Jacksonville drops fight over Seminole County river withdrawal permit

[fsu813]

Jacksonville City Hall has withdrawn from a court fight to stop a Central Florida utility from taking water out of the St. Johns River.

The decision leaves the St. Johns Riverkeeper, a Jacksonville-based nonprofit, arguing alone to reverse a permit issued to Seminole County by the St. Johns River Water Management District.

The group's lead activist says Jacksonville had little choice.

"It's not a lack of will. ... We commend the city," said Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon.

Factors in Jacksonville's original permit challenge left the city without legal standing to continue its fight, said Jason Teal, a city lawyer.

The case law was clear enough that the city would have risked liability for paying Seminole's additional lawyer fees - maybe another $50,000 - by continuing to fight, Teal said.

That fight began last year as a suit before the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings, challenging conclusions of management district staff who supported issuing the permit. City lawyers argued the river's ecology would suffer if water was withdrawn to supplement Seminole County's supplies of drinking water and irrigation water.

Although the city believed some environmental damage might occur within Duval County, it was pressed for time and only needed to demonstrate harm somewhere along the 310-mile river in order to file their challenge, Teal said.

When an administrative law judge ruled the impact on the river wasn't significant enough to justify denying the permit, Jacksonville and the Riverkeeper both challenged that before the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach.

But the threshold to have legal standing was different in the appeal than in the original challenge. Jacksonville would have had to originally claimed some specific, local damage from the river withdrawals to have standing in the appeal, Teal said.

Meeting that threshold wasn't a problem for the Riverkeeper because its members are involved in the river from its origins to where it joins the Atlantic Ocean at Mayport.

The Riverkeeper's lawyers reviewed the case with Teal but couldn't find a sure-fire way to prove the city had standing. After that, Teal said, the Mayor's Office made the decision for the city to drop the case. A court order issued Thursday finalized that decision.

The Riverkeeper group is continuing the appeal, Armingeon said, adding: "We've committed to follow this through to the end."

The city and Riverkeeper both still face the potential of paying large amounts for Seminole County's attorney fees. Teal said a state administrative judge is still considering a motion that could let Seminole officials recover as much as $1 million in costs from the initial case, but it's not clear how that will play out.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-12-09/story/jacksonville_drops_fight_over_seminole_county_river_withdrawal_permit

[kellypope]

Dang.

Gross as you might think it is, I'm willing to go there, and advocate for massive education, outreach, and investment in composting toilets. The less drinking water people have to make a toxic problem, the better. For our river and all waters.

[reednavy]

This isn't really suprising, it has been an uphill battle for a while.

[JeffreyS]

Maybe they could send some of the funds they were using to fight to support the riverkeeper's challenge.

[riverkeepered]

Unfortunately, the City was forced to drop out of the appeal of the Seminole County water withdrawal permit decision, because they were not able to establish standing in the appeals court.  I can tell you it wasn't due to a lack of will on the part of the City.  I have to give credit to Mayor Peyton for his commitment to defending the river against the ill-advised water withdrawal plans.

Despite this setback, St. Johns Riverkeeper will forge ahead with its appeal that will be decided in the 5th Circuit Court sometime next year. 

Several months ago, Seminole tried to intimidate Jax and Riverkeeper into dropping their opposition by filing a motion for attorney's fees.  Jax and Riverkeeper would have been on the hook for over a $1 million in legal fees and costs incurred by Seminole.

A few days ago, Judge J. Lawrence Johnston issued his Final Order dismissing Seminole's motion. 

The fight for the river goes on.

Here is a good article about this decision from the West Volusia Beacon:
http://www.beacononlinenews.com/news/daily/2276

You can also read a response from Riverkeeper on the Riverhugger blog:
http://www.riverhugger.com/2009/12/seminole-county-denied-fees.html 

[fsu813]

thank goodness

[mtraininjax]

Seminole is joke to try and press the attorney fees. What comes around goes around, they will get theirs, I hope next year.

[BridgeTroll]

This weeks Folio features an article argueing that the upcoming dredging project will be worse for the river than the water withdrawal...

[mtraininjax]

Folio provides such objective articles......We can all be thankful that in our lifetimes Seminole County will eventually eliminate the Green Algae from the river, since it will be saltwater. Should make the environmentalists happy.

I'd rather add more jobs than listen to Folio.

[tufsu1]

maybe so mtrain...but it is clear that the dredging project will be far more harmful to the river than the withdrawal.

the big question is which is more important - environment or economy.

[north miami]

The city/JEA proved obtuse.
River advocates such as the Putnam County Environmental Coalition and Florida Defenders of the Environment have been distrustful of Jax/JEA.
After all-Mayor Delaney 'sold' surface watewithdrawal at the #2 River Summit.That was years ago- and the gravity of that event went over most heads for some time.

[mtraininjax]

the big question is which is more important - environment or economy.

TUF - Ask the 450,000 foreclosure victims in Florida if they would happily sacrifice the river for a job and their well-being back? Hell, they'd probably kill a manatee if it tasted good with A1 the way their lives are going now.

No way will environmentalists get in the way of bringing new jobs to Jacksonville.