Interesting questions about Gum Springs, seen in this picture only 3,000 feet across Marion Oaks Golf Course from Sabal Trail:

Picture: Jim Tatum for WWALS on Southwings flight 2017-02-07.

Follow this link for the interactive google map, or it’s also embedded below.

Thanks to Linda Bystrak for noticing that proximity. She wrote:

Your aerial pictures show it very close to Gum Springs next to Marion Oaks golf course. SWFWMD just approved a 3% reduction in flow of that spring last year. Hope the pipe doesn’t change the hydrology of the area. It is surrounded by wetlands and is a popular hunting area.

Dan Hilliard and I were at the SWFWMD public meeting last year to speak against the withdrawal. Sorry I can’t remember the date. SWFWMD also has plans to withdraw 25mgd near the intersection of Gum Slough springs and the Withlacoochee. I don’t believe the pipe crosses the Withlacoochee.

The entire area around Wildwood is scheduled for massive new housing developments. Coleman Prison is nearby, but it now has a huge solar array powering it! Sumter Co. government is pretty much run by The Villages, which already has 113,000 residents. The pipeline will be in the center of all the growth in that area.

Janet Barrow adds:

Janet Barrow
March 13, 2017 at 4:49 pm

Please check the MFL levels for Gum Slough Springs. I was told by a SWFWMD employee at the recent Rainbow Springs MFL meeting that the MFL was set at 9 % for Gum Slough Springs. I did find this Minimum Flows for Gum Slough Spring Run Addendum resource from October, 2016

( https://www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/projects/mfl/reports/GumSprings/FinalAddendum-Gum_Slough_Spring_Run-Appendices.pdf):

CHAPTER 7 — CONCLUSION

Because the original minimum flows analyses for Gum Slough Spring Run described in a 2011 revised report were based on a relatively short flow record, a decision was made to gather more information to support more robust minimum flow recommendations for the system. The flow record was increased from seven to ten years, and the previously peer-reviewed analyses used for the original minimum flows determination were repeated.

Results of the new analyses yielded an updated minimum flow recommendation that would allow up to a six percent reduction in flows due to water withdrawals, based on a potential 15 percent decrease of available habitat for adult spotted sunfish in the spring run. The updated minimum flow recommendation also includes the recommended stipulation that surface water withdrawals are prohibited from depressing flows below 43 cfs. The adopted minimum flow will be reevaluated within ten years.

Updated groundwater modeling results indicated that the predicted streamflow decline for Gum Slough Spring Run at the USGS Gum Springs near Holder gage site under current pumping conditions is approximately 3.4 percent. Based on this information, a recovery strategy is not required for the proposed minimum flows.

No recovery strategy required? Even with the questions about Sabal Trail hydrostatic testing?

 -jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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