News

Be Informed.

Member Portal

Campaign to Stop Lily Springs Withdrawal Permit

Lily Letter Writing Campaign to

David Still, Executive Director

of Suwannee River Water Management District

Help us STOP a water bottling facility at Lily Springs on CR 340 in northern Gilchrist County.

This is a request to our 450+/- member e-mail list to write and/or encourage others to write a personal letter (put a stamp on it and drop it in the mail, this is very important) to
David Still, Executive Director of SRWMD
to deny a WUP permit for water bottling purposes at Lily Springs on CR 340 (Poe Springs Road) in Gilchrist County, in a residential/agricultural zoned area with recreational advantages.

Lily Springs is on 10 acres owned by 2 men, John A. Barley and Richard E. Corbin.
Ed Watts, is the resident squatter and nudist (he has become somewhat of a tourist curiosity).
The Barley and Corbin also own 3.5 acres, near Lily Springs, that borders CR 340 and the northside of Poe Springs Park.  It is at this location the facility is planned.  The site address is 8962 NE County Road 340, High Springs, FL.

Their plan is to build a withdrawal, storage, pumpage and loading station for spring water.  The plan is to put 4 wells into the ground at this location and extract up to 1 million gallons a day for a 20 year permit.  That is to say 365,000,000 million gallons a year by running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year for 20 years.

Even if they start their facility with a proposed 200,000 gallons a day, we maintain that this will do harm to the water systems that feed vulnerable Lily Springs, which often backflows.  AND…this will certainly have an impact to the existing residents and future residents in this rural/residential neighborhood.

The facility will also rely on heavy vehicles to ship it out.  Out of the area and elsewhere, depleting our water resource, one vehicle at a time.

With SB 2080 enforced at the moment…once Lily has their required permit application finished, the District will ONLY have 45 days to review and make a decision to “approve” or “deny”.  The District required Barley/Corbin to complete the RAI (District requested more information) by May 15, he had 90 days to finish and most likely will file for an extension.

It is crucial that we move on the letters in a timely manner (do it now!).  This is a whole new approach for us.  New law 2080 was designed for expediency by developers.  IF (and hopefully when) the District denies the permit…it then goes in front the Governing Board for a vote.  At this time, we will ask you to come to the Board and fill out a card and speak, during a scheduled monthly Board meeting.  Here, the Board will listen to public and have their own comments about the WUP for water bottling.

The District employs the “3 prong test” to decide the Lily permit, and all WUP/CUP permits.
1.  Is the nature of proposed use reasonable and beneficial?
2.  Is the use consistent with the public interest?
3.  Will it’s use adversely impact existing users?

You may wish to use the question’s above as a springboard to write your letters.  It is safe to say the letters will be included in the file and used as evidence if need be for the 3 prong test.
Please include the permit # in any correspondence exchange, # WUP 09-0017.

Address your envelopes like this:

Suwannee River Water Management District
David Still, Executive Director
9225 County Road 49
Live Oak, FL  32060
attention: permit  WUP 09-0017

And please include your name, address and phone number in any correspondence to the District.

All previous efforts OSFR made on Lily Springs WUP will be disregarded as the permit has a completely new number (# WUP 09-0017) and new site location.
Please read up on it if you have time.
Tell any neighbors that actually live near Lily Springs to register as an affected party with SRWMD staff member, Linda Welch, welch_l@srwmd.state.fl.us, to get electronic updates on the Lily Springs bottled water permit.

Sincerely,
Our Santa Fe River, Inc.
Board Members
Merrillee Malwitz-Jipson, president
Steve Baker, vice president
Russ Augspurg, treasurer
Cathy Street, secretary
Martha Strawn
Daniel Garceau

You might be interested in …

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Skip to content