Volusia Blue Spring Pumping
Manatees' wintering area may be at risk
A plan might reduce flow at Volusia's Blue Spring, winter home to about 200 sea cows.
Ludmilla Lelis | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted May 10, 2006
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...home-headlines
PALATKA -- In the ongoing battle between west Volusia County's booming development and the need to protect the nearly 200 manatees that winter there, the developers came out on top Tuesday.
The St. Johns River Water Management District voted 8-1 to give initial approval to a plan that would allow utilities to pump more water out of the underground aquifer, even if that meant lower water levels at Blue Spring, which serves as a wintertime refuge to the manatees.
However, board members said they would grant final approval only if the plan includes a clear-cut strategy to closely monitor the Orange City spring and to make sure that the current average flow would be restored by 2024. The plan is scheduled for a final vote Aug. 8.
Said district board member William Kerr, "This does not mean that Volusia County can come in and take all the groundwater."
District scientists said that the 18-year plan would accommodate west Volusia's growing demand for water until a new treatment plant is built that would convert St. Johns River water to drinking water. Once that plant is built, local utilities would have to decrease the amount of water they pump out of wells, to give the spring a chance to recover.
But many critics, including state and wildlife agencies and environmentalists, are skeptical that this will happen.
Manatees leave the chilly waters of the St. Johns River every winter and swim to Blue Spring, which has a year-round temperature of about 72 degrees, to stay warm. With an average flow rate of 1,174 gallons per second, or 157 cubic feet, Blue Spring is one of the largest springs in Florida.
The district's proposal would allow the flow to drop as low as 132 cubic feet a second, before gradually increasing back to current levels by 2024.
Sandra Clinger, with the Save the Manatee Club, warned that a lower flow rate would shrink the size of the pool along the spring run. That, she said, would crowd the sea cows together, potentially harming them and putting the district in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act.
"You have a subpopulation of manatees literally in your hands, and the only subpopulation that we can say definitively is doing well," Clinger said. The St. Johns River population is one of the healthiest of the sea-cow herds in Florida.
But water utilities run by Volusia County, Deltona, DeLand and Orange City said new development has created an increasing demand for water. The only short-term source, they say, is the same underground aquifer that feeds the spring. Volusia County officials alone are seeking a permit to withdraw 5.1 million gallons a day, up from the current 4 million gallons per day.
For the past 10 years, district scientists have studied the spring flow and manatee behavior to try to establish the minimum amount of water needed to support the manatees. They concluded that at 132 cubic feet per second -- a 16 percent decrease from the current average volume -- there would be enough water to provide ample room for the manatees.
They said their plan would allow for a growing manatee population by requiring a gradual increase in the spring flow until it returned to 157 cubic feet per second by 2024.
Hal Wilkening, the district's director of resource management, said the plan doesn't necessarily mean the Volusia utilities could -- or would -- pump all the water to the 132-cubic-feet limit. The scientists' report said the increased withdrawals requested to date would cause the spring flow to drop to 144 cubic feet per second.
Still, federal wildlife officials and environmentalists objected to the plan.
David Hankla, field supervisor for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, recently wrote a letter expressing skepticism that the spring flow would rebound on the district's timetable. He warned of potential conflict, as has happened in the Pacific Northwest, between communities accustomed to taking certain amounts of water and the endangered animals that were put at risk.
Environmentalists and wildlife officials recommended setting the current flow of 157 cubic feet per second as a minimum standard.
However, Gloria Marwick, director of Volusia County Water Resources & Utilities, pressed board officials to approve the lower limit for the spring.
"If you establish 157, forget development," Marwick said. "We would have to close our plant now."
The approved plan gives the Volusia utility "some relief" in quenching the area's thirst until a river-treatment plant is built, Marwick said afterward.
Officials in Deltona, DeLand and Orange City said they were pleased with the board's approval, though they were uncertain of its immediate impact.
Rebecca Mahoney and Charlene Hager-Van Dyke contributed to this report. Ludmilla Lelis can be reached at llelis@orlandosentinel.com or 386-253-0964.
Manatee spike delays Blue Spring vote
Manatee spike delays Blue Spring vote
A surge in the number of sea cows forces water managers to re-examine plans to tap the spring.
Ludmilla Lelis | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted August 9, 2006
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...home-headlines
PALATKA -- Regional water managers delayed a plan Tuesday that could allow fast-growing west Volusia to tap into the water feeding Blue Spring because that critical manatee haven had more manatees last winter than had been expected.
The St. Johns River Water Management District agreed to postpone final approval of the proposal for two months, while scientists figure out how the jump in the manatee population changes their calculations, said district resource-management director Hal Wilkening.
"This number throws this out of whack significantly," said board member Susan Hughes. "That's why we need to recalibrate."
The Blue Spring proposal sets up an 18-year tradeoff on the water supply between man and manatee. Until 2024, district officials would allow the spring flow rate to drop, thereby giving Volusia utilities a chance to pump more groundwater, even though it would take away spring water from the manatees. Utility officials have been asking for permission to pump more water to accommodate the demand from growth.
Before the deadline year, the utilities will be required to build a water-treatment plant on the St. Johns River so that they can cut back their pumping and let the spring flow recover.
Environmentalists and manatee experts object to the plan because they worry it could harm nearly 200 sea cows that depend on the spring for their survival in the winter. They also question whether the district can guarantee that the spring will recover in 2024.
However, Wilkening said that the spring flow is affected by many other factors, including rainfall. Also, if groundwater pumping reduces the spring flow, that flow should recover when the pumping is cut back.
"That's just a matter of physics," said Wilkening. In the meantime, district scientists will closely monitor the spring and the manatee population throughout the 18-year plan.
The district will revisit the proposal at its Oct. 10 meeting.
District officials are required by law to set the spring's minimum annual flow, and this regulation gives the Volusia utilities a clear deadline requiring them to build a water plant, rather than depending on the underground water supply for all the area's future water needs, Wilkening said.
At Tuesday's meeting, Sandra Clinger of the Save the Manatee Club spoke against the proposal. She has asked whether the proposal takes too much water from the manatees.
Meanwhile, Philippe Cousteau, grandson of the late marine explorer and documentarian Jacques Cousteau, was at Blue Spring State Park on Tuesday, interviewing aquatic biologist Patrick Rose and other manatee experts about the threat of development to the spring.
It was his grandfather's interest in saving the Florida manatee refuges that led to state officials buying the spring as a state park.
"This spring and these manatees represent a resource that should benefit all of the people of Florida, not just a few special interests," said Philippe Cousteau, who is producing a documentary that will air on National Public Radio in October.
As one of Florida's largest springs, Blue Spring flows at an average annual rate of 1,174 gallons per second, or 157 cubic feet. The district plan allows the average spring level to drop as low as 132 cubic feet a second, before gradually increasing it back to current levels by 2024.
District scientists designed the proposal based on their expectations on how the manatee population would grow in the future.
However, the highest daily manatee count from the winter of 2005-2006 represents a big jump from the prior winter, and if the manatee population is growing at a higher rate than anticipated, the spring plan might not account for enough spring water for the manatees in the future.
Last winter, the park counted 180 manatees on a single day, while the highest daily count from the prior winter was 130.
Any change in the calculations could prompt the district to rewrite the plan or affect how much water the utilities can pump.
"It has a bearing on how much water and how fast they would need to develop their alternative water projects," Wilkening said.
Michael McLeod of the Sentinel staff contributed to this story. Ludmilla Lelis can be reached at llelis@orlandosentinel.com or 386-253-0964.
A Cousteau returns to Blue Spring
A Cousteau returns to Blue Spring
The environmental warrior's grandson, Philippe, embarks on a mission of his own.
Michael McLeod | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted August 10, 2006
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/...,4432638.story
ORANGE CITY -- Every morning, gliding along at a brisk pace that belies her 88 years, Lucille Ryan patrols the boardwalks at Blue Spring State Park.
This morning she's even more animated than usual. She has been sharing her Blue Spring memories with a small radio crew, loaded down with clipboards, microphones and diving gear, that is recording a documentary about the spring and its manatees for National Public Radio. She's particularly taken by the slim young man with spiky blond hair who is at the center of the enterprise, interviewing park rangers and aquatic biologists.
She watches as he paddles out into the glassy water to get a close-up view of a lone manatee that veers out of the St. Johns River and drifts toward the spring. When the young man emerges from the water, she musters her courage and asks him for his autograph, marveling when he cheerfully complies.
What she doesn't realize is that the encounter means just as much to Philippe Cousteau as it does to her.
"That woman remembers my grandfather and my father," says Cousteau. He holds out both hands, fingers spread wide apart, then claps them to his chest. "I never knew my father. This is as close to him as I will ever be. I'll never measure up to my grandfather. He was an amazing man, a powerful man. But I don't compare myself to him. I just do what I can. It's a privilege. It's an opportunity. It's an honor."
Cousteau, 26, is the grandson of Jacques Cousteau, the explorer and environmental crusader who mesmerized and educated a generation with his television series about the sea and its creatures, The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau.
The show was always a family enterprise: Cousteau's son Philippe Sr. was a frequent contributor and crew member. But he died in a seaplane crash in 1979, six months before his own son was born. Jacques Cousteau died 18 years later, at the age of 87.
Five years ago, intent on continuing the family legacy, the junior Philippe Cousteau and his sister, Alexandra, created EarthEcho International, an educational foundation dedicated to environmental concerns, in honor of their father.
The Blue Spring trip this past Tuesday was a part of that crusade. The very existence of the state park that encompasses and protects the spring and the manatees is largely due to an episode of Jacques Cousteau's television series in 1971.
At the time, the spring was a popular and unregulated spot for picnics and swimming. Some of the more rambunctious visitors tried to ride the manatees. Some of the more careless ones left beer cans and other garbage behind. Cousteau was so enraged he refused to film until the place was cleaned up. His emotional tribute to the lumbering animals prompted a public outcry and spurred the state to buy and protect the property.
Thirty-five years later, a Cousteau has returned to Blue Spring, concerned about another threat: a controversial plan to pump groundwater near the spring for residential usage, lowering the water level of the spring, and possibly threatening its status as a haven for the slow-moving mammals.
"I didn't anticipate how emotional this was going to be for me," he says. "I do a lot of public speaking, and people always come up to me and say how much they appreciate the work my father and my grandfather did. But here, people came up and hugged me. There's a magic to it.''
Cousteau, who was born in Los Angeles, went to college in Scotland, and lives in Washington, D.C., does not have his grandfather's hypnotic French accent -- nor does he wear, much to Lucille Ryan's disappointment, the red wool cap that was a trademark of the elder Cousteau. But he seems to have inherited at least some of the eloquent doggedness that his grandfather used to remind world leaders and the common man of the beauty and fragility of nature.
"This story is not just about manatees," he says. "They are an incredibly gentle, beautiful animal, and they have as much right as we do to live on this earth. But this spring is at the very heart of Florida's ecosystem. It sustains us -- our spirit, our economy, our future, even our past. It has been handed down to us. Who are we to destroy it?"
Michael McLeod can be reached at mmcleod@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5432.
