| Following is the notice from DEP about the drawdown. Before that , though, is a message from Karen Chadwick regarding the importance of this meeting:
From: Karen Chadwick <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, September 5, 2019 12:00 PM
To: Karen Chadwick <[email protected]>
Subject: Sept 17 drawdown meeting
The public Rodman drawdown meeting with Greenways managers, FWC/FDEP etc. is September 17th at Ravine Gardens State Park from 6-8pm. This is your chance to tell them you want the drawdown to proceed and tell them you would like for the Ocklawaha River to be restored as the state plan has recommended for decades rather than continue status quo management. One of the planned projects during the next drawdown is to replace the Camp Branch culvert because it is rusted and crumbling and manatees keep getting stuck in it. The latest estimate is around $200,000.00 for this project that would need to be removed when the Ocklawaha River is restored which will give free passage to manatees and fish populations. Last year (2018) just under $300,000.00 was spent to remove floating logs from the dam and berm, which are piled up again and over $40,000.00 was spent on herbicide applications. Let’s stop spending money on unnecessary projects and applying so many chemicals to the waterway and follow through on the recommended restoration plan.
Please attend if at all possible. We don’t get a chance like this very often. Thanks.
See attached photo of floating vegetation in the canal under the hwy 19 bridge getting sprayed with herbicides. According to the FWC officer in this area the canal was sprayed at least 4 times in 2018.
Karen Chadwick
Ravine Gardens
1600 Twigg St.
Palatka FL 32177
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
-A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back-
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