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Central Florida governments, Deseret Ranch fight over reservoir's water

Orlando Sentinel – July 15, 2011

Deseret Ranches, one of the nation’s biggest producers of beef cattle, is expanding into the farming of potatoes, corn, black beans and cucumbers in a big way.

What makes the new harvests possible are giant, rolling sprinklers that shower a thousand acres of row crops in north Osceola County with some of the most sought-after water in Central Florida.

That water comes from Taylor Creek Reservoir, which is on ranch property but also coveted by the cities of Orlando, Cocoa and Titusville and Orange and Osceola counties for meeting the demands of new development and the thirst of growing populations.

Hidden in rural, east Orange and Osceola counties, the reservoir has become the prize in a rising competition between what people can grow and eat now and where they may want to live in the future — between Deseret spuds sliced into chips at a Frito-Lay Inc. plant in Orlando and suburban homes in Central Florida that may or may not be built anytime soon.

“We are very concerned about water being exported off our property,” ranch manager Erik Jacobsen said. “It’s a use-it-or-lose-it situation.”

Last week, the St. Johns River Water Management District approved a permit allowing Deseret Ranches to pump an average of nearly 2 million gallons daily from the reservoir to irrigate crops. That’s as much water as some small cities use each day.

A lawyer for Orange County unsuccessfully pressed district officials to delay their decision on the permit, arguing that it could undermine the county’s attempt to tap the reservoir for tens of millions of gallons of water a day. County officials are considering an appeal of the Deseret permit.

“This is just one of many situations I see developing statewide that may turn into nasty battles,” said Richard Budell, director of the Florida Office of Agricultural Water Policy.

The 290,000-acre Deseret Ranches, a close neighbor of Orlando’s that covers nearly 1 percent of Florida’s landmass, has also shown an interest in carving off some of its acreage for construction of homes. Ranch managers stress, however, that food production will remain the 59-year-old Deseret’s core mission.

They hope to expand the new irrigation permit next year to 8 million gallons of water daily, which would allow them to nearly triple the planting of everything from potatoes to carrots.

Modern irrigation involves a rolling sprinkler system that uses an arm a quarter-mile long to toss out blobs of water fatter than raindrops to lessen evaporation. Like the minute hand on a clock, the arm sweeps around a circular field, spreading water over 160 acres.

It costs more than $300,000 to install an irrigation system with buried drainage pipes in each field, and nearly $500,000 to plant and raise a single crop on each field.

Deseret has six fields now and plans to develop 10 more in the next five years.

This year’s harvest produced 20 tons an acre of “excellent” potatoes bound for the local Frito-Lay plant, Jacobsen said.

Orlando Utilities Commission Vice President Rob Teegarden said he isn’t opposed to some lake water being diverted for crop irrigation.

“The volumes seem OK now,” Teegarden said. “Long term, Taylor Creek Reservoir is also going to be a public-water supply.”

Deseret Ranches, which straddles Orange, Osceola and Brevard counties, was assembled in the 1950s through land purchases by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — the Mormon Church.

The ranch today has 44,000 cows and 1,500 acres of citrus groves; it also harvests timber, mines rock for road building and leases hunting tracts to 43 clubs. Last year, it was a finalist for the prestigious National Environmental Stewardship Award sponsored by private industry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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