SRWMD Board Hears Words of Truth

The Suwannee River Water Management District aboard members heard words of truth and wisdom today, May 4, 2019 at the Live Oak monthly board meeting. No battles were won, but perhaps seeds were planted.

The tone was set  by Lu Merritt, speaking for the Ichetucknee Alliance,  during the first public comments, as she delivered a powerful message about our water problems which are not being addressed by our water leaders.  This message will be published here with her permission in a future post.

She continued by addressing an important item on the agenda, which was approval of a New Water Use Permit authorizing 0.462  million gallons per day (mgd) for land owner Erik Parker of Gainesville.  Dr. Bob Knight of Florida Springs Institute, High Springs, had requested of Lu that, in his absence, she pass the following message to the Water Board:

This gentleman “farmer” lives in Gainesville and leases his various land holdings throughout the county for intensive row crops dependent on center-pivot irrigation. He already holds three permits (see attached) for a combined allowable water use of more than 860 thousand gallons per day of groundwater from the Floridan Aquifer. Today the District plans to add another 0.146 mgd 20-year permit to this handful of free water.

To put this into perspective for the Governing Board this fourth permit gives a private individual the right to extract about 1.0 mgd or 368 million gallons of the public’s imperiled groundwater per year for a total of nearly 7.4 billion gallons over the life of the permits. For a resident in Gainesville this amount of water would cost about $44 million. For a water bottler this amount of water is worth over a billion dollars.

Politely but firmly please let the board know that they are supposed to be protecting the public welfare and not enriching individuals at the expense of everyone else

The above was spoken at the beginning of the meeting under Public Comments.  Near the end of the session, the agenda item for the permit came up and OSFR President Mike Roth spoke at length on the issue and gave many reasons why the Santa Fe, listed as “impaired” and not close to restoration, should continue to be abused by over-pumping.

As he finished his messages, he was questioned by board members who revealed  a genuine and startling naivete about the principal issues.

During the discussion that ensued, the board was faced by passionate water defenders Mike Roth, Lu Merritt, Jim Tatum, John Quarterman and Mike Kern.

Example:  “the springs are flowing just fine.”  This was countered soon after when one of our group stated that the springs are flowing about 30% less than they did during pre-AG times. Another said the springs are smothered in algae from nitrates.

Another board member expressed incredulity to the statement that agriculture pollutes.  Two of our group refuted this .  Another board member insisted that not agriculture but septics are the main culprit for nitrate pollution in rural North Florida.

Another board member gave his favorite spiel about how much money the district was spending to cure the symptoms (not his word).  He was countered that numbers are meaningless if we do not address the two main sources of the problems, i.e. over-pumping and excess fertilizer.  Another of our group mentioned that the BMAPs are being challenged because it is estimated by scientists  that an approximate reduction of 75 to 80% of fertilizer would have to be implemented to reach their goals.

All in all, the water defenders today enjoyed about a 40-minute stage presence and delivered a polite but very firm message explaining the sources of serious water problems.  These are problems, that unfortunately, some of the board members to not recognize nor understand.

Our thanks go to the SRWMD board members for their patience and willingness in letting us speak, and to those who defended the springs and rivers today.

Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
-A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back-[separator