Dear Editor,
Santa Rosa County Commissioners and Legislators need to wake up. Florida recently awarded $19 million in state loan funding to assist drinking water systems throughout Florida. County residents typically rely on in-home reverse osmosis systems (expensive to purchase and maintain) or bottled water (an environmental nightmare because each bottle takes more water to produce than it contains) to get safe drinking water that does not taste like it is mixed with chlorine, which of course it is. The mineral and iron content of Santa Rosa’s county water is unnerving and should be addressed.
The funding comes from grants and loans offered at a below-market rate and are designed to provide a dependable, healthy water supply for Florida residents. The Department of Environmental Protection has $169 million available for fiscal year 2015-16 so if our county commissioners and legislators act swiftly, the chances of garnering funding required to update and safeguard the county water systems appears to be great.
This information is found on Florida’s EPA website in the article titled, ‘Nearly $19 Million in State Loan Funding Awarded to Assist Drinking Water Systems’ and posted on October 27, 2015. The program complies with the federal Safe Drinking Water Act.
James Coats
Navarre
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Santa Rosa County water content unnerving