Florida Springs Council Appeals FDEP’s Final Basin Management Action Plans (AGAIN)
This week, FDEP issued the Final Order for four Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs) whose adoption was appealed to the First District Court of Appeals by the Florida Springs Council (FSC). The four BMAPs include Volusia Blue Springs, Rainbow-Silver Springs, Suwannee River, and Sante Fe River. (Note: the Suwannee River and Sante Fe River BMAPs cover all the springs tributary to those two rivers).
This all began when FOWR joined with the FSC in 2019 to challenge the Wekiwa-Rock Springs BMAP in conjunction with the four BMAPs listed above. A hearing on the challenge was held in Tallahassee in Nov., 2019, at the FL Dept. of Administrative Hearings (DOAH). In February, 2021, DOAH ruled against FSC’s challenge. FOWR decided not to appeal the Wekiwa-Rock Springs BMAP because we wanted the septic tank remediation plan to be implemented as soon as possible, and an appeal would have delayed its implementation. FDEP adopted the Wekiwa- Rock Springs BMAP in May, 2021.
In May, 2021, the FSC appealed the DOAH ruling to the First District Court of Appeals for the remaining four BMAPs. Earlier this year, the First District Court of Appeals upheld the appeal for one of the issues raised by FSC - the lack of an allocation of Nitrate load reductions among the sources. FDEP has now issued a Final Order to address this one change to the four BMAPs listed above. Attached is a table prepared by FSC to illustrate the changes FDEP made to the four BMAPs. This table shows that, except for Rainbow Springs, the four BMAPs do not propose enough Nitrate load reductions to achieve FDEP’s Nitrate criteria in springs.
This Final Order recently issued by FDEP does not apply to the Wekiwa-Rock Springs BMAP because it was not part of the appeal. At the bottom of the table, I have added the revisions that would apply to the Wekiwa-Rock Springs BMAP if the same calculation was used. FDEP is scheduled to update the Wekiwa-Rock Springs BMAP in 2026. We expect the revised load reduction shown in the table to be incorporated into that update.
By applying that same calculation to Wekiwa-Rock Springs, the Nitrate load to groundwater within the springshed would have to be reduced by 76 percent (vs only a 20 percent reduction proposed in the adopted BMAP)! Instead of reducing the Nitrate load to groundwater by 209,000 lb/year, as recommended in the adopted Wekiwa-Rock Springs BMAP, the new calculation indicates that the Nitrate load to groundwater should be reduced by 779,000 lb/year to achieve the criteria set by FDEP for Nitrate concentrations in the springs!
FOWR advocated a reduction of the Nitrate load to groundwater by 75-80 percent when the BMAP was being prepared, but FDEP rejected our concerns! One of our main concerns was that the Wekiwa-Rock Springs BMAP did not include enough reduction of Nitrate loads to restore and protect the springs. Based on the calculations in this revised approach, the adopted BMAP for Wekiwa and Rock Springs only mandates 40 - 53% of the reductions needed to meet the FDEP criteria for Nitrate concentrations in the springs.
FSC is preparing an appeal of the Final Order to require the four BMAPs to include enough Nitrate load reductions to achieve the Nitrate water quality criteria, as required in the 2016 Florida Springs and Aquifer Protection Act. Stay tuned (but don’t hold your breath!).
