Water, water everywhere...or is it?

As a multibillion dollar industry with many lobbyists, the bottled water industry is an impressive presence throughout the country. In particular, there are over 40 bottled water facilities in the State of Florida, with the attraction to our state stemming from the fact that bottled water companies don’t have to pay for the water that they pump once they pay a nominal $230 fee for a permit. Critics fear that this will lead to a “tragedy of the commons” approach, where bottled water companies will ultimately deplete the shared limited water resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen. Opponents find support in this by noting that Silver Springs, located in Marion County, Florida, has already lost 32% of its historic average flow, with some other springs in the Orlando area predicted to decline in flow by 15% over the next decade.

A proposal sponsored by Sen. Evelyn Lynn, R-Ormond Beach, for the Florida 2011 Legislative Session, will attempt to turn the tide by creating a 6 percent tax on a bottle of water. Introduced as an environmental surcharge to be used as an effort to mitigate the impact of withdrawing vast amounts of water from Florida’s springs, Sen. Lynn will face the hurdle of convincing a legislature, which is led by a Senate President and House Speaker staunchly against new taxes of any kind, that the resolution is necessary for protecting the water resources of the state. However, even some environmental advocates are skeptical of the effectiveness of the proposed legislation. Eric Draper, the executive director of Audubon of Florida, said the group was hesitant to back Lynns’ bill, simply because it might not go far enough. He noted that there are other large users of water, such as golf courses or cities that adversely effect our groundwater supply. In fact, aquifers provide nearly 90% of the state's personal drinking water and more than 60% of the state's freshwater usage in agriculture and industry.

A more appealing water-tax first gained momentum in February 2009 when a version was proposed by then Gov. Charlie Crist. The Crist proposal applied a severance tax to the extraction of water by commercial water-bottlers, rather than passing the cost onto consumers of bottled water products in Florida. However, while environmentalists welcomed the idea, the beverage industry lobbied strongly against the water-tax proposals and it ultimately failed.

In the meantime, while the debate looms once again, one of the 40 bottled water facilities in the State of Florida is pumping 1.47 million gallons of water per day through 2018 with nothing more to pay than the cost of its bottles and the other 39 facilities are likely doing the same as you read this post. Once the resource is depleted, they can pick up and move to a new location to start anew. If you are living in an area where your groundwater resource drys up, can you afford to do the same?

-Timothy Nalepka, Legal Extern