News-Journal Online
St. Johns River's fate
April 18, 2008
Prevent treasure from turning into development's
spigot
Well before
American Rivers ranked the St. Johns River sixth on its list of 10 Most Endangered Rivers, as
it did in the 2008 report released Wednesday, this much could be said about the
St.
Johns: Absent a detailed scientific study, drawing water out of the river
to slake growth's needs is a bad idea. And even with detailed studies
certifying the river's capacities, drawing it down should not take precedence over
alternatives -- conservation and limits on growth especially.
The
river, designated an American Heritage River in 1997, supports too fragile an
ecosystem and is too valuable to the tourism industry, to risk endangering for
the sake of untrammeled growth.
So
American Rivers isn't saying anything new so much as putting a welcome
additional spotlight on a state, and possibly endangered, treasure. This, too,
should be said about American Rivers, a Washington, D.C.-based research and
advocacy organization: Its findings aren't based on the most rigorous science
(which underscores the need for just such science regarding the St. Johns) but it's a respected
environmental organization with rivers' best interests at heart.
Kirby
Green, executive director of the St. Johns River Water Management District,
doesn't see it that way. He lambasted American Rivers' inclusion of the St. Johns on its list of endangered rivers.
"For someone to say the district doesn't have the best intentions for the
river is just not true," he said. "Does it reflect what's going on
the river and the conscience of the people along the river? No. I don't believe
it does."
Green
is accurate in one regard: The people along the St. Johns River are its most ardent defenders and
protectors. It's the water management district they have to worry about -- the
district that, like others in the state, balances some interests more than
others: It fails to consistently stand up to developers and profit-minded
cities now in the business of selling water as a source of revenue.
Latest
examples: The district's plan to let Seminole County draw 5.5 million gallons
of water a day from the St. Johns River for lawn irrigation; the district's
staff study concluded that drawing up to 255 million gallons a day from the
river won't noticeably affect the river's flow (which is not the only issue:
the river flows so slowly that it's more susceptible than others to
accumulating pollution, making every cleansing gallon count). Then there's the district's own oddly intentioned, rather than
well-intentioned, warning to utilities that bigger draws of groundwater from
the aquifer will be prohibited after 2013. It's oddly intentioned because the
flip-side of that warning is an invitation to look at other sources of water, among
them the St.
Johns River.
Federal
and state agencies have spent hundreds of millions of dollars restoring the St. Johns River's flow since the late 1970s,
after a network of flood-control canals and reservoirs designed by the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s, abetted by subsequent development,
wrecked the river's health. Restoration of wetlands and wildlife habitat has
been successful, but the job isn't complete. And it wasn't accomplished in
order to give state water management agencies an excuse to exploit the river by
other means. Protecting the St. Johns, not tapping it, should remain
the overriding objective.