Officials and land owners concerned about severe drought conditions in Miami-Dade and Broward County
An update on the drought monitor on Thursday showed that more portions of Broward and Miami-Dade counties are in extreme drought.
“Every single day that we go out, we’re seeing more and more exposed dry land masses throughout the river of grass,” said Marshall Jones.
Jones owns Mack’s Fish Camp, a family-run business running airboat tours for nearly a century in the Everglades. He said the drought conditions have already impacted business.
“The range which we’re able to operate in and the locations which we would normally go are already limited, and I’m already turning away future bookings for next month and April,” Jones said.
That’s typically his busiest time of year.
According to new data from the drought monitor, 64% of Broward County is in severe drought – up 42% from last week. On the other hand, 38% of Miami-Dade County is under extreme drought – up 31% from last week.
“So what we really need to do now is really conserve water, we are in a dry season, lakes all around us are at low levels,” said Carolina Maran with the South Florida Water Management District.
The agency is encouraging residents to conserve water until we get enough rain to replenish the Biscayne Aquifer.
“We are certainly in a little bit more critical condition this year than I would say in the past decade,” Maran said.
Jones said drought is good for the Everglades’ ecology, but this came on earlier and faster than normal.
“The concern for the fires is that we will have a muck fire this year, and the Everglades soil takes 100 years for 1 inch to develop, this year if we get a muck fire, we could lose 3,4,5,6 inches of soil, which will take hundreds of years to replenish,” Jones said.
Jones hopes Mother Nature brings some relief soon.
“I can’t imagine the word bankruptcy ever being a part of my vocabulary. But this year, if we go through another 3-month window where we don’t make any net operating income its going to be a very difficult one to overcome,” said Jones.
Maran said it’s still too early to tell when mandatory water restrictions could go into effect.
