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Spring Cleaning Bill Sweeps Through Senate Panel

Regan McCarthy

The Senate’s comprehensive springs cleanup bill includes provisions that set standards and establish a timeline and a funding mechanism to reverse pollution in what were once the state’s biggest tourist attraction.  But even with a solid framework, Senator Charlie Dean (R-Inverness) said reaching those goals will take constant work from the legislature.

“I don’t ever ever ever want to see this bill finalized. Never. I want it open and every time we get to another stage and accomplish something reflect on how did we get there and more reflection is how’d we mess up. Don’t go back and do the same improprieties,” Dean said.

Environmental activists like Audubon Florida Legislative Director Mary Jean Yon are excited about the measure. But Yon said she’s also glad to hear it’s a work in progress.

“Instead of just restoring, how can we be preemptive and forward thinking?”

And Florida Home Builders Association Legislative Consultant Keith Hetrick said while he understands the state needs to make changes,  he’s worried the measure would have a devastating impact on his industry.

“The plain effect of the wording now is indefinite moratoriums in unknown but potentially significant areas of the state for the homebuilding industry effective July 1, 2015 and our industry is still a fragile industry struggling to recover from the great recession,” Hetrick said.

Hetrick’s concern is that the bill requires officials to map out which areas near springs need to be treated more carefully since water in those areas could seep into underground aquifers that feed the springs.  Once those areas are defined, homebuilders wishing to install septic systems there would have to follow stricter rules since septic tanks are sometimes a culprit for the pollution that’s muddying springs. Construction firms may either build on a plot of land that’s at least an acre in size or use a special type of septic system that helps to remove more of the polluting nutrients, like nitrogen.

Officials will start with the state’s biggest springs – sometimes called first magnitude -- like Wakulla.

General contractor and septic tank contractor Ben Withers has done a lot of work in the Wakulla Springs area, where the county used to have an ordinance requiring anyone installing a new septic tank to use the special nitrogen-reducing variety . But Withers said that meant those projects were more expensive.

“Let’s just say for instance a regular septic system costs $2-3,000 for a standard in ground system and that’s just a normal thousand gallon septic tank with 2 or 3 hundred feet of drain felid. When they went to these performance based units suddenly they started off they were $10-15 thousand and they got down into the $6-7,thousand dollar range, $8-thousand. That made it hard for people,” Withers said.

Withers said he saw a drop in business and septic tanks became an enemy.

“My problem is I want to see good sound science that tells us for sure what’s going on and then we want to all work together, partner up and say let’s fix this,” Withers said.

Both Hetrick and Withers say it doesn’t make sense to pass blanket legislation. Instead, they’d say the  specialty tanks should only be required in spring zones where studies can prove septic tanks, and not another source like agricultural runoff, are at fault for the pollution.

Follow @Regan_McCarthy

Regan McCarthy is the Assistant News Director for WFSU Public Media. Before coming to Tallahassee, Regan graduated with honors from Indiana University’s Ernie Pyle School of Journalism. She worked for several years for NPR member station WFIU in Bloomington, Ind., where she covered local and state government and produced feature and community stories.

Phone: (850) 645-6090 | rmccarthy@fsu.edu

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