News Update
Springs water quality hearing begins next week
Staff report
Enviro-Net
The administrative hearing over ineffective water quality plans under the state's basin management action plans for 15 Outstanding Florida Springs will begin at 9:00 am, Sept. 3, at the Division of Administrative Hearings in Tallahassee.
The legal challenges, originally filed in January 2019, cover the Santa Fe River, Suwanee River, Silver and Rainbow Springs, Wekiwa and Rock Springs, and Volusia Blue Spring basins.
The challenges were brought by seven local conservation organizations and three individuals who are adversely affected by the impaired condition of these once world-class springs and the failure of the BMAPs to provide a credible path to meeting water quality goals.
“This may be the last chance we have to save the springs for both people and manatees,” said Anne Harvey, a staff attorney with the Save the Manatee Club. “The state has been talking a good game, but the failure to create meaningful BMAPs reveals a lack of will to address nutrient pollution at the source.”
The petitioners include Friends of the Wekiva River, Save the Manatee Club, Sierra Club, Rainbow River Conservation, Silver Springs Alliance, Ichetucknee Alliance and Our Santa Fe River, as well as Tom Greenhalgh, Jim Tutum and Paul Still.
With the assistance of the Florida Springs Council, they have assembled an experienced team of attorneys, scientists and experts to prove that the Florida Department of Environmental Protection failed to meet its legal obligation to create a pathway to clean water for Outstanding Florida Springs.
The Florida Springs and Aquifer Act, passed in 2016, required the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to adopt BMAPs for 24 impaired Outstanding Florida Springs. The BMAPs must achieve water quality goals within 20 years of their adoption, account for future growth, and contain information on projects and strategies to reduce nitrogen pollution.