REPORTER: Some days are just unforgettable.

The birth of a child.

Your first day at school.

The day you fell in the giant sinkhole.

Well, at least that last part is the reality for one woman

in Plant City.

CARLA CHAPMAN: It compresses you.

It's hard to-- you can't maneuver out of it.

You're wiggling and you're maneuvering more into it.

EMERSON ROSENTHAL: So we're here in Central Florida to

investigate the problem of massive sinkholes being caused

by groundwater pumping.

Basically, to get fresh water, they've caused all the porous

limestone underneath central Florida to start to cave in

and crack, causing homes, neighborhoods, cars to start

falling into giant holes.

So we're going to get to the bottom of that story and find

out if there are any possible solutions.

Ah.

Holy shit it's cold.

Sinkholes are the result of groundwater pumping, the

process we use to retrieve 80 billion gallons

of water every day.

The process is simple.

Water falls from the sky and sinks down through the ground

to fill aquifers, which are like massive underground

vaults of water.

By drilling into these aquifers, we can pump

freshwater out.

It's cheap and, in theory, a renewable source of drinking

water for this country.

More than half of our water is already produced this way.

Problem is we're using too much of it too fast.

We're draining aquifers faster than they can be replenished,

and it's compromising not only wetlands, lakes, and rivers,

but the structural integrity of Florida's limestone

foundation.

In Florida, where 90 percent of the population relies on

groundwater for drinking, it's no surprise that sinkholes

swallow up new terrain every day.

So we're right outside of Gainesville.

And this house right here has a huge

fucking hole in its backyard.

Looks like it's about 80 yards across, maybe

30, 40 yards deep.

Just a fucking massive hole in the center of the earth.

We spoke to some of the neighbors.

No one wanted to appear on camera, but they did know the

people who lived here.

And it happened in the middle of the night.

They said it sounded like thunder and then suddenly went

outside to find their backyard had caved in.

EMMA KNIGHT: The Floridan aquifer, this is where we have

all the water that's underneath us.

It's kind of like a bank account, where you have a

certain amount of money and you have bills that need to be

paid every month.

And those could be the springs and the rivers, that could be

the uptake that used for plants or trees.

So you have withdrawals from your account, direct

withdrawals, which would be people watering their lawns,

washing their cars, cooling towers from a power plant.

And then there the deposits.

And deposits are almost exclusively from rainfall.

And it's just the percentage of rainfall that manages to

percolate down to get right back into the system.

Right now, we happen to be in a drought and we happen to

have the highest amount of consumptive use

that we've ever had.

And there isn't enough water.

EMERSON ROSENTHAL: So we're trying to reach the family who

lived here previously, , but nobody has gone back to us.

It's super terrifying to know that we're in a neighborhood

where there's a bunch of families and literally, at any

point, shit like this can just open up.

[TED CORELESS]

If you've got a home with a 36 foot hole in the front yard,

under the current definition of what constitutes a

sinkhole, that's not covered.

Because it didn't affect the house.

Now forget about the fact it completely destroys the value

of the home.

The idea was introduced and then ultimately adopted in to

law that required all property insurers who sell insurance in

the state of Florida to provide sinkhole coverage.

When the claims got to an unacceptable level for the

insurance industry, because they felt they were losing

money over that, there was a real legislative push to try

and address the issue by discouraging claims.

I mean, you can see the amount of control that they're

exercising over property rights of people by being able

to change the definition of what constitutes a sinkhole.

JILL HEINERTH: In Florida, we're also over permitting.

We're giving permits for withdrawals of water, water

that we simply don't have.

So permits are being offered to very large industrial

operations, mining, or agriculture in some cases.

It's too much.

We don't have that much water to offer.

And because of that, that's why I see the flow declining

in the springs and slowing down over time.

EMERSON ROSENTHAL: So if groundwater pumping empties

our aquifers and costs homeowners billions in

sinkhole damages, why do we still do it?

Because it's cheap.

With population levels skyrocketing, especially in

Florida, the supply authorities in charge of

drinking water for Tampa Bay and Saint Petersburg have to

find a way to keep the taps flowing.

Tampa Bay water has increased groundwater pumping by 400%

since 1960, extracting 4.2 billion gallons of water each

day from the Floridan aquifer just to keep up.

The first to pay for all this pumping, of course, is the

environment.

Florida springs have been up and rivers are soon

predicted to follow.

JILL HEINERTH: I've seen the quantity of water

disappearing.

I've seen the lifeblood of the planet slow down.

There's less flow coming out of these springs.

And I've seen a continued degrading of the quality of

the water and the springs and rivers.

EMERSON ROSENTHAL: As more and more sinkholes opened up,

Tampa Bay Water was hit with a number of lawsuits from

property owners whose wells had been over-pumped.

They decided to try their hand at making ocean water

drinkable, so they proposed the largest desalination plant

in the Western Hemisphere, a notoriously expensive solution

Tampa's citizens weren't exactly stoked about.

Despite the amount of energy required, the Tampa Bay

desalination plant was eventually approved and today

provides around 10% of the region's drinking water.

CHUCK CARDEN: 15 years ago this region was

suffering some drought.

Looking for water sources other than groundwater, this

was an alternative that we chose.

There was a bunch of projects we call alternative sources

that were looked at.

River waters, building reservoirs, building a

desalinization plant.

We had engineers study it and found out it was

possible with the cost.

EMERSON ROSENTHAL: And this was the most cost effective?

CHUCK CARDEN: It wasn't the most cost effective, but it

was most drought-proof.

EMERSON ROSENTHAL: Can you give us information on how

much money it takes to keep a place like running?

CHUCK CARDEN: I will use the rule of thumb.

The plant is a 25 million gallons a day plant.

To run it, 25 million gallons a day, on a 365 days, it would

be about $20 million in operations.

EMERSON ROSENTHAL: So why, in particular, is

this the most expensive?

CHUCK CARDEN: It's all because of the power and to some

degree the chemicals.

But the power is close to 50% of the operating cost.

Just to keep the lights and the pumps running, there's a

lot of horsepower.

It is more expensive than any other sources, and it's more

complicated than treating groundwater.

But when it gets down to you don't have any water, it's a

very viable solution.

You need to go to the hospital and the only vehicle you have

is an SUV, you'll get in that SUV.

And it's the best way to get in there.

JILL HEINERTH: The bottom line with drinking water is that

when you use groundwater--

Let's just say it costs a penny.

If you start withdrawing water from a surface water body, a

lake, a river, and have to clean that deliver it to the

public, that costs $0.10.

If you have to desalinate the same quantity of water, it

costs a dollar.

EMMA KNIGHT: There's springs that are drying up all over

the state of Florida.

Flow is down at all of the springs.

What do we have to do to keep everything from falling apart?

[MUSIC- STEPHEN FOSTER, "OLD FOLKS AT HOME"

EMERSON ROSENTHAL: The unfortunate reality is that

we're already feeling the pressures of a freshwater

shortage in Florida.

Houses are falling into sinkholes, springs are drying

up, and homeowners will continue getting screwed by

insurance companies, unless someone's

able to find a solution.

The question really is whether or not Florida will be able to

pull itself together before everybody ends up sitting in

the sinkholes in their backyards, drinking

desalinated ocean water out of Dixie cups.

MALE SPEAKER 1: No one has a right to the water.

MALE SPEAKER 2: It's always been somebody

trying to steal or water.

Don't take my water.

I depend on it for my livelihood.

MALE SPEAKER 3: It's the north versus south.

It's the war of water in California.

It's been going on since the Gold Rush.

And it's continuing to this day.