Update 2023-09-14: Draft 2023 North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP) workshop 2023-09-21.

Sent as PDF.

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January 31, 2023

To: SRWMD, SJRWMD, partnership@sjrwmd.com

Re: Water budget, limit water withdrawals, do better aquifer recharge, NFRWSP

Dear Water Management Districts,

Thank you for the opportunity for public input.

Not every demand needs water withdrawals

At the November 15, 2022, public meeting about the North Florida Regional Water Supply Plan (NFRWSP), I thanked the presenters for all the hard work they had put into the details, such as in the North Florida-Southeast Georgia (NFSEG) regional groundwater flow model .

I have some issues with another level. I noticed repeated assertions in the public meeting that demand or projected demand are just taken as givens. So basically anybody who wants to build a golf course, or start another titanium mine, or plant almond trees that need lots of water, that’s just a given, that’s demand.

Figure 2-47. Groundwater withdrawals by county and use type (MGD), 2009
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It seems strange.

Figure 9-12. Potential evaporation for 2010 from NLDAS tensioned to USGS
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You’ve gone to a great deal of trouble to compile a water budget in the sense of here’s evapotranspiration, here’s aquifer recharge, and so forth.

Figure 4-60. Simulated net recharge rates (inches/year), 2009
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But all we see for a plan to deal with that is changing MFLs. Which seems to translate to lowering the limits for the water levels. I didn’t see anything about planning to limit or review use permits for water withdrawal.

I know I heard something about, well, that’s the regulatory arm. But this plan includes aquifer recharge projects, such as I believe there’s a 48-inch pipe planned to go from the Suwannee River to recharge the Ichetucknee headsprings. See Appendix J from 2016. https://northfloridawater.com/watersupplyplan/documents/draft/Appendix_J.pdf

More detail: https://wwals.net/?p=15981

Project Location and Potential Pipeline Alignment

Four years later, SRWMD added a plan for another such pipe, from Branford. https://wwals.net/?p=55981

Map: Recharge % in SRWMD’s slides Prevention and Recovery Strategy for the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee Rivers and Priority Springs

There are much simpler ways to recharge the aquifer than these very expensive water pipelines, as Practicing Geologist Dennis J. Price pointed out back in 2016. https://wwals.net/?p=54126

Drill wells at the bottom of planted pine ditches.

Map: Flatwood Recharge Wells
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Planning aquifer recharge water pipelines is a policy. A bad policy, but still a policy.

Limiting permits is also a policy. Limiting new withdrawal permits and phasing down quantities of older permits should be in this plan.

I brought this up six years ago, as did many other people,

Model inadequate, notice, process, table —John S. Quarterman, Suwannee Riverkeeper at joint SRWMD-SJRWMD Board Meeting 2017-01-17

and it was basically shrugged off. Both districts just proceeded to pass the plan as is.

Boards vote to approve; say they heard nothing new at joint SRWMD-SJRWMD Board Meeting 2017-01-17

I hope that there may be some change in course possible at this point. Because I really wouldn’t want all your hard work to just go towards further reducing MFLs and decreasing water levels for the springs and rivers.

For the rivers and the aquifer,

John S. Quarterman,
Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®
229-242-0102
contact@suwanneeriverkeeper.org
www.suwanneeriverkeeper.org

Attachments:

• WWALS NFRWSP comment letter of December 5, 2016 https://wwals.net/?p=27688
• Proposal for the Recharge of the Upper Floridan Aquifer —D.J. Price P.G. 2016-11-14 https://wwals.net/?p=54126

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