\u201cWe really had to do something,\u201d said Steven Spina, a member of the town council. \u201cA lot of residents thought it was a good thing. People were happy to see us take a breath.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Covering an estimated 100,000 square miles, the underground Floridan Aquifer is the source of 90 percent of Florida\u2019s drinking water. Because of the porous nature of the state\u2019s bedrock, millions of gallons of water find their way to the surface in the form of clear, clean springs that, in turn, feed into rivers.<\/p>\n
The highest concentration of springs are in central and northern Florida, including most of the 30 \u201cfirst magnitude\u201d springs \u2014 those that discharge at least 65 million gallons of water every day. All but four of them are considered polluted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just have too much pollution going into the ground and too much water coming out of the ground,\u201d said Ryan Smart, executive director of the nonprofit Florida Springs Council. \u201cAnd when you get that combination, you end up with springs that are no longer blue and vibrant and full of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
In rural Florida, runoff from fertilizers and pesticides used in farm fields is a major part of the problem. Fertilizers containing phosphates and nitrogen promote algae blooms that can suffocate a spring. Livestock waste contributes, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen that algae covers everything, then you lose all of the seagrasses. The seagrasses are the forests of the water,\u201d Smart said. \u201cThen you begin to lose the biodiversity. And it even puts our drinking water at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elsewhere in Florida, rampant development is the threat. With over 1,000 people moving to Florida every day, more housing subdivisions are sprouting, along with the roads, strip malls, restaurants, golf courses, and everything else that comes with them.<\/p>\n
That means more paved surfaces that keep rainwater from percolating down into the aquifer and more pollutant-laden runoff from lawn fertilizers, parking lots, ever-widening roads and sometimes septic tanks. It also means more and more people, many of whom enjoy tubing, paddleboarding, kayaking and swimming in the springs.<\/p>\n
It gets so busy in summer at some springs located in state and local parks that entry is halted by late morning. At Ichetucknee Springs State Park north of Gainesville, the daily limit of 750 tubers on the upper river is often reached within an hour after the park opens.<\/p>\n
Kaelin Gibbs, on vacation in June with his family from Georgia, was swimming in the Blue Hole Spring along the Ichetucknee River.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is simply incredible; the water is cool and clear,\u201d said Gibbs. \u201cWe\u2019ve been to Florida\u2019s beaches and to Orlando. There is no comparison to how beautiful this spring is.\u201d<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s in peril, said Dennis Jones, a Republican former legislator deeply involved in springs issues. He said the volume of permits being issued for water use isn\u2019t sustainable.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot keep taking water out of the aquifer because it\u2019s not an endless supply,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
Phosphate mining has also taken a toll on springs. Their operations require a great deal of water, which reduces water pressure available for springs. Some have died almost completely from mining and other factors, including White Sulphur Springs in north Florida, which was a sacred place for Native Americans and later a tourist resort that attracted famous visitors such as Henry Ford and Theodore Roosevelt.<\/p>\n
A more subtle threat to the health of springs involves Earth\u2019s changing climate. It is altering rainfall patterns around the globe, threatening the balance that feeds Florida\u2019s springs.<\/p>\n
In addition, some springs along the coasts are facing an intrusion of saltwater, according to the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Four major springs are becoming increasingly brackish because of sea level rise and declining rainfall.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result, freshwater vegetation has a hard time surviving in this saltier environment and unwanted vegetation moves in,\u201d the district said in a website post.<\/p>\n
Florida spends billions every year on water quality projects, including about $800 million this year for Everglades restoration work. State funding for springs runs about $50 million a year, according to state documents.<\/p>\n
Two state efforts at improving springs\u2019 quality, both around a decade old, remain bottled up in court and administrative challenges. One would strengthen rules for permits to draw water from the major springs. The other would enhance rules to reduce the amount of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphates that goes into springs that are considered impaired.<\/p>\n
Jones, the former legislator, said lobbying by powerful agricultural interests and related political pressures have blocked progress on the nitrogen reduction plan that was expected to take about 20 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve burned up almost 10 years and they haven\u2019t got on stage one. We got more nitrates now than when we started,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
In Congress, US Representative Randy Fine recently filed a bill that would create a Florida Springs National Park across several counties, centered around the Ocala National Forest. Fine said in a statement the designation would protect the springs and increase funding. \u201cOur Florida springs are something unique, not just to Florida but to the country,\u201d Fine said.<\/p>\n
It costs bottling companies just $115 for a permit allowing them to withdraw millions of gallons of water in perpetuity. But they do pay local taxes.<\/p>\n
Blue Triton, the company that bottles Zephyrhills water, pays about $600,000 a year in taxes for things like schools, public safety and so forth, said Spina of the city council.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are one of our largest taxpayers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Though they have challenges, Florida\u2019s freshwater springs have energetic friends, too.<\/p>\n
Michelle Jamesson loves the springs; she grew up swimming in one and is determined to help protect them for future generations. She volunteers for SpringsWatch Citizen Science Program, coordinating and working with other volunteers for monthly tests on the Wekiva River, north of Orlando.<\/p>\n
They test water quality, take photos of underwater vegetation, count birds and more, seeking to spot any big changes that may require action. The Wekiva is fairly stable, she said, though it carries a lot of excess nutrients.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wildlife and the ecology, and all of it \u2014 it\u2019s so full of life,\u201d Jamesson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWe really had to do something,\u201d said Steven Spina, a member of the town council. \u201cA lot of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1685,4253,37301,192,793,97,149,1680,20200,6878,79,795,11141],"class_list":{"0":"post-122243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-climate-and-environment","9":"tag-climate-change","10":"tag-coastlines-and-beaches","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-lifestyle","15":"tag-national-parks","16":"tag-pollution","17":"tag-rising-sea-levels","18":"tag-science","19":"tag-u-s-news","20":"tag-water-quality"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}