February 25, 2022 

Editors: 

As Mayor of the City of West Palm Beach, I continually prioritize the sustainability and resilience of our environment. From the words delivered at my recent State of the City Address to the actions of my Staff, emphasis on maintaining our environmental sustainability and resilience is part of what places the City of West Palm Beach among the Top 100 Best Places to Live by Livability.com. As a City that has flourished in the midst of a global pandemic, I do not hesitate to do everything I can as Mayor of this City to protect and secure our most precious natural resource-our drinking water.
 
The City of West Palm Beach strongly supports Senate Bill 2508 because that legislation secures an ample supply of safe drinking water for the nearly 130,000 consumers of our water ­-residents, businesses, and visitors to West Palm Beach and the Towns of Palm Beach and South Palm Beach. My efforts to safeguard our future water supply directly benefit both our environment and our community. My efforts to preserve our future water supply are consistent with the actions of Henry Flagler to establish Grassy Waters as a sustainable source of water for West Palm Beach and Palm Beach. Grassy Waters and our system of lakes around Downtown are sourced by Lake Okeechobee. With time and technology, our City has upgraded our physical infrastructure to carry clean and consumable water to homes and businesses. Climate change in South Florida also justifies my efforts to protect our access to water as our City and region continue to grow with the influx of new neighbors and the revitalization of existing neighborhoods. 

Most of us recall 2011 when our City and the Towns of Palm Beach and South Palm Beach were in crisis and only 22 days away from running out of water. West Palm Beach worked quickly and creatively with the South Florida Water Management District to activate an emergency-only solution and has since implemented more advanced drought resilience measures. But that drought was caused by Mother Nature. That is the key difference with Senate Bill 2508 where we as constituents, consumers and leaders should lend our support to the basic need of ensuring the supply of our water for our daily lives and our economies. Failing to support this important legislative and bi-partisan action would jeopardize our access to a reliable and predictable source of water. We cannot and should not take that chance. As the Mayor of this City, I must do everything humanly possible to protect the supply of water for the residents, businesses, and visitors of West Palm Beach, Palm Beach and South Palm Beach. I proudly continue the legacy and foresight of my Mayoral predecessors and the founders of this City in securing a safe and plentiful water supply for the City of West Palm Beach. Protecting water is essential to our future. SB 2508 ensures that. 

Sincerely,

Keith James, Mayor
City of West Palm Beach