DEP SAYS NO TO COUNTY’S SPRINGS PROTECTION EFFORTS

WKPP divers Steve Cox and Blake Wilson in the Turner Sink cave system on Jan. 14. The two divers found the tunnel that links Chip’s Hole, a sinkhole north of Bloxham Cutoff near U.S. Highway 319, with Wakulla Springs. PHOTO BY LAUREN WILSON/WKPP



By WILLIAM SNOWDEN

I had written a nice little column this week about the county’s efforts to pass a springs protection ordinance – some strict new regulations on protecting Wakulla’s underground caves from potential contamination from surface pollution.
It was an explainer column with some praise for elected officials and staff working in good faith to protect groundwater. And I took a few jabs at the Tallahassee Democrat’s flub of a story that came out Monday.
But then came the bombshell at Monday night’s county commission meeting: County Administrator David Edwards and County Attorney Heather Encinosa told commissioners that at a meeting with officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection they were told in no uncertain terms that DEP would not approve the county’s ordinance.
Edwards and Encinosa had met with DEP officials and general counsel on Friday.
“DEP would not approve any heightened regulation by Wakulla County,” Edwards told commissioners.
All five commissioners looked stunned.
Commission Chair Ralph Thomas sought clarification: “So they’re going to deny the ordinance as submitted?”
Edwards answered that DEP views the siting of underground tanks – meaning especially gas tanks – as its purview and it preempts any county regulation.
Encinosa reiterated that: DEP would not entertain heightened regulations.
Commissioner Chuck Hess looked disgusted and sighed out: “D-E-P. Don’t Expect Protection.”
Hess bemoaned that while every other county in Florida has some level of confining soil to protect the underground water, Wakulla does not.
Meaning anything spilled on the surface goes right through the sand and limestone into the water – into Wakulla Springs and the county’s drinking water.
The county had proposed deeper soil borings for sites with underground tanks, a second review of the developer’s report, monthly monitoring, and more.
Many citizens have been urging even tighter regulations than the county had proposed in the ordinance – much of the debate was about setbacks from known caves. Edwards had said at past meetings that setbacks were the original idea, but there is no way to have a surveyor put up red flags on private land that mark the extent of the caverns 200 feet below ground.
Earlier in the day, before commission meeting, I talked to Casey McKinlay of WKPP who told me the group does map the location of the caves, and said he believes the accuracy is very good. “However, if we’re arguing 5 or 10 feet here or there, I don’t understand that argument,” he said.
Instead, he said WKPP’s job is to let people know “there is a very large cave system here” on this property.
All for naught.
At the start of the county commission meeting, citizen David Damon had been asking commissioners what the county would do to prevent an underground gas tank being located over a cave. Turns out, they can’t do anything.
In my original column, I wrote something about the challenge faced by the county in coming up with regulations to protect water was also an opportunity to do something that could potentially be a model for other Florida counties.
Never mind.
It appears the commission won’t choose to waste its time on a battle they can’t win.
As Edwards told them: DEP is a brick wall, and he’s crashed into enough of them to know the wall wins.

And here, I can’t resist: We all make mistakes  occasionally, but the Democrat’s big flub in the story was attributing a quote to “Heather Bryan, the county’s executive director” when they meant Heather Encinosa, the county attorney.
Heather Bryan is the executive director of the Wakulla Chamber of Commerce and had nothing to do with any of this.

William Snowden is editor and publisher of The Wakulla Sun.