District officials seem unable to say “no” to developers, farmers, water bottlers and anyone else who seeks a permit to pump groundwater, despite the reduced flows being caused as a result in the region’s rivers and springs. For example, the High Springs-based Florida Springs Institute has found that excessive groundwater pumping has reduced the Santa Fe River s flow by about 28%.
Now, to add insult to injury, district officials are suggesting that hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars be spent restoring those flows. The money would be used to build a pipeline bringing water from the Suwannee River to recharge the groundwater that flows through Ichetucknee Springs and eventually into the Santa Fe.
It would be laughable if it wasn’t so insulting. But don’t take our word for it. It is crazy totally crazy, Robert Knight, executive director of the Florida Springs Institute, told Politico, which first reported the story.
“It’s a ridiculous proposal from an environmental perspective and from a cost perspective,” Ryan Smart, executive director of the Florida Springs Council, told The Sun.
Even members of the water district’s governing board questioned the idea. You just start to wonder when you start to mess around with Mother Nature like this what the unintended consequences are, board member Virginia Sanchez said.