Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Coalition attempts to block aquifer pumping
In the most divisive controversy in years over aquifer waters, Florida authorities have reversed their previous opposition to an irrigation permit sought for a cattle operation near the ailing Silver Springs.
The irrigation permit was scheduled for a final vote of approval Tuesday, but a coalition of environmental groups filed legal action Monday, meaning the matter will go to a state hearing judge for further action.
“They are allowing politics to drive the science,” said Lisa Rinaman, who heads St. Johns Riverkeeper, one of the groups staunchly opposed to increased pumping from the Floridan Aquifer by Sleepy Creek Lands ranch in Marion County.
In 2014, the St. Johns River Water Management District said an irrigation permit sought by Sleepy Creek to pump 1.1 million gallons a day from the aquifer would harm “the ecology of Silver Springs and the Silver River.”
Near Ocala, the springs is one of Florida’s original tourist attractions and is now a state park.
But recently revamped analysis, according to the district, shows that Sleepy Creek can temporarily boost pumping by 1.2 million gallons a day, which would be in addition to other water rights the ranch holds.
The analysis is finely tuned to give Sleepy Creek some of the last aquifer water available in that area; in 2023, the ranch would have to relinquish rights to the 1.2 million gallons to avoid impacts to Silver Springs.
Ann Shortell, the director of the St. Johns water district, spanning from Jacksonville to Orlando, would not comment on her staff’s turnaround on the permit.
Sleepy Creek’s spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. Owner Frank Stronach, a billionaire auto-parts magnate, is developing a grassfed beef operation. Breaking with traditional Florida ranching, his cattle would be in dense herds from birth to slaughter.
Rich Burklew, the district’s bureau chief for water-use regulation, said the agency’s new analysis is based on a more sophisticated model of the Floridan Aquifer.
It was developed with help from the adjoining Southwest Florida Water Management District. It takes in a bigger region than a previous model and includes Rainbow Springs, another big springs system in decline.
But the plight of Silver Springs — diminished flow, dirty water and algae infestation — is a prime example to environmentalists and advocates for springs protection that the state already is abusing the Floridan Aquifer through excessive permitting of pumping and pollution.
Deeply embedded in limestone and replenished by rain, the aquifer provides Central and North Florida with much of its drinking water and is essential in the circulatory systems of springs, rivers, lakes and wetlands.
The legal action against Sleepy Creek and the water district was filed by the St. Johns Riverkeeper, Florida Defenders of the Environment, the Silver Springs Alliance and an individual, Alice Gardner.
Rinaman and other environmentalists suspect the district since 2014 has been under pressure from Gov. Rick Scott’s administration and industrial water users to impose the fewest possible restrictions on aquifer pumping. The agency’s board is comprised of the governor’s appointees.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection, also run by a governor’s appointee, has exerted unprecedented control of the state’s water districts in recent years.
Asked about allegations that politics are behind the Sleepy Creek permit, DEP spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller said review of a ranch permit rests “solely” with the water district.
Rinaman said the water district only recently allowed her group to scrutinize the agency’s revised aquifer analysis.
“It’s been very difficult to try to penetrate the very detailed modeling and technical documents that are being used,” said Rinaman, who thinks the district has used its specialized expertise to blunt the public’s ability to object.