Water permitting for sturgeon farm in Jackson County.

[Ben M]

There's an informal meeting of the NWFWMD in Marianna this Tuesday (Aug 20th) for residents to discuss their concerns on water issues and permitting processes with officials.

http://www.nwfwmd.state.fl.us/pubs/P...licMeeting.pdf

Hot button issue is the request by a "local" sturgeon farmer to increase his permitted draw from 2.6 million gallons per day to 7.2 million gallons per day. The farm is near Bascom which is in the Jackson Blue Springshed.

A couple of articles on the subject.

http://www.jcfloridan.com/news/artic...9bb30f31a.html

http://www.wmbb.com/story/22821706/s...unty-residents

http://www.tallahassee.com/article/2...esource-fights

I find it interesting that they are waiting on a federal permit to sell/purchase the eggs (in 2005 the US banned the sale), but this Miami based food dealer started this venture in 2001 prior to the ban. I don't claim to understand the issues, but know this is a lot of water and if they can't filter/clean it enough to keep the fish in it, why is it acceptable to put the polluted water back into the ground?

[Ben M]

I went to the meeting this evening. It was essentially a NWFWMD "Open House" with a few poster boards and government officials standing next to them for any Q & A. A few other entities were represented such as Jackson County Water District and a couple other government groups.

Relating to the request for increase in water use for the sturgeon farm, I learned the following:
-The request for permit was withdrawn for the increase in use permit previously submitted by the sturgeon farm.
-The farm's current waste water is just below the maximum allowable nitrate levels required for drinking water (10 ppm).