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12/12/2024

Rule finally proposed for pumping Florida freshwater springs

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection filed a proposed rule Tuesday for how the state should oversee the pumping of groundwater from Florida’s most vulnerable freshwater springs, a process regulated through consumptive use permits, or CUPs.

The move comes just in time to meet the state agency’s deadline to respond to a recent lawsuit filed by the Florida Springs Council. The nonprofit had urged FDEP to finally issue a proposed rule for better protecting Florida springs, nearly nine years after the passage of a state law requiring the state agency to do so: the 2016 Florida Springs and Aquifer Protection Act.

Previous ideas FDEP had for protecting Florida springs never advanced past the draft rule stage, where they were unchallengeable. Now that it’s in proposal form, the rule can be challenged.

Within 21 days, anyone can request a hearing to discuss the proposed rule, to be held on a predetermined date; if nobody requests a hearing, there won’t be one.

More information on that hearing is below, from the text of the proposed rule:

Date/time of said hearing:

January 6, 2025 starting at 9:00 a.m.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas Building, Room 137
3900 Commonwealth Boulevard
Tallahassee, FL, 32399-3000

Public participation is solicited without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, handicap, or marital status. Persons who require special accommodations under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) or persons who require translation services (free of charge) are asked to contact DEP’s Limited English Proficiency Coordinator at (850)245-2118 or LEP@FloridaDEP.gov at least ten (10) days before the hearing within 10 days of publication of this notice. If you have a hearing or speech impairment, please contact the agency using the Florida Relay Service, (800)955-8771 (TDD) or (800)955-8770 (voice).

THE PERSON TO BE CONTACTED REGARDING THE PROPOSED RULE IS: James C. Albright Environmental Administrator. OWP_Rulemaking@FloridaDEP.gov

11/25/2024

Florida Springs Council sues FDEP — again

A judge’s order issued this week confirms a new lawsuit against the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is valid and can move forward, according to the Florida Springs Council, the nonprofit which filed the lawsuit in Hernando County earlier this month.

FSC seeks a court order forcing FDEP to adopt new rules for issuing permits to pump Florida’s freshwater springs, also known as consumptive use permits, or CUPs. A 2016 state law requires the agency to do just that, but nearly nine years later, the new rules still haven’t come to fruition.

Now, after trying time and time again to engage with FDEP on the outstanding rules — and repeatedly getting the runaround — FSC is left with little recourse beyond the lawsuit filed earlier this month, according to an attorney representing the nonprofit.

“We’re not messing around anymore,” said Rachael Curran, Staff Attorney at Stetson University’s Jacobs Public Interest Law Clinic for Democracy and the Environment.

Most Floridians’ drinking water comes from the same groundwater feeding Florida’s 1,000+ freshwater springs. But for 30 designated Outstanding Florida Springs, “action is urgently needed” to prevent future water quality and quantity declines, according to the 2016 Florida Springs and Aquifer Protection Act.

For those 30 Outstanding Florida Springs, the law directs FDEP to adopt “uniform rules for issuing permits which prevent groundwater withdrawals that are harmful to the water resources.” Additionally, FDEP must define what the clause “harmful to the water resources” actually means.

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