CEJ staff attorney Rob Williams has submitted comments on the draft BMAP for Wakulla Springs, addressed to DEP’s BMAP Coordinator Stephen Cioccia, with copies to Secretary Herschel Vinyard and Deputy Secretary Drew Bartlett. The letter focuses on the failure of the proposed BMAP to acknowledge what the Department’s own data shows: the significant contribution of septic tanks to the deterioration of Wakulla Springs, and the lack of any meaningful action by the Department to prevent further compromise and to restore the water quality and quantity.

From the letter:

The Center for Earth Jurisprudence’s approach to the issues raised by the proposed plan reflects our belief that humanity has a foundational responsibility to care for and protect the long term health and well-being of the entire Earth community–that is, all beings and ecosystems that constitute the natural world.

. . . .

These conditions are the result of 376 tons of nitrate per year going into the Upper Floridan Aquifer. It is as if someone drove a pickup truck onto the dock at Wakulla Springs and shoveled a ton of fertilizer into the Spring every day of the year. Obviously, the park rangers would not allow that—why does DEP continue to permit our springs to be polluted?

We can solve this problem if we have the will to take meaningful action now, not as the Department proposes, five years from now. . . . So far the BMAP process has been a missed opportunity for our communities to come together and protect a priceless piece of our common heritage for our children and our children’s children. We can do better.

Read the full text of the letter here. Read the appendix here.