By Michael Mitseff
Lake City Reporter
04/13/08

Florida’s springs and rivers are in trouble.

Invasive and non-indigenous plants are invading the state’s springs and rivers, fed by nearly 300 tons of nitrates from leaking septic systems and runoff from the excessive use of lawn fertilizers, according to experts.

For more than a decade, concerned citizens have banded together in an attempt to get legislation passed that would help protect Florida’s springs and rivers before the life within them disappears — and along with it, much of our quality drinking water.

Each attempt at a legislative solution has been thwarted by lobbyists for two powerful groups, developers and agricultural interests.

In an attempt to turn the tide, Sen. Burt Saunders, R-Naples, this year introduced a bill to do just that — protect a few of Florida’s springs — and hopefully generate awareness that would lead to the protection of other endangered freshwater treasures.

Saunders, chairman of the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee, favors a pilot program that targets only two of Florida’s 33 first magnitude springs. First magnitude springs are springs that produce more than 64 million gallons of freshwater daily. The state is home to more than 700 total springs.

Saunders’ bill would focus on Silver Springs near Ocala and Rainbow Springs near Dunnellon, both in Marion County. The bill creates a task force that would work to formulate a successful process for springs protection that could be replicated

throughout the state.

“The reason I picked Marion County is because they have made a major effort to protect the springs within their county,” Saunders said. “I was trying to find a way to assist them legislatively in their efforts.”

Some oppose the bill because it sets a minimum nitrate level in the springs and this could cost builders money by forcing them to switch to a more expensive septic tank that reduces the amount of nitrates that seep into the ground and eventually into the aquifer.

“The Saunders bill would turn rule-making authority over to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and allow the agency to go to the other springs. It’s concerning to me because we need to have a balance,” said Rep. Will Kendrick, D-Carrabelle.

“I’m not comfortable with our springs in the hands of a regulatory agency with little communication with the agriculture community.”

However, in an attempt to get a springs protection bill through the legislature this year, Rep. Debbie Boyd, D-Newberry, has filed HB 31 that she believes would at least get the process moving in the right direction.

Boyd’s bill also would create a nine-member task force to collect and inventory all existing data from past task forces and other groups and also to compile a list of existing best management practices to help protect the springs.

“When addressing land-use regulations, it should be based on good science,” Boyd said.

Many believe that good science already exists.

“Whatever plan comes up, agriculture and developers will oppose it,” said Jim Stevenson, coordinator of the Ichetucknee Springs Basin Working Group.

“They’ve been involved in opposing previous bills.”

Stevenson said in 1999, a Florida springs task force was organized by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

“I chaired that task force, and our task at that time was to determine the status of Florida’s springs and recommend action for the protection of those springs,” he said. “We came out with a report in 2000 that included 100 recommendations. It was a very productive task force.”

Stevenson said that the action taken on many of those recommendations are still with us today.

“We did a lot of educational projects, the DOT (Department of Transportation) put up Ichetucknee springs basin signs along roadways, and printed educational brochures such as ‘Let’s protect Ichetucknee Springs.’ We had a video produced called ‘Water’s Journey, Hidden Rivers’ and put up outdoor exhibits at Alligator Lake, Cannon Sink and Rose Sink,” he said.

In addition to those projects, which represent a small example of the work that was accomplished from 1999 to today, nitrogen-reducing septic tanks are now replacing the older, nitrate leaking septic tanks within Ichetucknee Park.

Legislative solutions have eluded voters in the past, but Boyd believes her bill has a good chance of passing this year.

“For several years we’ve tried to help Rep. Boyd and before her, Dwight Stansel, with springs protection legislation,” Kendrick said from Tallahassee, where the legislature is currently in session.

“I don’t see any reason why Boyd’s bill wouldn’t pass.”

In recent years, the public’s mood has changed and support is growing for springs protection within the state as evidenced by local groups committed to keeping Florida’s drinking water clean.

“There is a feeling that none of these bills have much teeth, and we’re not quite sure that we will have springs protection,” said Fort White’s Loye Barnard, a board member of Save Our Suwannee. “Opposition will be hard to overcome. The best management practices for agriculture are self-regulating, but a lot of farmers are realizing the importance of protecting the springs and aquifer.”

Other groups feel let down that a springs protection bill has never become law.

“My feeling is as far as the task force is concerned, that we’re going to study the springs to death — it’s time to take action,” said Carolyn Baker, a member of Our Santa Fe River environmental group.

“Everybody really likes the idea of springs protection, but when you start picking on the worst polluters, that’s when the fear factor comes in, and the bill usually dies,” said Annette Long, president of Save Our Suwannee. “Every bill that I have followed has failed to make it out of committee.”

The protection of Florida’s springs should continue to garner support from its residents as long as there are groups willing to show up at meetings and ask the tough questions.

“Instead of studying the springs some more — we know what the problems are for at least five or six of those 33 springs from previous studies — let’s stop the bleeding and save Florida’s springs,” Long said.

Nothing less than the future of Florida’s drinking water is at stake according to the organizations who have taken it upon themselves to be the watchdog of our environment.

“In formulating this bill everyone had input and it was recognized that it was a humble beginning, a first step that will look at both regulatory and non-regulatory methods to help protect the springs in Florida,” Boyd said, as she explained the details.
 

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