A project to help protect Wakulla Springs is set to receive $3 million of the state's budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year, which Governor Ron DeSantis signed Wednesday.
Conservation Florida, a statewide accredited land trust, will use the money to acquire land in Wakulla County that they’ll trade for environmentally vulnerable land currently owned by a Georgia-based oil company.
“We are honored to stand alongside Wakulla residents in the protection of this beloved cave system,” Conservation Florida CEO Traci Deen said.
Southwest Georgia Oil Co. had planned to build a new 16-pump gas station on its land at the intersection of Crawfordville Highway and Bloxham Cutoff Road. But the project has been delayed for over a year due to concerns about the land being right above Wakulla's Chip's Hole, which is an underground cave system.
Environmentalists worried oil and other toxins could seep into Wakulla Springs and even contaminate drinking water.
“The Chip’s Hole Cave System contributes millions of gallons of freshwater daily downstream to Wakulla Spring," Woodville Karst Plain Project Director Casey McKinlay said. "Conserving these unique karst features will deliver long-term benefits to all stakeholders within the Wakulla Springs Basin."
Adam Bass, the Vice President of Conservation Florida, said the organization requested $3,782,000 of this year’s $116.5 billion state budget, to work out a trade agreement with Southwest Georgia.
“Conservation Florida is going to work with Wakulla County," he said. "We also been talking with some other nonprofit about managing that land and opening it up as a preserve that’s open to the public.”
With the funding approved, Conservation Florida can begin acquiring 225 acres of land in Wakulla. The state will give Southwest 7 acres of land that’s not connected to the cave system.
Conservation Florida expects the trade to happen within the next 6 months.