OPINION
SPRINGS TO GET MINIMAL PROTECTION
On Monday night in a county commission room full of Wakulla Springs supporters, commissioners decided with a 4-1 vote that they know what’s best for the citizens and chose to proceed with the proposed new regulations they suggest are designed to protect Wakulla County rivers and springs. These new “stricter” regulations are the first steps designed to allow the construction of a gas station over Chips Hole Cave by SW Ga Oil. Chips Hole Cave is a step closer to taking the daily gas station/car wash runoff and mixing it in with our drinking water on its way to Wakulla Springs, Wakulla River, St. Marks River and eventually the Gulf.
These new regulations contain no setbacks for fuel tanks over a cave. You heard right, no setbacks. It was pointed out that other counties manage to enact setbacks from caves but for some reason Wakulla County can’t figure out how to do it, even though Chips Hole Cave is a cave that is well mapped and documented. A citizen spoke to the accuracy of Cave Radio Locators used by the divers for WKPP for mapping caves and conduits. The county (administrator and attorney) claim that they can’t use maps that aren’t certified, yet FDOT, FDEP, NW Florida Water Management, FSU and others use the same maps of underground caves for regulatory practices. It was also pointed out that if the county enacted setbacks, our pro-development county officials might not get their new SunStop/Inland and therefore want to avoid any setback language. Perhaps the setbacks are some of the “red tape” that County Administrator David Edwards was recently quoted as saying have been eliminated and Wakulla County is now “pro-development?”
The new regulations require that hazardous materials must be stored above ground, but not gas tanks over a cave. These new Wakulla County regulations don’t even count gasoline as a hazardous material as do other counties, and therefore, they are given special status where fuel tanks in sensitive areas be put underground- where leaks are harder to detect.
Passionate and well-informed citizens spoke one after the other with convincing facts that largely fell on deaf ears. Commissioner Hess asked about what would happen if a collapse over the cave happened, swallowing a fuel tank. One of the Terracon officials reassured commissioners by telling them that “catastrophic failure was not a particular concern in this particular area.” Later an irate citizen quoted the Terracon official and asked, “if putting fuel tanks over a cave leading to Wakulla Springs doesn’t reach the level of concern for catastrophic failure, what does?” (Terracon was hand-picked by County Administrator David Edwards for their “impeccable” credentials). The other commissioners weren’t deterred. Commissioner Hess then suggested a workshop to consider input from The Friends of Wakulla Springs, Wakulla Springs Alliance and Clean Water Wakulla. He could not get a second and the motion failed.
Only one individual in the packed room spoke in favor of the new regulations. Commissioners Messersmith, Kemp, Nichols and Thomas then voted in favor of moving the new regulations forward, as they were written, allowing a gas station over a cave leading to Wakulla Springs with zero setbacks. Commissioner Hess was the lone nay vote.
The county had promised all along to include Wakulla Springs Alliance, Friends of Wakulla Springs and Clean Water Wakulla in drafting the new regulations, yet none were ever called upon. Setbacks were also the major component of springs protections when first discussed almost a year ago. But, in the end the new regulations were written behind closed doors by firms hand-picked by the county to provide minimum standards. In that regard, the county succeeded.
David Damon
Crawfordville