Senft Tackles Water Issues Facing Polk as Part of Agency Board

HAINES CITY | The answer to solving the water problems faced by Polk County is probably going to come from ideas that have not been thought of yet, according to the county's newest member of the Southwest Florida Water Management District's governing board.

"We've got to be creative," Paul Senft said recently. "We've got to think out of the box."

Some of those ideas could be far-fetched, the former Polk County commissioner acknowledged, like searching for a way to capture the humidity that Florida is so well-known for and squeezing the water out of the air.

"Of course, then we'd probably find out it would have some environmental impact we don't know about," he said and laughed.

But the solutions could also be something as logical as pumping in desalinated water from the Gulf Coast.

The point Senft was making in a recent interview is that old solutions are not going to solve the problems that have come about because of years of unfettered growth. That growth has put more and more stress on water resources throughout the state. Finding those solutions is one of the biggest challenges facing the state and its five water management districts. It is the opportunity to deal with that challenge that drew Senft to the job with the agency that manages the water quantity and quality in 16 counties, including Polk.

"I asked for it," he said when asked how he got the appointment to the board by Gov. Charlie Crist earlier this year. "It was something I wanted to do."

Last year, the state Legislature increased the number of members on the board from 11 to 13, and mandated that one of those two new members should come from Polk County, which had only one representative before.

Senft said it made good sense for Polk County to get one of the additional seats.

"We are the headwaters for several rivers that service this area," he said. "A higher level of stewardship is expected of us."

The county has not always had the same definition as the water district of what that stewardship means.

In 2002, the water management district, also known as Swiftmud, threatened the county with more than $500,000 in fines for pumping more water than its permits allowed - with much of the extra water being used to answer the needs of the Four Corners region of the county, where growth was among the heaviest in the state.

"We had not earned the respect of our fellow counties," Senft said.

The threat of fines by Swiftmud served as a wake-up call, however, and the county began to take steps to meet the mandates ordered by the water district.

That included instituting a water-conservation program and putting Four Corners residents under the most severe lawn-watering restrictions in the state.

The county also brought on board professional water resource experts to put into place new programs for dealing with county water management issues.

"That had never been done before," Senft said. "We, for the first time, made promises to the water management district and kept our word."

In fact, he was on the County Commission when many of those changes were made.

Appointed to the commission in 2003 following the death of first-term Commissioner Charles Richardson and winning an election in 2004 to finish Richardson's term, Senft decided in 2006 not to seek re-election.

But his experiences while serving as 4th District commissioner proved to be a good education on local water problems.

"I got seriously interested while I was on the County Commission, and saw the mistakes that had been made and how far we had gotten behind in Northeast Polk," he said. "I had contributed as a commissioner in us getting out from under (Swiftmud's) consent order."

In October 2005, Swiftmud's board waived the fines in response to the commissioner's water conservation and education efforts. The major challenge for Swiftmud - and all of the state's other water management districts - is to find alternative water sources.

For Central Florida, that means taking some of the strain off the Floridan Aquifer that provides water for the area.

Senft said a test well drilled in Four Corners near Berry Town Center found water at the 2,500-foot level - far below the upper aquifer - that could be one of those sources.

"The report has just come in that shows the water that was found is good-quality water," he said.

That, he said, could mean that when the five-year agreement to get water from the Toho Water Authority in Osceola County ends in 2012, the deep well could serve to fill the gap.

Meanwhile, Senft said he is enjoying his new job, which is an unpaid, volunteer position. His term lasts four years.

"It's less stressful than being on the County Commission was," he said.

The water board meets once a month and deals with one issue: the management of water resources.

The retired insurance executive has been active in the state's Republican Party for decades and lives in Haines City, where he is now the city's director of economic development. Senft officially took his position on the water district's board March 7.

[ Mike Grogan can be reached at Mike.Grogan@theledger.com or at 863-421-5811. ]