Florida will never have a water sharing system where water from the northern and rural parts of the state is diverted to cities for drinking and lawn care if Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam has a say on the issue.
“It would put us on the brink of a civil war,” if anyone suggested for example, diverting water from the Suwannee Valley to Miami, Putnam said Wednesday at a gathering of newspaper editors in Tallahassee. “If we have anybody here from that region, they probably already have one hand on their pistol.”
Putnam said more conservation is needed, along with novel ways to save water, including locating desalinization plants near newly permitted nuclear facilities and paying private property owners to store surface water on their land to be released when needed.
“There are opportunities there for us to better manage our water resources,” Putnam said.
Putnam did not elaborate on why he believed any proposed water sharing plan might lead to a civil war.
The News Service of Florida
