November 4, 2007
by Norman Hopkins, as printed in the Citrus County Chronicle on Sunday, November 4, 2007.
I applaud and support Pricilla Watkins for speaking out in the CC Chronicle Commentary Sunday,
October 21st, 2007. I attended those meetings of the WRWSA board and was appalled at the
discussions there.
Considering minimum flows and levels (MFLs). The spin of the title
sounds fine. It seems as if MFLs protect too much water being taken
from our water resources. However, at the meeting of September 19th,
2007, Pete Hubbell, once of SWFWMD, now a consultant to WRWSA, proclaimed
that MFLs would allow water to be taken from watershed and springshed
areas in times of surplus, meaning when MFL levels are naturally exceeded
by heavier rains in season, to be pumped into a couple of off - line
reservoirs to be used as supply in times of drought. Furthermore, as
MFLs for Citrus County are not yet set, his consultancy would set "proxy" levels
so that planning could proceed (gaining false traction).
What was not said was, that once residing in any man made reservoir,
that water would not be protected by the Local Sources First doctrine
but be available to anyone (eg SJRWMD) as an alternative water source
(AWS) for them . Moreover, the reservoir water would be exposed to
evaporation back into the atmosphere, instead of being part underground,
to join the seventy percent of rainfall which already regularly returns
to the atmosphere by evaporation and plant transpiration. The off take
would also reduced the aquifer head to reduce the sovereignty spring
outflows to the detriment of our coastal rivers which contribute
millions of dollars to the County's economy.
River water quality would degrade with increased algae bloom and increased
salt water intrusion.
Furthermore, a setting of a MFL does not take account of future development
already sanctioned at the time the MFL is set. According to the WRWSA
legal advisor, fifty thousand homes are already platted in Citrus County
and not yet built. The major retail and housing developments contemplated
in Citrus County will act as magnets to attract sales of those platted
sites as well as those featured in the development proposals. Growth
of fifty thousand homes in The Villages within the SJRWMD is calling
for seven million gallons per day from AWS by 2025, the similar amount
required for Citrus County growth does not show in the calculations,
to say nothing of the three million gallons of fresh water per day
reportedly required to scrub pollution from the existing Crystal River
power plant emissions.
Significant costs of building reservoirs, and for that matter any
desalination plant co-located with the power plant, will thus be used
to finance the population expansions taking place in other water management
districts (eg SJRWMD). Note also, that any surplus gallonage of any
desal plant built in Citrus County will also not be protected under
the Local Sources First doctrine but be available as AWS to anyone.
Remember the new nuclear power plants earmarked for Levy County?
When Jack Sullivan, Executive Director of WRWSA, drew attention to
the need for co-operation between water management districts at the
boundary, meaning the Withlacoochee River and Lake Rousseau being eyed
for 33.1 million gallons per day of AWS, and later called this a necessary
and rational regional basis, it became really scary. As Priscilla mentioned,
what makes that scary is that this would only require agreement between
the two water management district Governing Boards involved (of similar
composition and interests), and already the districts effectively tax
the citizens by the mileage rates they apply without any effective
citizen say so, nor oversight. Local government need not feature in
such a decision.
We have been given heads up by Priscilla. We must pay attention and speak up too.
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