Who owns the water below us, anyway?

By Pat Hatfield
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Nov 9, 2009 - 8:39:12am

As the Volusia County Council prepared for a hearing on the Farmton Local Plan, talk of Farmton sharing water beneath the huge tract of land with local utilities circulated.

St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon raised an eyebrow and queried, “They are talking about sharing their water?”

The water belongs to the people of Florida, Armingeon said.

The St. Johns River Water Management District agrees with him.

Spokesman Ed Garland said the State of Florida, on behalf of its people, owns the water in the underground aquifers.

Chapter 373 of the Florida Statutes provides that “water constitutes a public resource benefiting the entire state.”

The state’s five water-management districts, through consumptive-use permitting, determine how water is shared or distributed.

Any operator of a public water utility, whether Farmton, the county or Deltona, for example, would be required to get a consumptive-use permit from the Water Management District before it draws any water from underground. If it was issued, the permit would specify how much water could be drawn from the well.

“There is a list with criteria that all applicants must meet. Each permit is reviewed on its own merits,” Garland said.

The Water Management District may require modeling to determine the effects any withdrawals would have.

— pat@beacononlinenews.com

Comment on this article

Fields marked with a * are required

Did you find this story interesting or informative? Subscribe to The DeLand-Deltona Beacon to read more stories by Pat Hatfield, along with others from our award-winning writers. Subscribe now!