/ The Fellowship of the Springs take viewers into the wonder and beauty of Florida s unique but troubled springs. Florida has the largest and highest concentration of fresh water springs on earth, and the fight to save them is raging.
Many of Florida’s springs are at risk, largely from a combination of reduced water flow and increased pollution.
Thomas Greenhalgh risked his job and career in 2019 when he sued his own employer, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, to challenge the state’s plans to protect Florida’s imperiled springs from increasing pollution.
Greenhalgh, a veteran hydrogeologist and expert on the underground flows that feed North Florida’s springs, argued that the sandy soils and porous rock of the region made them especially vulnerable a position supported by other springs advocates and independent scientists in a long-running lawsuit seeking tougher state restrictions on how surrounding farms and other industries use fertilizer.
To The Fellowship of the Springs, Florida is selling out an environmental treasure | WGCU PBS & NPR for Southwest Florida wgcu.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wgcu.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
It was Voltaire’s “Candide” that reminded us to tend to one’s own garden. Whether he meant taking care of the Garden of Eden, or the small portion of the world that is closest and dearest to each of us, we are drawn to the importance of helping to make the world healthier and safer in our relatively small local area of personal influence.
In that regard, the Florida Springs Institute just completed a three-year study of our home river and springs namely, the lower Santa Fe River, from Worthington Spring at the State Road 121 bridge, downstream to the river’s confluence with the Suwannee River. In addition to more than 30 springs large and small, this river segment receives much of the surface runoff from Alachua, Bradford, Columbia, Gilchrist and Union counties.