Ruling OKs St. Johns withdrawals

Ruling OKs St. Johns withdrawals



By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 01/14/09


Neal Armingeon of the St. Johns Riverkeeper said Tuesday that a state judge's decision to allow Seminole County to withdraw 5.5 million gallons per day out of the St. Johns could cost the river much more water than that.

"Seminole is building a 50 million gallon capacity structure to treat water," Armingeon said. "They spent $2.6 million to fight this case."

A trial in October lasted 10 days and pitted the Riverkeeper, St. Johns County and Jacksonville against the district.

Administrative Judge J. Lawrence Johnston released an order Monday recommending that St. Johns River Water Management District issue a permit for the withdrawals.

The district board will make its decision at its March meeting in Palatka.

Armingeon said, "As an organization, we made a commitment to the community and the river. We're going to turn out a mess of people at the district hearing. We believe in our hearts we will prevail."

Patrick McCormack, the attorney who argued the case for St. Johns County, said Tuesday that the litigation caused the district to "provide much more in-depth evidence and assurance that there will not be environmental damage. Such information was not in place prior to the litigation."

McCormack added a caution, however, saying that 5.5 million gallons per day is only 2 to 3 percent of all the water that is being sought by communities along the river.

The St. Johns County Commission has not yet made a decision on what to do next.

Environmentalists say that there are requests from several cities to take up to 262 million gallons per day from the St. Johns and Oklawaha rivers, with the biggest user to be Orlando.

At the October hearing, Seminole County presented the testimony of dozens of hydrogeologists, biologists, environmental engineering, water supply planners, wastewater treatment experts and marine scientists.

The Riverkeeper presented experts in the fields of ecology, hydrology, marine biology and water supply engineering, while Jacksonville presented biologists and engineers, and St. Johns County offered its Environmental Planner Jan Brewer, a recognized expert in biology and environmental management.

Armingeon said he was "deeply disappointed" by the final ruling.

"But we knew when we took on this struggle that the administrative hearing process is often biased toward the water management districts. We believe we presented a compelling case," he said.

St. Johns County spent about $10,000, Jacksonville about $300,000 and the Riverkeeper about $2,000.

Armingeon said he found it ironic that the trial was held right around a corner from a museum that closed because Seminole County couldn't pay its staff.

"They will use more than 1 million gallons a day to water people's lawns," Armingeon said. "We should find that offensive. I do. This is an issue that's not going away."


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