November / December  2008, Page 3

PRESIDENTS REPORT

Ed Taylor

On September 16th I attended a meeting sponsored by the SJRWMD in Gainesville. The advertisement for this meeting stated there would be discussions concerning the withdrawals of water from the St. Johns River and the Ocklawaha River. Registration was a requirement to attend, so I did immediately. Boy, was I surprised at what took place when the meeting finally started. In the center of the room was a round table with fifty scientists (I counted them) seated. It was reported in a press release after the meeting there were one hundred; these must have been seated out in the audience because the only ones who spoke were seated at the table. Anyway, this meeting consisted of the scientists discussing among themselves the studies that each had made concerning the St. Johns River and the Ocklawaha River, and by the way, 95% of the discussions were about the St. Johns River with only a few scattered statements concerning the Ocklawaha River. Now, if you have ever had the experience of listening to fifty scientist discussing among themselves about their various studies, you will understand what I went through for nine hours. When a scientist was discussing his study, the only one who could understand what he was saying was another scientist. What I wanted to hear was how much water they could withdraw and what affect it would have on the river. That was never mentioned. They said there would be another gathering in two years that would cover water withdrawal amounts. Oh well, so much for a lost day!

As we all are aware, it has been fairly quiet concerning the Rodman war. But, as always, we need to be diligent and keep our eyes and ears open for anything that might surface from time to time, and here is the latest. I was having a phone conversation recently with Gena Brooks, Director of Greenways and Trails, and I asked her if anything was being discussed concerning Rodman. She told me that the DEP was again having discussions with the St. Johns River Water Management District in trying to secure the necessary permits to drain Rodman. I reminded her of the District's stand on this and that is there will be no permits until the nutrient situation is corrected. She admitted that the District was hesitant to discuss these permits for that reason. In my view, if it is being discussed at all, it does not make me happy and has led me in the direction of making Save Rodman Reservoir's existence known again and refresh Tallahassee's memory that we are still around and remain as determined and strong as ever.

So, here is the plan. I have had a conversation with Senator Jim King and informed him of the DEP's intent. We know it will probably be impossible to get a bill passed as long as Crist is our governor so why try it. Since things have been quite for a considerable length of time, I thought it would be a good move for me to attend the legislative delegations and once again speak on Rodman's behalf. Senator King said this was a good idea and would take it a step further by resubmitting the resolutions for the protection of Rodman in the delegations in which he is involved. I will also make my contacts in the other delegations and ask them to do the same thing. This will let Tallahassee know we haven't disappeared.

I am sure you remember that in some of my reports, I challenged the statement that some of the studies say that the Ocklawaha River could yield 107 million gallons of water a day with or without the reservoir. I tried in vain many times to get them to admit this could not happen by way of their own research and policies. The fact is the SJRWMD has measured the flow of the Ocklawaha for years and the result is that the highest flow ever measured is 834 MGD; the lowest flow has been measured at 342 MGD. It is the policy of the district to only allow about a 10% reduction in the flow of a river by way of withdrawals. Do the math! I just recently had a one-on-one meeting with Kirby Green (the district's director) and asked him for an explanation of how you could get this 107 MGD based on the above figures. With some hesitation he answered my question. He stated that if and when they went to the Ocklawaha River for withdrawals (he didn't mention ANY amount) that they would have 3 options.

: One - build above ground storage tanks, (very expensive), two - drill underground storage, (very expensive), or three - BUILD A RESERVOIR. We finally got an answer from the top. See ya next issue!