Some resist proposed MFLs for coastal rivers

Citrus County is more than halfway through the process mandated by the Florida legislature in 1997 for water managers to set minimum flows and levels for all major bodies of water in the state.

Chronicle file

Boats await passengers along the Chassahowitzka River. Some citizens and environmental groups, including The Homosassa River Alliance, Friends of the Chassahowitzka, TOOFAR and the Withlacoochee Area Residents, have opposed the currently recommended minimum flows and levels (MFLs), which would allow 5 percent reduction flow in the Homosassa and 15 percent in the Chassahowitzka.

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The idea was to set minimum levels below which rivers, lakes or springs and their ecologies would be significantly damaged. That level would be used in planning, water management systems and permitting regarding withdrawals that could affect the area’s water resources.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District (sometimes called Swiftmud) and the four other water districts in the state were ordered to set Minimum Flows and levels, or MFLs. The district oversees permitting in 16 counties of large public, commercial, industrial, and agricultural withdrawals of water from wells or surface waters.

To date, 181 bodies of water have MFLs in the district. In Citrus, MFLs for the Floral City, Inverness and Hernando pools of the Tsala Apopka Lake chain have been adopted, as well as Fort Cooper Lake.

The data collection and analysis for the Homosassa River system and the Chassahowitzka River system have been done, but the district staff’s draft recommendations for MFLs has not yet been finalized and adopted by the water district’s governing board. Those two proposed MFLs have met with resistance from the environmental community in the county.

The only other remaining MFLs to be done in Citrus County will be for the King’s Bay springs/Crystal River system and the lower Withlacoochee River system that runs through the county forming its eastern and northern border on its way to the gulf. Those MFLs are slated to be developed in 2012.

At this point, the extensive data gathering and modeling studies on the Homosassa and Chassahowitzka rivers and springs systems are finished, and scientific peer reviews have endorsed the studies’ methodology and recommendations. The public point of view has been taken through a series of meetings with a group of local citizen stakeholders, the Springs Coast MFL Working Group.

Some citizens and environmental groups, including The Homosassa River Alliance, Friends of the Chassahowitzka, TOOFAR and the Withlacoochee Area Residents, have opposed the currently recommended MFLs, which would allow 5 percent reduction flow in the Homosassa and 15 percent in the Chassahowitzka.

Ron Miller, longtime Citrus County environmental activist and member of the Homosassa River Alliance, said the groups believe the MFLs should not allow any reduction. “There is no room to take water out. It’s already a depleted system,” he said of the Homosassa.

“The River Alliance position is that they (the water district) base it all on a hypothetical model that has flaws.” He said there are just too many complicating variables and unknowns to allow percentage withdrawals of such a sensitive resource based on a questionable mathematical model.

The study itself said, he noted, that just a 1 percent reduction in flow of the Homosassa would mean the loss of half the bass in the river. A 2 percent reduction would result in the loss of the larger blue crabs in the river, or 15 percent. “It’s incredibly complex, incredibly sensitive,” he said of the river system. Allowing any percentage reduction of flow is simply harming the river, he said.

Miller said the only way to set a figure is use a specific number in relation to withdrawals in a watershed and after that nothing would be allowed. He was not sure if the county itself had the authority to do that but felt that might be the best way to go about it.

He said the district had asked for public input and had gotten it, saying it would use that input to make modifications in the proposed MFLs. “The ball’s now in Swiftmud’s court,” he said. “We’ll see what they do.”

Water district Ecologic Evaluation Section Manager Marty Kelly said the water district staff is mulling over the public input and issues raised at those meetings. “We’re still considering what our recommendations might be, he said.”

A staff response to issues raised at the last work group meeting was scheduled to be posted on the district Web site last week.

The water district staff will issue its final report by mid-January and the recommended MFLs for the two rivers will go to the governing board of the district for adoption in late February. Any changes from the draft would be made public with the final report, Kelly said, but he did not discuss what that might be. “We are still kicking around some stuff internally,” he said.

Al Grubman, president of TOOFAR, a citizen environmental group dedicated to water issues and education, said his group sided with the Homosassa River Alliance in contending that just reducing the recommended MFLs a few percent to compromise isn’t sufficient.

The bottom line was, “Every drop taken is reducing those two rivers,” he said.

Water district spokesman Michael Molligan said the situation is made more complicated in that constitutes “significant harm” is not specifically defined in the law. “We are trying to set a reasonable standard.” he said.

The Chassahowitzka study, for example, illustrates the problem of the definition of “significant harm, noting the law on creating MFLs gives little guidance concerning identification of generally applicable thresholds associated with changes in flows or levels, either in the primary or secondary scientific and resource management literature. The definition of “significant harm, the report said, “often becomes a policy decision rather than a technical decision.”

Molligan said and the percentage of loss of habitat used in the Chassahowitzka modeling has been used in other locations. The modeling uses the best data and scientific methods available, he said, and and the scientific peer reviews have confirmed that, agreeing with the recommendations. “If we are way off base, they will tell us.” He said MFLs are ongoing processes, and can be modified if better data is obtained.

At present, the Citrus environmental groups are waiting to see what if any changes may have been made in the proposals in the final report that will go to the district governing board in February. That will determine, as a number of environmental group members have said, whether they want to consider going to court over the issue.

MINIMUM FLOWS AND LEVELS
Information about Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLs) in Citrus County:

+ General MFL info: To get more information on MFLs go to the water district Web page at: www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/projects/mfl/.

+ Springs Coast Working group info: To get information, including background information and reports, on the Springs Coast MFL working group, go to: www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/projects/mfl/springs-coast-mfl.php. The water district manager contact for the Springs Coast Working group is: Doug Leeper, chief environmental scientist resource projects (doug.leeper@watermatters.org or 800-423-1476 , ext. 4272).

+ To make comments on MFLs: To make comments on the Citrus County MFLs for the Chassahowitzka River System and Springs (includes Chassahowitzka Main, Chassahowitzka No.1, Crab Creek, Potter, Ruth and Blind Springs) or the Homosassa River System and Springs (includes Halls River Springs, Southeast Fork Homosassa River Springs, Homosassa Main Springs, Hidden River Springs) go to the water district’s website at www.swfwmd.state.fl.us/projects/mfl/comments.php.

Jim Hunter can be reached at jimhunter.chronicle@gmail.com.