Florida Is Slow to See the Need to Save Water

Even as a drought and unprecedented water restrictions strip many Florida lawns of their lushness, Mark Harding has few takers for the artificial grass he sells from a showroom here. Inquiries are up, he said, but swapping turf for less thirsty alternatives remains hard for Floridians to get their heads around.

“People are just starting to look at it,” said Mr. Harding, a transplant from Buffalo who admits to having replaced only a piece of his own lawn with the fake stuff. “It’s right in its infancy stage.”

The same might be said for awareness that Florida’s water supply, seemingly endless given the abundance of springs, lakes, canals, aquifers and rainfall, is not.

Many regions have all but depleted their groundwater supply, yet they have barely begun planning new water sources or enforcing conservation measures. Meanwhile, residential water bills in Florida’s urban areas — averaging $32 a month in Miami, for example — have remained much lower than those in many other cities.

“We now face the scarcity, the spending and the spectacle that used to be unique to the arid West,” said Cynthia Barnett, the author of “Mirage: Florida and the Vanishing Water of the Eastern U.S.” But Ms. Barnett and others who study Florida’s water use say that unlike out West, a sense of urgency has not taken hold here, nor have government agencies taken the politically thorny steps some scientists say are necessary.

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