Wells run dry

For some, it's taking a chilly bath from a bucket and flushing toilets with swimming pool water.

For others, it's staring at the belching butt-end of a tractor-trailer while inching home on Interstate 4.

For the kids, it's shivering in 28-degree weather waiting for a bus that's late, then not having water to drink at school.

And for one street-savvy tomcat, it was misreading the heavy, diverted traffic barreling along U.S. 92.

A prolonged cold snap, proliferating sinkholes and hundreds of dry wells combined to make eastern Hillsborough County one miserable place to be this week.

Alex Bender of Plant City had to dodge two sinkholes as he left his mobile home near the back entrance of the Walden Lakes subdivision Wednesday morning. When he returned, two more had opened up. Then a third.

Oh, and his well has gone dry.

"I did a load of laundry right before that, and I'm going to a friend's house to shower tonight," he said Wednesday evening. "I'm lucky I live alone, so I don't have to shower every day."

Tensions rose as the thermometer dropped in the Plant City area, where residents usually live amicably enough with vast strawberry farms as neighbors.

But as a wave of Arctic air swamped the state after New Year's Day, farmers tapped the aquifer to coat their fields with a protective layer of ice, a process that has occurred almost every night since then.

The heavy pumping caused aquifer levels in some places to plummet 60 feet, said Robyn Felix, spokeswoman for the Southwest Florida Water Management District.

Falling groundwater levels can trigger sinkholes and cause private wells to run dry. Three eastbound lanes of Interstate 4 and the entrance ramp of Branch Forbes Road are closed because of what might be a sinkhole. And the onramp from Alexander Road and State Road 39 to westbound I-4 was closed until late Wednesday after a sinkhole 10 feet deep and 12 feet in diameter opened.

Residents are angry at growers, accusing them of ignoring their neighbors to turn a profit. Growers counter that they, too, will lose money from the freeze and had to do what they could to save their crops and the local economy.

The number of sinkholes and more than 400 reports of wells gone dry will prompt the water management district to look at how it allocates water in the 110 square miles of the strawberry growing region, said Executive Director Dave Moore.

The district bases the amount of water it allows for farmers on historical pumping records going back decades, he said. But most freezes last only a couple of nights.

This run of freezing nights tossed the historical data out the window.

"Frost and freezes have been going on for decades," Moore said. "We need to recognize this is an unprecedented event."

District officials will work with the agriculture community and residents to balance the need for farmers to save their crops while still protecting residents from sinkholes and dry wells, Moore said.

"We'll have a comprehensive review on what needs to be different," he said.

The district could alter its regulations on water permits or start cooperative projects with farmers to reduce water use.

Water-use permits that farmers receive from the water management district require them to provide water to families whose wells go dry and pay for any repairs.

Farmers have 72 hours to get water to the affected residents and 15 days to fix the well or reimburse the homeowner if repairs already have been made. If residents bought bottled water, they should save the receipt to be repaid by farmers.

It took weeks for the groundwater to return to pre-pumping levels in 2009, though the water table has recovered about 15 feet since Monday, Felix said.

Growers are aware of what happens when they pump.

"None of us farmers would want to intentionally do what has occurred. We're doing what we do to protect our crop, and unfortunately what happens underneath the earth is occurring," said grower Carl Grooms.

Plant City Mayor Rick Lott said he doesn't want any "knee-jerk" decisions to be made before all the facts are in.

"The ones who suffer the most are the strawberry farmers, and there are also all the related businesses."

But retiree Eddie Richter, who was raised on a strawberry farm, thinks farmers should find a better way.

"It's not a fair practice," he says. "It's just not right."

Tony Carlisle, whose property across from a strawberry farm sprouted a sinkhole, said things need to change.

"I know the farmers got a lot of money invested in their plants and all that, but there's going to have to be a different way of taking care of the plants than just watering 'cause we have as much right to the water as they do," he said.

Plant City business owner Jerry Lofstrom worries about residents on a fixed income, wondering how they will pay for repairs to their wells or fix sinkholes if they are uninsured.

"What price do we pay for a strawberry?" he asked.

Even those with water and without sinkholes have had to endure annoyances.

School buses are running late in the Plant City area, causing students to wait in the cold. Water supplied by wells at Turkey Creek Middle School and Robinson Elementary stopped flowing earlier in the week but had been restored by Wednesday, district officials said.

Gridlock has annoyed drivers not only on I-4 but also on the local streets to which traffic was diverted.

Fred Davidson, an accident investigator from Pensacola, heard about the lane closures and decided to avoid I-4. His plan backfired.

"I took the GPS to go a different route. It sent me up 574, (Dr.) Martin Luther King (Jr. Boulevard), and actually up North Forbes Road, and lo and behold, there's a pothole or a sinkhole in this road as well."

Jenny Harwell, who lives on U.S. 92, mourned the passing Wednesday of Kitty-Tom, the "great-grandfather" of her cats who was unable to dodge the extra traffic.

"He was a gorgeous thing," she said.

Those with a well problem can call the district's regulation department at (813) 985-7481 or 1-800-484-0499.

The American Red Cross will get water to people in an emergency if residents cannot get water on their own. Call 1-877-741-1444.