Florida’s Water Supply Conflict: Competition Between the Environment and Human Use

By Jake Phillips '27

---

The old saying, “Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting,” still feels relevant in Florida today. As Florida’s population grows and environmental restoration efforts continue, people, businesses, agriculture, and the environment are increasingly competing for a limited water supply. That tension raises an important legal and policy question: whether Florida’s current water law is equipped to balance these competing demands.

The Model Water Code: The Early Start to Florida’s Water Law

Florida’s water law got its start at the University of Florida. When University of Florida’s Law School Dean, Frank Maloney, drafted the 1972 Model Water Code, the stage was set for what would become the backbone of water law for decades to come. (1)

The Florida Legislature adopted UF’s Model Water Code, creating Florida’s Water Resources Law, which was codified in Chapter 373 of the Florida Statutes. (2) The Model Water Code combined aspects of western prior appropriation law with eastern riparian rights law. (3) Prior appropriation law is akin to a property right: it benefits those who first used the water and provides greater certainty that access to that water will not be taken away. (4, 5) In comparison, eastern water law or riparian water law distributes the water among those users that live near or riparian to the water body. All property owners can use the water, but the use must be “reasonable,” and there is less certainty regarding how much water is available. (6, 7)  

Florida’s Water Use Permits and the Reasonable-Beneficial Test 

Today, the State of Florida issues water use permits by applying the laws in Chapter 373, F.S., and the rules adopted by the agencies to implement the statute. Water-use permits in Florida govern many aspects of our daily lives. Water use permits allow municipalities to deliver the water coming out of our tap at home, provide water used to grow the local vegetables we buy at our grocery store, and the water that irrigates our golf courses, parks and the landscaping in many subdivisions. These permits are issued to agriculture, nurseries, golf courses, businesses, subdivisions for landscaping irrigation, and municipalities for our public water supply. The South Florida Water Management District’s 2026–2029 Water Supply Planning Document explains how these permits are used throughout the state. (8)

To obtain a water use permit, an applicant must meet the so-called “three-part test” in Section 373.223, Florida Statutes. The test requires that an applicant demonstrate that the use is a “reasonable-beneficial use,” as defined in Section 373.019, F.S., that the use will “not interfere” with any other permitted users of water, and that the use is “consistent with the public interest.” (9)

The Model Water Code combined eastern reasonable use and western beneficial use to create Florida’s “reasonable-beneficial” standard, which became the basis for the state’s water use permitting system. A “reasonable-beneficial use” is a legal term of art and is defined as “the use of water in such quantity as is necessary for economic and efficient utilization for a purpose and in a manner which is both reasonable and consistent with the public interest.” (10) 

In Florida, a property owner is granted some assurance that water will be available for the duration of the permit, though not forever. (11) While one has a permit, they can be assured that their water cannot be taken away by another person’s use of the water. The three-part test also contains a public interest requirement, including the interests of the public at large and the environment. (12) 

Comprehensive Environmental Restoration Plan: The Competition for Water Begins

Since the Legislature adopted The Water Resources Act of 1972 in Chapter 373, Florida has added other laws and programs aimed at environmental restoration. The most notable environmental restoration initiative is the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program (“CERP”), which Congress authorized through the Water Resources Development Act of 2000. (13) CERP was signed into law by President Clinton on December 11, 2000. Since then, Florida and the federal government have worked to restore the Everglades through projects aimed at wetland restoration, water conservation, and flood reduction. Twenty-six years later, meaningful progress has been made toward restoration. However, as time passes and Florida continues to grow, the future of CERP projects becomes more uncertain, and water becomes more limited. (14)

The effort to restore the Everglades has made one thing clear. Stakeholders are now competing over a finite water supply. CERP was intended to improve and restore Florida’s ecosystems, but it has also intensified competition over the state’s limited water supply. As demand for water increases with population growth, the tension between water for communities and water for the environment is becoming harder to ignore.

A Solution for the Future 

We all want clean water and Everglades restoration. We also want economic prosperity and growth; goals which should not be mutually exclusive. CERP did not intend to stop growth and Dean Maloney’s Water Code encouraged balancing economic needs with the public’s interest. A more comprehensive approach to both may be needed. Perhaps it is time for a reset or an update to the Model Water Code to account for human and environmental water needs, ensuring both are protected and both can thrive. One approach could include recrafting the water permitting system to include stronger protections for a permit holder and clearer legislation for how water gets allocated between users and the environment. This balanced approach could help reduce stakeholder competition, ultimately easing the fight over Florida’s limited water supply.

Endnotes

1. Frank E. Maloney et al., A Model Water Code with Commentary (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1972).

2. Fla. Stat. ch. 373 (2025).

3. Christine A. Klein, Mary Jane Angelo, and Richard Hamann, “Modernizing Water Law: The Example of Florida,” Florida Law Review 61 (2009): 403.

4. Maloney et al., supra note 1.

5. Klein, Angelo, and Hamann, supra note 3.

6. Maloney et al., supra note 1.

7. Klein, Angelo, and Hamann, supra note 3.

8. South Florida Water Management District, 2026–2029 Water Supply Planning Document: Support Document (January 2026).

9. Fla. Stat. ch. 373 (2025).

10. Ibid.

11. Ibid.

12. Ibid.

13. Water Resources Development Act of 2000, Pub. L. No. 106-541, § 601, 114 Stat. 2572 (2000).

14. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades: The Tenth Biennial Review (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2024).