Cases of water conflict in Florida and how they were addressed by adapting government by Dr. Bruce Stiftel

Dr. Stiftel presented two examples of Florida regions attempting to overcome challenges to adaptive governance where overuse and degradation of watersheds were at issue: one in the Tampa Bay area where the road to regionalization was rough, and one in East Central Florida where neutral facilitators helped to smoothly mediate cooperation.

Dr. Stiftel contrasted the ways in which the stakeholders in the two regions have attempted to adapt to deal with their water supply problems. In the 'Tampa Bay Water Wars', a growing population in the three-county area led to overpumping. The Southwest Florida Water Management District (WMD) began to deny water use permits and issued Water Shortage Orders which had a severe effect on development. The WMD was sued in excess of $10 million, and the conflict was fueled on by the media. A first attempt at a long-term plan failed, creating embarrassment for political leaders and governmental entities. Negotiations finally began to take place when the Conflict Resolution Consortium was brought in to mediate and an incentive was provided by the WMD to pay for a new desalinization plant. Tampa Bay Water is in existence today, and seems to be working so far.

Where negotiations in the Tampa Bay Water Wars were largely encouraged by the governor and legislators who wanted to stop the embarrassment of the ongoing problems, conflict resolution in the case of East Central Florida was encouraged by a desire to avert the crisis altogether. Facilitators and experts were consulted immediately to assess a potential conflict that could occur with a projected shortage of water across three water management districts. Together, the stakeholders compiled a prioritized list of projects and devised a long-term plan for the East Central Florida region that is currently waiting for approval.

Time: 11 min 19 sec