You'd think it was a deliberate government policy if you were a conspiracy nutter. Someone forgot to turn on the rain faucet in the Keys. 
Two weeks ago the met office on White Street was confidently predicting the start of the rainy season about now, as though they had a direct line to the rain makers, but here we are, as shriveled as raisins.
There's plenty of water, like the poet said, but none of it fit to drink, nor even to irrigate. Coconut palms do okay, their fronds get a little brown at the tips but they continue to provide greenery to remind us of what we are missing. Deciduous trees sprout leaves which promptly shrivel up and die after a week or two of waiting for moisture.
The director of the Aqueduct Authority on vacation in upstate New York said they are being forced to run their desalinization plant on the mainland which would normally be turned off by now. It costs vast sums of money to operate and they are all hoping for enough rain to keep the level of the aquifer well above slat water intrusion levels. Burning energy to make water is ruinous and wasteful but that's where we are. Naturally draconian water restrictions are nowhere to be seen. It seems we have a God given right to as much of everything as our lawns require. And until climate change graces us with a change we sit and wait and enjoy the clear blue skies.
Two weeks ago the met office on White Street was confidently predicting the start of the rainy season about now, as though they had a direct line to the rain makers, but here we are, as shriveled as raisins. 
There's plenty of water, like the poet said, but none of it fit to drink, nor even to irrigate. Coconut palms do okay, their fronds get a little brown at the tips but they continue to provide greenery to remind us of what we are missing. Deciduous trees sprout leaves which promptly shrivel up and die after a week or two of waiting for moisture.
The director of the Aqueduct Authority on vacation in upstate New York said they are being forced to run their desalinization plant on the mainland which would normally be turned off by now. It costs vast sums of money to operate and they are all hoping for enough rain to keep the level of the aquifer well above slat water intrusion levels. Burning energy to make water is ruinous and wasteful but that's where we are. Naturally draconian water restrictions are nowhere to be seen. It seems we have a God given right to as much of everything as our lawns require. And until climate change graces us with a change we sit and wait and enjoy the clear blue skies.
1 comment:
I've never understood that about FL... In our county, we are also in drought (as is basically all of FL). However, while we are whining babies about fast-release fertilizer bans, changing out septic tanks for sewer, and such that sully our waters, we do have much more strict water regs than the Keys, at least in terms of watering. That has always bemused me. We, personally, have not watered in more than 4 years, preferring to cut out more and more of our lawn each year, and let the rest survive or not. Most of my neighbors have fertilizer services, water regularly - and more than allowed! - and have lush, green, sink-your-toes-in lawns. I prefer to let Nature deal with it herself, although I do spot water my garden. Does that make me a wild lawbreaker?
Diana
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