Spring 2012 Conservation Alert
April 25th at 3 P.M.
Riverhaven Community Building
The Riverhaven Garden Club’s Conservation Committee believes we all know that as Riverhaven property owners we are all devoted to protecting and conserving our Homosassa River system and its natural resources. This protection is unarguably essential to our economic prosperity as homeowners and to our own quality of life.
The recent winter’s activity in the Florida Legislature is threatening to remove our local water resources management, and instead place what happens to our spring fed rivers in the hands of Tallahassee. (S.B. 1986) This flies in the face of the 2010 chapter 373, F.S., which requires local water resources control with adequate state funding. Loss of local control and oversight could set up the possibility that our Homosassa River water may end up flowing to the Villages or to the Tampa area, and of course reducing the amount of water flowing down our river.
This flow reduction threat could be very serious to the river’s health and welfare. The goal of the SWFWMD Minimum Flows Program seems to consider doing just this. Original reports are to draw five percent of the Homosassa Blue Springs water away, with an eleven percent draw down from the Chassahowitzka River to our south. The Crystal River could also be drawn down.
The Homosassa River’s estuary system is a complex mix of fresh and saline Gulf waters. A very sensitive low salinity zone exists upriver which supports certain types of fish, blue crabs, and vegetation such as the turtle grass beds manatees rely upon for food. Changing this water mix to greater salinity allows critters like barnacles to get a foothold, as many of you have already noticed on your boats and docks. This is a recent development showing that less fresh water output is already a problem in our springs upriver. Less rainfall in recent decades, and a greater number of area wells and pumps often miles away, are both factors. Not to mention that the spring water is not as clean and pure as it once was due to more road run-off, leaking septic tanks and sewer lines, and lawn fertilizers.
SWFWMD will be making amended updated minimum flow recommendations for our county coastal rivers by the end of April or early May. Final revived reports will be made on July 31st at district headquarters in Brooksville. Public concerns from the stakeholders (like us) will need to be seen and heard before then. This is all happening very quickly now and during a time when many of our residents will be leaving for summer homes.
Our actions will be needed to help protect our beloved river, lest the current dead zone increases and the toxic green algae slime take over the rest. The Riverhaven Conservation Committee will host an informative program with local experts on April 25th at 3 P.M. in the Riverhaven Community Building on W. Riverhaven Drive. Those in attendance can ask questions and hear solutions for protecting our rivers and its adjacent property and wildlife.
Betsy Frank, Riverhaven Garden Club |
