Morrison Spring closed due to fecal matter

[Puttzer]

It is the future of all springs in Florida. The aging of septic systems of houses along the rivers is causing a major increase in e. coli throughout Florida. Fertilizer is not the culprit here, but dairy farms may be a major contributor - they use more water than crops and that water is used to wash down everything to keep conditions sanitary (within the farm, never mind where it goes). I don't recall the figures, but Florida is one of the biggest producers of milk in the Southeast and has seen a dramatic increase in the number of dairy cows recently.

The ultimate cause is the increase in human population. The USA population has increased from 150 million in 1950 to 300 million today. Twice as many people taking a dump, twice as many drinking milk, twice as many cows producing the milk, twice as much water to wash away the manure, twice as much crap getting into the ground water.

Look for more closures year by year, with some becoming more closed more often for longer periods of time, until the Feds redefine "safe limit" and reopen the springs!


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I recall a few years ago at one of the cave diving meetings: a state agent lectured explaining that the main source of water contamination was not septic tanks. It was chicken farms and septic tanks were near the bottom of the list and an insignificant source compared to the other sources.

Would like someone more informed than I to chime in and correct me as needed

Richard.

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I recall a few years ago at one of the cave diving meetings: a state agent lectured explaining that the main source of water contamination was not septic tanks. It was chicken farms and septic tanks were near the bottom of the list and an insignificant source compared to the other sources.

Would like someone more informed than I to chime in and correct me as needed

Richard.

Septic Tanks are local problems, rather than across-florida problems. Chicken farms are important, but in the past five years, the number of dairy cows has overtaken or caught up with the chickens (eat more chiken!). On the other hand, I remember someone from florida EPA talking about the aging of the septic systems along a stretch of the Suwannee River that was like a ticking time bomb for the Suwannee....

When I was doing water quality work for the NACD, we consistently found over-the-top e coli readings in the Suwannee (over-the-top means more than allowed for swimming). These were "point-readings," and we did not continue with a consistent plan to detect trends.

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