Our reservoir is essentially dry. More than 6 major brush fires burn in the counties around us due to the dry conditions and we're only at the beginning of the dry season. Is anyone besides me wondering what happens next?
As I fill my 3-gallon watering can in the morning (early, within the time allowed for hand watering under St Pete's watering restrictions) I wonder if the drought is the reason for the low water pressure in my tap.
What happens when Tampa Bay really runs out of water? Does the water pressure get lower and lower? Does our tap water become salty as sea water fills our aquifers? Does it just stop running? Is someone engineering the use of rivers further North now that our own rivers are dry? Is our water bill going to double or triple because we have to buy all our water from the de-salination plant?
While there is a patchwork of new restrictions belatedly being put in place by Tampa, St Pete and the counties, it concerns me that we have so little information about what the drought is going to mean over the coming years.
I think if ordinary people knew the actual price we are going to have to pay for water we would be showing up in droves at SWFMD meetings to demand stronger water management policies.
