The DEP Rules Workshop meeting in Gainesville was a one-sided show. The room was packed and it was a partisan group with no debate and the common theme heard over and over was a message to the DEP: “do your job!”
People drove from St. Pete, Tallahassee, Tampa, Brooksville, Jacksonville, Orlando and yes, High Springs. And these are just the cities I know of.
It was mostly a meeting to rant, as the DEP spoke for about 15 minutes and then nearly one and one half hours of the public comment by several dozen people, all criticizing the DEP.
With reason the public is sick and tired of paying for this useless agency, which has had over seven years to comply with a statute-mandated requirement to save our springs and still is dancing around and making absurd noises without doing its duty.
Each year our springs and rivers decline more and more and the DEP and the water agencies do nothing to reverse this. They go through an elaborate act of pretense but little gets done, and that is the way they plan it.
OSFR was well represented with several members in attendance, several of whom spoke.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
Anna Eskamani, our leader in Tallahassee Merrillee, water legend of OSFR & North FL Ryan Smart, the brains behind FSC
Jake Varn who wrote many water laws Michael McGrath, Sierra Club John Quarterman, Suwannee River Waterkeeper
OSFR President Joanne Tremblay Alachua Commissioner Anna Prizzia Sara Younger Sierra Club
Bob Ulanowicz FSI Haley Busch, 1000 Friends of Florida Maxine Connor, League of Women Voters
Evonne Quirolo, Sierra Club Burt Rainbow River Conservation Dan Hilliard
Michelle C0leson, Mermaid Mitchi Hailey Hall
