Where did all the water go?

[riverkeepered]

Yesterday, the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners joined Jacksonville City Council, Neptune Beach CC, Jacksonville Beach CC, the Jacksonville Planning Commission and numerous citizen groups in passing a resolution in opposition to the water withdrawal proposals in Central Florida. 

Next up, the Duval Delegation will address the issue at their next meeting this month and the NE FL Regional Council is hosting a regional summit for elected officials and the public.  I guess you could say that this issue is really starting to garner some interest and pick up momentum.  Now, we have to use this opportunity to pass some effective legislation that will encourage and mandate more water conservation. 

orlandosentinel.com/news/local/seminole/orl-water0508jan05,0,7961124.story

OrlandoSentinel.com
Orlando area to explain plans to pull water from St. Johns River
Kevin Spear

Sentinel Staff Writer

January 5, 2008

Alarmed that Central Florida is planning to drain the life out of the St. Johns River, leaders of 33 downstream cities and counties will hear later this month from Orange County Mayor Rich Crotty and then decide whether to escalate a water war.

The Northeast Florida Regional Council plans a summit in Jacksonville on Jan. 25 about the future of the St. Johns River. The 310-mile waterway flows north from Central Florida and then carves through Jacksonville to the Atlantic Ocean.

In recent months, Jacksonville-area communities have rallied to oppose plans by Central Florida to pump as much as 250 million gallons daily from the river and its tributaries. For now, some North Florida leaders want to head off hostilities by holding the summit and meeting with Crotty.

"Arguing, bickering and fighting will not get us anywhere," said Harold Rutledge, chairman of the Clay County Board of Commissioners and president of the council. "I'd hate to see us dig our heels in and not be able to compromise."

At stake in the growing conflict over St. Johns River water are the billions of dollars Central Florida plans to spend to build treatment plants along the river's edge. The St. Johns River Water Management District contends that Central Florida has virtually no other option during the next several years but to pump from the river to supply fast-growing communities with drinking water.

The region's primary supply, the underground Floridan Aquifer, now provides more than 500 million gallons daily. Aquifer water is relatively cheap to pump, but taking any more could harm springs, rivers and wetlands.

Only recently has the water-management district begun to tell Jacksonville-area communities that the St. Johns River has plenty of water to spare for Central Florida. Many leaders from downstream communities also have never heard from Orlando-area elected officials their rationale for taking that water.

That's a role Crotty expects to fill at the summit. His Orange County Utilities department is working with other local utilities to build a St. Johns River treatment plant in the southeast corner of the county.

"My role would be to highlight the many environmental successes in Orange County," Crotty said. "And I'll convey to those assembled there a spirit of cooperation."

Among messages Crotty and his staff will bring to the summit is that Orange County already has been serious about conserving water by recycling treated sewage and limiting lawn irrigation to twice weekly.

"We are light years ahead of the state, including Northeast Florida," said County Attorney Tom Drage.

Neil Armingeon, of the Jacksonville-based St. Johns Riverkeeper group, said Crotty and the water-management district are overdue in shedding light on what he and others think has been a stealth quest for St. Johns water.

"My suspicion is that they started with an answer and then have spent a lot of effort back-figuring the equation," Armingeon said.

"This has not been an open process."

Other environmentalists think they know enough about the issue already.

Among them, five Florida chapters of the Sierra Club are urging Gov. Charlie Crist to scrutinize and delay Central Florida's plans for the St. Johns.

"The cost in terms of lost fishing industry, tourism and recreational dollars and prolonged health of our river has yet to be acknowledged by the St. Johns River Water Management District," the groups stated in letter to the governor.

That's a criticism the water-management district will attempt to address.

Executive Director Kirby Green said his staff will assemble a panel of outside scientists to review the district's conclusion that taking water out of the slow-moving river will not invite a damaging invasion of saltwater from the sea that could kill wildlife and aquatic plants.

However, Green said his staff needs help to determine if water withdrawals will raise or lower concentrations of pollutants already in the river.

"We don't know the answer to that," he said.

If you want to attend, the Summit will be held at the St. Johns County Convention Center at World Golf Village from 1-5pm on January 25th.   You can get more information on the Northeast Florida Regional Council website at www.nefrpc.org.

[second_pancake]

Glad to see things are moving along.  This subject bothers me so bad.  The way I see it is, poor planning on their (Central FL) part does not constitute obligation on ours.  Isn't it part of development planning, finding out if the amount of land your intending to develop can support your utility and water-supply output?  I guess that doesn't matter anymore.

[gatorback]

Growth is an incredibly hard thing to process.  We intrinsically do thing evil when we change nature.  What should matter to us I believe is that we work together and educate the public on the impact of this output.  Some very positive outcomes can come of this.

[JeffreyS]

You see Phoenix one of the fastest growing cities in the country. Who manages water and people get by with so much less.  Growth in this state is doable without destroying our river.

[riverkeepered]

The NE FL Regional Council hosted the Water Supply Summit yesterday, and multiple representatives from the Jax Beach City Council, St. Johns County Board of CC, Green Cove Springs, Clay County, and other communities attended and participated in the dialogue.  Conspicously absent were the entire Jacksonville City Council and representatives from the Mayor's administration, according to the Times-Union.  The water supply issue may be one of the biggest challenges facing this entire state, and no one from the City Council or Mayor's office felt like this was an important gathering to attend?  I think most Jax residents, including myself, appreciate the Mayor and the Council for expressing opposition to the plans in Central FL to withdraw millions of gallons of water a day from the river, but they also have to step up to the plate and participate in a regional water supply dialogue.  They also have to take dramatic steps to curb our excessive appetite for water.  We must demonstrate that we are not just going to criticize Central FL but that we are going to lead by example.  One thing that I agree with the St. Johns River Water Management District on is that there is no Water War.  We are all using water extremely inefficiently and must change the way we build, plan our communities, and use our natural resources.   

[gatorback]

A brown yard means you care about the environment.  On Challen Avenue, I would stop mowing my yard during times of no rain.  The grass would go and look horrible; however, what was happing was bueatiful.  The grass blades being flacide would not stand straight up rather fall over.  The extra coverage would increase water retention in the root system like mulch.  At the end of the summer, the rain started again I mowed for the 1st time in like 2 months.  I was so amazed, and greatful, that I had the nicest looking yard on the street and that I didn't water once. 

Tommy, my next door neighbor, watered all the time and constantly had mold and verious other problems. 

I think after that year, when we got drunk and talked about it, Tommy stopped watering his yard all the time.

The last time  I went by his place I noticed the sprinkler not on and the yard looking good.

Over watering causes a lot of problems.  The one most likely is that watering all the time prevents the roots system from going deeper to find water which means you have to water more.  A visious cycle no?  My solution is simple eligent.  Don't mow when it doesn't rains and pray for rain.

[riverkeepered]

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals overturned a ruling by the district court that would have allowed the Army Corps of Engineers and Georgia to enter into an agreement for water rights to the Lake Lanier reservoir. The decision was viewed as a victory for Florida and Alabama.

Governor Crist applauded the court for "recognizing the importance of maintaining Florida's water flow."

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary, Michael Sole, also supported the ruling, saying that reducing the river's flow would harm Apalachiacola Bay.

Why don't they apply that same logic to the St. Johns?

Similar to the Apalachiacola situation, the St. Johns is also threatened by plans to reduce its flow by using its waters to supplement the needs of communities that have reached their water supply limits.

The St. Johns River water withdrawal proposals could be just as harmful to an important and fragile aquatic ecosystem. In fact, the rate of flow of the St. Johns is less than the Apalachiacola and the tidal influences are much greater. This results in the St. Johns not being able to flush pollutants efficiently to begin with.

The bottom line is this: Less freshwater and less flow are bad for BOTH rivers.

Governor, when are you going to stand up and defend the St. Johns River, too?

I hope Governor Crist will recognize the importance of maintaining the flow of the St. Johns, as well.

[02roadking]

Wednesday, February 13, 2008 - 2:43 PM EST
Water district to consider Seminole County request
Jacksonville Business Journal

The St. Johns River Water Management District will vote on Seminole County's request to withdraw millions of gallons of water from the river at its board meeting March 11.

Seminole County is applying for a permit to draw up to 5.5 million gallons of water a day, on an average annual basis, from the river.

The county plans to use the water to augment its reclaimed water system to make it more reliable during peak usage. The county is also proposing to tap the river after 2013 for drinking water to supplement groundwater supplies that are expected to approach sustainability limits recently adopted by the district.

The district staff has recommended approval of the application, subject to several limiting conditions. Under state law, the board must approve or deny an application within a certain time frame, which in the case of Seminole County's application ends March 11.

[02roadking]

From the Jaxdailyrecord.com site:   http://jaxdailyrecord.com/showstory.php?Story_id=49446

02/14/2008

by David Chapman

Staff Writer

One-third of one percent.

It might not sound like much, but to Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon and attorney Michael Howle, it’s cause for concern.

That percentage equates to 5.5 million gallons of St. Johns River water, the amount that Seminole County has proposed to withdraw daily from the river at a to-be-constructed Yankee Lake facility in Central Florida. The withdrawn surface water would help meet the projected water needs of the customers of Seminole County by supplementing groundwater supplies.

To the river advocates, though, it’s just the beginning.

“This looks like it is the first stop,” said Howle. “We thought the permit, at earliest, wouldn’t come up until the last quarter of 2008.”

Instead, the consumptive use permit is scheduled for consideration at the meeting of the St. Johns River Water Management District’s governing board on March 11. According to Hal Wilkening, director of resource management for the District, the permit application has been pending for almost three years and under Florida law, must be acted upon by the District by that date.

The project was predicated upon the District’s assertion that up to 255 million gallons of water a day could be safely removed from the St. Johns River and its tributaries to supplement the water needs of expanding Central Florida, which will soon tap out the limits of the traditional water source of the Floridan Aquifer.

Many local political bodies, including the Jacksonville City Council and the Duval Delegation have passed legislation opposing the withdrawal proposals.

As for the Yankee Lake project, information in published Seminole County reports and from John Cirello, director of environmental services in Seminole County, state the minimum flows and levels (MFLs) for that area of the river is 155 million gallons of water a day (mgd), well above the planned 5.5 mgd. The report quotes a state statute saying that MFLs “shall be the limit at which further withdrawals would be significantly harmful to the water resources or ecology of the area.”

The report goes on to say that any withdrawal, such as the proposed 5.5 mgd, will not harm the environment.

“It’s a very small amount of water being withdrawn,” said Cirello. “We understand and recognize it’s our job to project and preserve the river and we’re working very hard to do it.”

Information in the report supplied by Environmental Public Relations Group, which is working with Seminole County on the project, also noted that surface water is currently permitted and safely being withdrawn in five other projects, and phase one of the Yankee Lake project would be one of the smallest of the already permitted projects.

Wilkening said that the District has published a notice of intent and will recommend approval of the permit to the governing board with some limiting conditions next month. The 16 limiting conditions, he said, are technical in nature but include such measures as monitoring and reporting water use, reporting the total amount of withdrawn water a year, filing periodic reports and taking corrective actions if any harm were to occur during withdrawals.

Even before word was sent that action would be taken on the permit, Howle and Armingeon were skeptical about the actions of the District and Seminole County and the notion that this plant would only siphon the proposed 5.5 mgd.

“This is a tactic,” said Howle. “It’s not just going to be 5.5 million. I think it’s a sneaky way of getting in there and building the infrastructure and a foundation for it.”

Both Cirello and Wilkening contend that the facility will only allow for the withdrawal of 5.5 mgd, but Wilkening did note that the facility could withdraw 11 mgd on certain days. The 5.5 mgd number is a yearly average, said Wilkening.

Howle said he believes the “small” number will lead to less resistance from the public, but future permits with similar “small” withdrawal totals would eventually add up.

“They can’t go and say they want one permit for 100 million gallons a day,” he said. “But what about 20 permits for 5 million gallons a day? Who is going to fight that? It will all add up.”

Phase two of the Yankee Lake project, according to the project’s Web site at www.seminoleregionalwater.com, would increase the drinking water supply and increase the available irrigation water supply to serve Seminole County and the Central Florida region.

But according to Wilkening, the permit for phase one is the only one being considered before the District takes part in a planned in-depth two-year, $2 million study that would give the District another detailed maximum river withdrawal figure.

The river advocates said the proposed study should include the Yankee Lake project and that the original study, said Howle, “is not a detailed analysis and full of hot air.”

Howle wouldn’t comment on specifics, but he said Riverkeeper had some creative ideas on how to handle the situation, while Armingeon said it could be a first for them in the realm of St. Johns River water extraction.

“This will be the first chance we have to legally challenge the whole idea,” said Armingeon, who later on Tuesday had a chance to respond to the District’s notice of the permit hearing.

“And so it begins…” started a mass e-mail by Armingeon. “Why spend $2 million, and 24 Months, when the (District) has made up their minds?...Waste and deceit.”




A timeline of the Yankee Lake project. In phase one of the project, Seminole County officials plan to extract 5.5 million gallons of surface water a day from the St. Johns River to help with the projected needs of customers in Seminole County. Upon potential permit approval in March, construction of the facility is scheduled to begin this year.

[riverkeepered]

Well, here is the good news.  More and more organizations and government bodies keep lining up in opposition to the water withdrawal proposals in Central Florida.  The bad news is that municipalities and utilities in Central Florida are still desperate for water and are not ready to back down any time soon.

Here is a current list of all of the groups, organizations, and government entities that have passed resolutions opposing the drawdown.

Governments/Agencies
City of Neptune Beach
Jacksonville Beach
Jacksonville
Keystone Heights
Atlantic Beach
Jacksonville Planning Commission
St. Johns County
Jacksonville Environmental Protection Board
Jacksonville Water and Sewer Expansion Authority
Jacksonville Waterways Commission
Town of Hastings
Town of Callahan
Nassau County
Clay County
Duval Soil and Water Conservation District

Citizen Organizations
St. Johns Riverkeeper
Putnam County Environmental Council
Northeast Chapter of the Sierra Club
Clay Action Network
Turtle Coast Sierra Club
Jacksonville Civic Council, Inc.
Shrimp Producers Association
Central Florida Sierra Club
Polk Sierra Club
Suwannee-St. Johns Sierra Club
Florida Chapter Sierra Club
William Bartram Scenic & Historic Highway Corridor Management Council
NW St. Johns County Community Coalition
Beaches Watch
St. Johns County Roundtable
Greater Arlington & Beaches CPAC
South Anastasia Community Association
Environmental Youth Council
Save Our Lakes
Greater Arlington Civic Council
Mandarin Community Club
Duval County Democratic Executive Committee
Santa Fe Lake Dwellers
North East Florida Association of Realtors
Clay County Chamber of Commerce
Florida Lure Anglers
Southside Business Men’s Club
Democratic Women’s Information Network

Tune in to WJCT's First Coast Forum: Tapping the St. Johns tomorrow night (Thursday, April 10) at 8pm to learn more about this issue.  The panel will include St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon, Hal Wilkening of the St. Johns River Water Management District, Clay County Commissioner Harold Rutledge, and Coastal Biologist Dr. Courtney Hackney from UNF.  Apparently, no one from Central Florida has accepted the invitation to join the panel.  I guess they are not interested in discussing this issue any longer and are just preparing for the legal fights ahead.