Water Supply is Easy

The concern about a supposed water supply “crisis” goes back to the origin of the modern water management system. The 1971 Model Water Code, the legal foundation for the Water Resources Act of 1972, sets the tone: “As a nation, the United States is in the early stages of a water crisis.” The (Florida) Governor’s Conference on Water Management that same year picked up on the theme by advising Governor Reubin Askew in its first sentence that “There is a water crisis in South Florida today.” A decade later in 1981, the South Florida Water Management District felt compelled to “take extraordinary measures” in another drought and ask the governor to declare a “disaster emergency.” The Florida Bar Journal published an article in 1993 pointing to the “Coming Crisis in Consumptive Use.” A reporter for the Orlando Sentinel received a George Polk award for a 12-part series in 2002 titled, almost inevitably, “Florida’s Water Crisis.” And in 2008, the annual report from the state’s Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida concluded that “Our water supply is in crisis.” ¹