Except for the two urban counties (Hillsborough and Pinellas) and Monroe 

 County, more water is used for agriculture than for the public water supply. 

 Monroe County is made up of the Everglades National Park and the Florida Keys. 

 The counties of Southwest Florida represent a continuum of water from almost 

 totally urbanized Pinellas county to the rural Desoto county. The Charlotte 

 Harbor area is becoming rapidly urbanized. 



Existing platted subdivisions have the potential for two million addi- 

 tional people in the Charlotte Harbor area. The water supply requirements to 

 accommodate such a population would be eight times greater than current con- 

 sumption, and would have to be met through new capacity storage. 



The Charlotte Harbor area does not have a reliable water supply. Fresh 

 water comes primarily from seasonally intermittent streams, and from aquifers 

 with low water quality. The Hawthorne aquifer is increasingly subject to 

 saltwater intrusion because of a lowered water table caused by increased 

 domestic and industrial use of ground water. The water supply in the aquifer 

 has been reduced partly because most urban development greatly accelerates 

 runoff. 



Water regimes also have been changed by accelerated runoff. The estuaries 

 and wetlands now receive larger volumes of fresh water after each rainfall and 

 less fresh water during dry periods. The extremes of high and low input widen 

 the range of salinity conditions in the estuaries, which may upset the life 

 cycle of some animals and plants. The increased rate of runoff also reduces 

 the time water is subject to the natural filtration. Nutrients are flushed 

 directly into creeks, streams, and bays where excesses may cause undesirable 

 algal growth. 



A spill of phospate slime in 1967 killed an estimated 90% of the fish 

 stocks in the Peace River, but by 1971 the fish population almost completely 

 recovered. With supplemental fish stocking, the fish population made signifi- 

 cant gains within 15 months (Bell 1977). 



The demand for water in Southwest Florida is not limited to domestic use. 

 The phosphate mining district of Polk, Hardee, and DeSoto Counties in the 

 upper reaches of the Peace River and its tributaries is a case in point. 

 Large volumes of fresh water used in phosphate mining and processing are dis- 

 charged into slime ponds (which hold millions of gallons of phosphatic clays) 

 near the Peace and the Myakka Rivers. If phosphate mining and processing 

 increases along these rivers, threats to public water supplies and to estua- 

 ries will become greater. For example, in In 1971 an earthen dam surrounding 

 a 250-acre phosphate slime pond ruptured and released an estimated one billion 

 gallons of phosphatic clay slime into Widden Creek, a tributary of the Peace 

 River. The slime entered the Peace River and continued downstream through 

 Polk, Hardee, and DeSoto Counties and into Charlotte Harbor. The spill caused 

 a severe ecological disaster that affected not only aquatic communities and 

 water quality, but associated terrestrial life as well. An estimated 95% of 

 the freshwater fish stocks on Widden Creek and Peace River were killed. 



Another potential threat to the water supply of Southwest Florida is from 

 the leachate of gypsum piles or stacks, a byproduct of the phosphate indus- 

 try's chemical processing plant. Rain collects on top of these gypsum stacks 



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