Column: Oppose water withdrawal to protect county

Column: Oppose water withdrawal to protect county



ED PAUCEK
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 02/03/08


On Jan. 8, under a motion by Commissioner Cyndi Stevenson the Board of County Commissioners unanimously passed legislation opposing water withdrawal. It also requested that further independent studies be conducted to understand the biological, ecological and economic impacts of the proposed St. Johns River Water Management District's proposal to withdraw 155 million gallons per day from the St. Johns and 80 million from the Oklawaha River.

Orange County (Orlando) and Volusia (Daytona) and Seminole counties would be the biggest users.

St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon said the cost would be $400-500 million-plus and provide water for that area for the next 10 years. The adjacent northern counties have a huge interest in this event.

This drawdown has the potential to change the ecology of the rivers, drop the water level, change tidal influence and increase the salt water intrusion in our river. It may influence the underground aquifer we use and substantially reduce or eliminate our county's use of this resource in the future. This proposal is not in the best interest of St. Johns County or of the adjacent river counties.

Under direction of Bill Young, St. Johns County Utilities has been most progressive in its water stewardship. With our aggressive utility staff's efforts, our system is equipped with a recently completed 15 million dollar reverse osmosis plant on Water Plant road.

This allows us to take brackish water from deep wells and purify it for our consumption and eliminate using surficial wells that draw down wetlands and shallow wells used for household irrigation. I know of no other local county so equipped and at the forefront of water conservation and usage. In plain English, we have stepped up and done the right thing and now they want to steal home plate.

It's all about money. Their plan is to utilize the pristine water that flows from underground springs feeding our rivers at a very modest cost to treat. Desalinating Sea Water, Deep well withdrawal, other pipeline proposals and systems such as ours cost more money than this river depletion proposal.

Orange, Volusia and Seminole counties must utilize other more expensive methods to solve their problems and not put it on the backs of their neighbors.

We applaud this legislation and stand by our County Commission's actions. This is a very critical natural resource.

This is not just a "Builder" related issue. It's everybody's issue. This affects the quality of life and economic concerns of all homeowners, businesses and interests in St. Johns County.

We encourage all interested parties to rally around our local officials to fight this action. (Unless you don't use water!)



Ed Paucek is chairman of the St. Johns Builders Council.


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