- Next meeting will be in April
- Local governments within the BMAP focus area must begin regulating fertilizers by July 2017
- Spring restoration plan must be in place by July 2018
- Money for restoration is included in an Everglades Restoration bill in the Senate
The Department of Environmental Protection is looking for people who want to save Wakulla Springs. On Monday, DEP officials briefed more than 50 Leon and Wakulla county residents about a basin management action plan to restore the world-famous spring.
A massive water bill Florida lawmakers approved last month sets a July 1, 2018, deadline for the plan to be in place.
Algae is choking the life out of Wakulla Springs, an international tourist site located 15 miles south of Tallahassee. Wastewater filled with nitrates flow from southern Leon County and north Wakulla County bubbling up in the spring where algae and invasive plants feed on it and crowd out other life.
The Wakulla’s lush vegetation and abundant wildlife have attracted people for thousands of years. The once gin-clearwater and the jungle-like call of the limpkin and flocks of birds along its banks served as the backdrop for Tarzan movies in the 1950s.
Today, though, Jim Stevenson, former chair of the Florida Springs Task Force, says Wakulla Springs is a different place. The limpkin has left, along with a variety of species of fish. Algae clouds the water. The once popular glass-bottomed boat tours are rarely offered. A spring that produces 500 million gallons of water a day, said Stevenson, has suffered an ecological collapse.
As Tallahassee and north Florida grows, the amount of nitrates flowing into Wakulla Springs has turned deadly.
“The real problems here are toilets and lawns; that’s what’s killing Wakulla Springs,” said Stevenson, a former DEP biologist who has been sounding the alarm about the spring’s health for three decades.
“We don’t have to fertilizelawns. We do have to flush. There are certain ways we can flush to make it better.”
DEP is hoping the Wakulla BMAP will convince homeowners there is a better way to flush. BMAPs are guides for repairing damaged springs and rivers. The advisory committee is designed to connect DEP with the public and local governments while the agency moves ahead with plans to reduce the amount of nitrates flushed into the waterway.
Local governments within a BMAP are required to pass an ordinance regulating fertilizers by July 1, 2017. DEP officials concede dealing with nitrates from human waste will be much more challenging. The two methods that have been discussed include hooking up residents to a centralized sewer system or retrofitting their septic tanks. Either way, homeowners’ share of the bill could be thousands of dollars.
A proposal by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, could make up to $75 million available for springs restoration statewide. Negron tucked the money into an Everglades restoration project. The proposal is awaiting a hearing in its final committee stop. DEP officials say the money could help implement recommendations of the Wakulla BMAP advisory committee.
The Wakulla Springs basin is 1,300 square miles, running from South Georgia and Gadsden County south and east. But the primary focus of the restoration plan is the neighborhoods bordered by Paul Russell Road and Orange Avenuein Tallahassee and state Highway 20 running south and east into Woodville and Wakulla County.
Studies have indicated that 51 percent of the nitrates flowing into the spring come from septic tanks. DEP’s goal is to reduce the level of nitrates in the wastewater from 40 milligrams per liter to .35 milligrams over the next 20 years.
“The way this conversation has unfolded it sounds like instead of recommending projects and strategies the advisory committee will prioritize capital projects already on the books. If that is so, that is pretty discouraging,” Debbie Lightsey, former Tallahassee city commissioner told DEP officials during Monday’s meeting.
“We want to look for innovations. We want to look for options,” said DEP staffer Moira Homann. “We are in no way suggesting that we are just going to be looking at the shovel-ready projects.”
The Wakulla BMAP advisory committee will have eight members. Groups that will be represented include:
- Homeowner associations
- Environmentalists
- Representatives of Wakulla and Leon county commissions
- City of Tallahassee
- Department of Health
- Community leaders
DEP wants to have the majority of the advisory committee appointed by the BMAP’s next meeting, scheduled for April.
Concerns over how the process is unfolding have led to environmental groups not to participate with DEP’s effort for Silver Springs, in Ocala. They said the proposed plan is ineffective and filed a protest with the Environmental Protection Agency seeking different targets and deadlines.
Contact James Call at jcall@tallahassee.com and follow on Twitter @CallTallahassee.
