The “One Rake at a Time” project has for years gone out to clean up the waters of our beautiful fresh water springs, removing trash and invasive algae. That cleanup effort is at the core of an action plan that speaks louder than words. Until we actually make a real physical difference in a positive way, our Citrus County springs and waters will continue to degrade.
Our collective actions either make a positive or a negative difference on the waters of our springs, and our drinking water. Think about it; the spring water is the same water we pull out of the ground for drinking. If the springs are showing signs of distress, then our drinking waters is also being contaminated.
There are places in the United States where the ground water has such high concentrations of nitrates and other pollutants in it that it is no longer drinkable. I do not think we want that to happen here in Citrus County. We must respect our waters and keep this life giving resource as pure and clean as possible for ourselves, the creatures and plants with which we share this space, and our visitors.
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When we rake algae out of the water, we not only remove pollutants, but we create awareness that in turn causes other positive actions to occur. The more people who are aware and educated, the more positive actions keep happening. By our community’s actions, the city, county and, now, the government in Tallahassee, took notice. Now we are finally getting the funding needed to vacuum up and remove even more algae and legacy nutrients from King’s Bay. Thanks to everyone who contributed to get this result and who will work with us to keep rebuilding our clean water resource.
King’s Bay is 600 acres. I always knew raking was only the beginning of an action plan that has now energized the community and is bringing more help and awareness to our waters. As we clean up King’s Bay, let’s look ahead to what will happen to our waters and to what will come next. After years of cleaning and restoration and preventive actions kicking in too, what will happen when we are “done” or the grants and funding stop coming?
How do we make sure our springs, King’s Bay, and our waters never fall into neglect again?
The proposed Crystal River Aquarium can play an important part in doing just that. We will keep generations of Citrus County residents in touch with the Bay and our watershed, building awareness, responsibility, and a can-do spirit. We will share this message and education with other Floridians and with visitors who come to Citrus County from across America and the world.
And, with a portion of the ticket sales dedicated to the continued clean up, restoration, and stewardship of King’s Bay, we will always have some local home grown funds available every year to continue our tradition of taking action to make a difference.
The Aquarium will be a great educational tool and research center that shows clearly what is going on in the waters of King’s Bay and the rest of the Nature Coast. Time and time again, we hear from environmental pundits about the need for prevention, which is one of the most difficult jobs ahead of us. With better knowledge and appreciation for our precious waters, the citizens here and across the world will be empowered to change some of the leadership decisions that allowed our springs to become polluted.
We can do a lot without government support. We can ask people to voluntarily stop over fertilizing their landscapes and golf courses. We can ask businesses to limit sales of quick release fertilizers and to promote smart use for alternatives like compost.
Our public awareness efforts are already having an effect, but stopping septic tank pollution is a far different matter, and it’s definitely not cool. Long term higher impact solutions sometimes do require hard political choices that will not please everyone.
However, there are cost effective solutions that can make septic systems work in places where they cannot be upgraded to public sewage systems. Many states have implemented these, and we can learn from them. Let’s all do the “clean water is cool” thing by ensuring that individually we are not part of the problem and by encouraging our leaders to enact common sense changes that benefit the environment.
The incremental improvements proven by the One Rake at a Time project have made a huge and lasting impact on our beloved community, its springs, lakes and rivers.
Removing legacy nutrient pollutants from out waters makes a difference by making our waters just a little bit cleaner every day.
To me that makes each day a little bit better than the last, for everybody and everything.
Art Jones is a Crystal River resident and founder and director of One Rake at a Time.
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