee County area had seven times as much sewage released as the next highest county.  The Hillsborough area had the second most sewage released, listed at 500,000 Gallons, compared to the Manatee County area at 3.5 million Gallons.  This is a clear and stark difference; our area discharged more than 2.5 times the water volume vs. all six reported locations to our north combined. 

At this point, it would be understandable that we had record rainfall pushing the 50 and 100-year averages, which would explain this once-in-a-lifetime event.  There is no feeling of comfort, however, as it is continued to be reported (by Fox 13) that the City of Bradenton “can’t handle all the rain they’ve received, and releases won’t stop until the downpours do.”  With the promise of fresh faces in the Manatee Board of County Commission, the people in the county have clearly stated they want change. 

The Manatee County Comprehensive plan is currently undergoing its first renovation in over twenty years, this seems to be a pivotal time in Manatee County politics.  Residents recently filled the Parrish United Methodist Church to attend the East Manatee Preservation Associations speaking panel about Flooding & Development Community Forum. This meeting was well attended with several educated speakers who residents were eager to learn about what they can do and what to be aware of. 

As we look at water issues from a more comprehensive view of those counties to our north who also experienced record rainfall but had much less polluted water discharges, we start to see some drastic differences.  The C.W. Bill Young Reservoir, which can hold over 15 billion gallons of water still to date, is not 75% full.  It should be stated that this reservoir was at a meager 16% compacity in June of this year.  This speaks volumes of not only the unprecedented rain levels making up our new normal of weather patterns but also that we were dangerously low in water not long ago. 

The ability of our municipalities to not only prevent unclean water from rushing into our waterways but also retain water to handle the demand of the largest growing regions in FL is paramount.  Lake Manatee has a 6 billion gallon holding capacity when working properly. According to Florida Politics,  the population in FL is expected to grow 23% by 2040 and our current water availability going forward is able to accommodate a 15% growth. 

The Manatee County ELMAC should seriously consider purchasing the surrounding areas of Lake Manatee and planning some serious expansion for water retention and future use preparation.  The FNGLA just concluded a multi-year project in cooperation with all of the water management districts, University of Florida, and more to revise the nearly 20-year-old Landscape Irrigation and Florida Friendly Landscaping Design Standards. 

This is important because landscaping irrigation accounts for nearly 50% of the average homeowner's potable water consumption. Implementation of these revised standards would help drop that number drastically. We desperately need healthy and diverse landscapes; simply not allowing any irrigation is not the answer. The USDA-NRCS did a study and found that “every 1% increase in organic matter results in as much as 25,000 gallons of available soil water per acre.” 

To break that down, with healthy living soils with the right plants in place, our soils can naturally hold a lot more water.  However, as many of you know who bought new homes, you don’t have healthy soils. Your house was built up on dead sand and practically devoid of life.  Following the latest standards, which are basically the Florida Water Star Standards for landscaping and irrigation, will help build and create that living soil and manage our water use to reduce use as the landscape matures and grows. 

Stay tuned to The Veranda View as we will begin to show instructional videos of how to amend the soils around your house, plant Florida-friendly and native landscapes, and increase your ability to make a difference on your own property to retain water and reduce runoff. 

Janyel Taylor and her husband, John, operate Ralph Taylor’s Nursery, a third-generation nursery that has been in Manatee County since 1968. Their products are available at area Home Depot stores.  The Taylors are the authors of The Veranda View, a blog that focuses on agricultural advocacy and education.