There were long lines to board airboats to see alligators and turtles in the wild at Everglades Holiday Park on Thursday. The water is low because of the unrelenting drought gripping South Florida.
“We could see the roots of the trees and dirt. The water is low, but it was beautiful,” Lexi Frank said, as she got back from her airboat ride.
The South Florida Water Management District said Thursday there’s no change in the water shortage warning for Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, and everyone should try to conserve.
The Florida Forestry Division tells CBS Miami that there is a high risk of wildfires in the Everglades, similar to what happened last August when nearly 50 thousand acres burned in the mile marker 39 fire.
“Everything is dry, it’s crackling. You can see the grass is brown. This is the second year of drought,” said Trevor Fell, who is the Parks Superintendent in Broward County
He also says the South Florida Water Management District is pumping water into the canals, so the airboat operations aren’t affected right now.
Even though Broward is NOT included in the SFWMD water shortage warning, they feel the effects.
“When plants suffer, animals suffer. The grass goes away,” Fell said.
It all points to low water levels in the underground Biscayne Aquifer – that porous limestone – that is our primary source of drinking water.
Water flows north to south and is filtered before it ends up in the aquifer.
The only answer to raising the levels in the aquifer is rain.
“We need a ten-inch rain phenomenon for that to happen,” said Fell
