Advocates flood Gainesville meeting to protest state law

Hailey Hall’s favorite childhood activity on her family’s farm in O'Brien, Florida, was when her father would lift her in the air to press a button that started up its irrigation system.

Today, the 25-year-old hydrogeologist looks at those moments with a new lens.

It was a freshwater pumping permit that allowed her family to use that water from the Suwannee River Valley — similar to those that create stress on the state's freshwater springs due to overpumping.

“I can tell you firsthand that the way we’ve been giving out these permits like hotcakes for next to nothing just benefits a few families — including mine — and a few companies,” she said. “It’s not in the interest of the public.”

Hall was one of nearly 100 environmental activists from across Florida who packed a Department of Environmental Protection workshop at the Alachua County Headquarters Library on Monday ahead of Tropical Storm Idalia making landfall on the Sunshine State.

The meeting also follows a successful protest against a gas station in Wakulla County that would have impacted nearby springs, where advocates stalled its approval.

Not a single person who spoke during the meeting, a group that included Orlando Rep. Anna Eskamani and Alachua County Commission Chair Anna Prizzia, was in favor of the newest version of what’s known as the state’s “harm rule” for its freshwater springs.

Ever since the passage of the Springs and Aquifer Protection Act in 2016, DEP has been working on clarifying language that defines what constitutes harm to what are known as Florida’s outstanding springs, 30 freshwater bodies that require additional protections.

Last March, before the first workshop for the rule, the Florida Springs Council urged regulators to consider the council’s version, which Executive Director Ryan Smart said would more explicitly prevent permits that allow overpumping.

The most recent iteration of the rule was presented later that month, though advocates pushed back, arguing the language wasn’t precise enough to deter damaging groundwater permits.

This year, Smart said nothing has changed.

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A strong harm rule could have shelved Nestlé’s controversial permit to bottle water from Ginnie Springs, along with dozens of others, he said. As the proposed rule stands today, permits would continue to go through.

“That's the really frustrating thing," he said. "We worked so hard to get a law passed just for a state agency to just ignore it. The legislature doesn't provide any oversight; the governor doesn't provide any oversight. It just gets ignored forever.”

DEP has yet to answer The Gainesville Sun’s questions despite multiple requests Monday and acknowledging requests had been made.

Since Smart’s meeting with DEP officials, they haven’t reached back out — until recently, when they notified the public about Monday’s workshop.

“To me, this is symbolic of the capture of DEP,” Smart said. “They’re able to adopt rules to help developers and regulated industries, no problem. But when it comes to actually protecting the environment, they’re just MIA.”

Eskamani, D-Orlando, said she grew up going to Weikiva Springs in Apopka.

She said it’s shocking how many Florida’s representatives have never visited a spring — an activity she helped coordinate for some of her colleagues to show them the impact of septic systems on water quality.

Speaking up for the springs is a duty Eskamani takes on for those who will come after her, she added.

“I am 33 years old, I’m a millennial and I’m thinking not only about this generation, but the generation after me,” Eskamani said. “We're not going to have a Florida to call home for a lot of reasons.”

A majority of those in attendance weren’t from Alachua County, with representatives from South Florida, Orlando, Tallahassee and Jacksonville calling attention to the issue.

Jake Varn, an environmental lawyer who was the Florida Department of Environmental Regulation secretary when the first state water policy was adopted in the ‘70s, drove from Tallahassee to express his thoughts on the issue. He said he struggled to condense his expertise into the allotted three minutes.

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Defining harm is difficult, he said, as every impaired spring has its own unique problems. Getting young people engaged in water quality is the key to putting pressure on state regulators, he added.

“This is a problem for the young people,” he said. “It’s not going to affect me at all.”

Robin Orlandi, of Citrus County, said DEP’s refusal to take the Florida Springs Council’s proposal into consideration is unacceptable. It’s indicative of a worldwide drought problem we’re only beginning to grapple with, she said.

“DEP, you're in charge of the largest grouping of spring groundwater in the world, and you’re taking no action,” Orlandi said. “How do you sleep at night?”

State officials will have until Sept. 11 to review public comments. An official said the organization will continue to accept written ones, which can be sent to [email protected].