Who’ll START the Rain?*

In his West Palm Beat blog, Palm Beach Post political reporter Andrew Abramson has compiled the 20 Greatest “Rain” Songs of All Time (to stop the drought). West Palm Beach badly needs rain to fill Lake Okeechobee. While Abramson writes tongue-in-cheek that he’s heard a lot of people suggest rain dances,  that fact is that if that city’s estimates are accurate, it will run out of water by the end of this month.

That prompted one of our Boynton Beach city commissioners to question the status of our own water supply so that he could address any concerns constituents may have regarding the situation. In his response, City Manager Kurt Bressner said, “We are in good shape. We still could use some rain.”

Bressner went on to explain that Boynton’s water system is derived from using the shallow aquifer that responds fairly quickly to rain, principally via the system of canals operated by the Lake Worth Drainage District and the South Florida Water Management District. The City’s well fields, he said, are aligned in areas that can benefit from increased surficial water in the canals.

He reminded the commissioner that last year the cities of Lake Worth and Lantana over-pumped their shallow wells closer to the Intracoastal Waterway, which increased salt water intrusion. “Once that starts,” he said,”it’s like a salt water river cutting through a fresh water bubble. It is very hard to recover.”

That’s why four years ago Boynton Beach refurbished its east shallow wells to raise the supply (bowl) of the well to a safer area. The City’s ASR, or Aquifer Storage Recovery, wells have been a salvation for the dry areas. The geological formations under Boynton favored the construction of these recovery wells and has made Boynton one of the few cities in Florida that has been able to successfully use this technique.

Bressner credits former Utility Director John Guidry who guided the installation of the first well in 2000 followed by a second well that came on line two years ago. The current utility administration is building on this system by pushing the interconnect between the City’s East and West water plants to provide greater operational flexibility to shift water from the west to the east and vice versa.

While this is good news for Boynton Beach, it should not been taken to mean that we can be wasteful of water. We need to continue to be vigilant and conserve water where we can. And remember, irrigation is still restricted to two times a week: 2X or Fines. Please be considerate of this precious resource. For more information, visit the South Florida Water Management District’s site at www.sfwmd.gov.

Abramson’s pick for best rain song? Bob Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, of course.

*With apologies to Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Posted by Wayne at 1:09 PM 0 comments

Things You Already Knew

Water Is Nature's Appetite Supressor

Doesn’t it make you just go “hmm” when scientists waste time and money studying something you already know to be true or just makes common sense? That happened again last week when the Sun Sentinel reported the results of a study done by researchers at Virginia Tech that concluded that people who drank water before meals ate less during the meal and so lost more weight than other dieters. The lead author of the study said that water probably makes people feel fuller before they eat, limiting food intake.

Huh? We already know water as nature’s appetite suppressant. It contains no calories, fat or cholesterol; is low in sodium; and helps the body to metabolize fat. Other, more meaningful research shows that high water intake reduces the amount of fat deposits in the body.

Water is plentiful, available and cheap and the good news is that it’s as close and convenient as your kitchen sink … or your water-and-ice-in-the-door refrigerator. And, when it comes to long term weight loss and health, the quality of water is just as important as the quantity.

Customers of the City of Boynton Beach water utility enjoy some of the highest quality water in the state of Florida. Last September, the Sun Sentinel ran an article in which it stated Florida is among the 10 worst states for tap water. The article went on to cite high levels of mineral barium and other pollutants, including radium-226, in tap water.

In 1996, the federal government re-enacted the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), which sets the minimum quality standards for municipal drinking water throughout the United States. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the responsibility to set the minimum standards on a national level. Boynton Beach water regularly exceeds those standards in quality and purity. And if you thought bottled water is better, despite the millions of dollars spent annually for advertising by bottled way companies, bottled water, used for drinking for the most part, is considered a food product in this country and is subject to the regulations guiding food stuffs. These regulations are not as stringent as the SDWA requirements for drinking water.

So while you didn’t need a study to tell you what you already knew about the role of water in your diet program, it was good to be reminded about the quality of water we enjoy in Boynton Beach. A dieting tip: For best results on the scale, don’t drink water before your weigh-in. Just a cup of water translates into an extra pound of temporary weight.

Posted by Wayne at 6:09 PM 0 comments