Thanks to Stacie Greco for her years of work to help protect the Santa Fe River. She has been a driving force in a local government agency for fixing our water problems. She has been a bright light in the darkness that is Florida government when it comes to natural water resources.
Her Santa Fe River Springs Protection Forums for years have been extremely popular. The second part of the Forum usually has a field trip to points of interest for environmentalists and if it is a limited number for the group, they always fill up.
Quotes from the article below:
We are pumping too much groundwater from the aquifer
voluntary programs alone will not save our springs.
If the state does not have the will to implement these and other necessary changes, the Legislature and water management districts need to remove the pre-emptions that prevent local governments from taking necessary actions to protect our water.
It is folly to expect that the DEP and WMDs will fix our water problems. Under their care for decades now, our springs and rivers constantly flow less and have become more polluted.
Read the original article with photos in the Gainesville Sun. They do not provide a link to this article, which is part of the series Messages From the Springs Heartland.
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
Reducing Sprinklers Essential to Protect the Springs
Stacie Greco Guest columnist
Sunday, January 16, 2022
We are pumping too much groundwater from the aquifer that supports our region’s rivers, springs, human life and economy.
Residential and urban water use is the largest use in the region (49% of 2015 groundwater use), with sprinkler systems representing almost 60% of residential water use. Agriculture is the second largest use in the region and is estimated at 28% of the 2015 groundwater use in the area of the lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee rivers and their associated springs.
While local governments do not have tools to influence agriculture, they play an important role in urban development.
The Alachua County Environmental Protection Department has been working to change how we expect our urban landscapes to look so that we can shift away from irrigated and fertilized yards that can harm our springs. Alachua County has the most protective fertilizer ordinance in the state (which limits the use of nitrogen to the months of March through June), a Florida Friendly Landscaping code to assist homeowners wanting to make springs-friendly changes in their landscapes and aggressive landscape irrigation rules aimed at reducing outdoor water use. Residential and urban water use is the largest use in the region (49% of 2015 groundwater use), with sprinkler systems representing almost 60% of residential water use.
Locally, we are exploring ways to minimize permanent irrigation, which results in millions of gallons of wasted water each year. Currently, property owners are allowed to irrigate their landscapes (usually turf) twice a week for most of the year and once a week during the cooler winter months. We need to limit irrigation to once a week year-round, as has been done in some parts of South Florida; doing so will save millions of gallons of water each year and will eliminate confusion with setting irrigation timers.
We also need to prohibit the installation of irrigation wells that contribute to over-watering and uncertainty in our water use data. We need to move away from having permanent irrigation systems installed with each new home constructed.
If the state does not have the will to implement these and other necessary changes, the Legislature and water management districts need to remove the pre-emptions that prevent local governments from taking necessary actions to protect our water.
Detailed information about the Santa Fe and Ichetucknee MFLs can be found at https://www.mysuwanneeriver. com/118/Santa-Fe-River. Public comments about the MFLs are accepted via MFL@SRWMD.org.
To learn more about how you can reduce your own water use, visit My-YardOurWater.org.
Stacie Greco is the water resources program manager at the Alachua County Environmental Protection Department, where she has worked to protect our water for 18 years.
