When Guy Marwick, Marion County environmental activist, gets up in the morning he doesn’t stop to wonder if the glass of water on the kitchen table is half full or half empty.
Nope. Not Guy, It could go either way. Instead he worries about the future of the liquid stuff inside the glass.
The water in the glass comes from underground, gurgling through the Florida Aquifer then bubbling up into Silver Springs, Rainbow Springs, two of 700 springs dotted like scattered diamonds around Florida.
“All 700 springs in Florida are in trouble,” said Guy, speaking during the legislative/media dinner at Silver Springs attraction on Friday, September 21, 2007, part of the sixth annual Marion County Springs Festival.
He ticked off the troubles:
1. Nutrients from fertilizers on yards & golf courses. That is why water quality in springs is down. He remembers seeing reflections of light on the bottom of Silver Springs, now the bottom is covered with algae.
2. Development. Don’t’ feel left out, that includes all of us. We are all part of the problem, busy developing and living in the recharge areas near springs. Ninety percent of all sandhill community ecosystems in Florida are already developed, reducing recharge areas considerably. What is a recharge area? The sandy soil that absorbs rainwater filters it like cheesecloth, reducing toxins before gravity pulls the water down into the Floridan Aquifer.
3. Problems with over pumping of the Aquifer. “Sometimes people just don’t get it, ” says Guy, and he gives a shocking, non-getting-it statistic – 50 percent of home water use is for watering our lawns. “That is unacceptable,” Guy says. He is right. What are we thinking? That’s drinking water on the lawn. Time to buy native, drought-resistant plants. Turn off the irrigations system. “My lawn looks really nice when it rains,” Guy says. Right on. Work with Mother Nature.
4. The good news is that water use in the United State is down since 1975, that is every place except Florida, the worst state in the United States for water use.
5. Dredging of rivers, not a biggie, but still a concern.
6. Too many motorboats.
7. Overuse, over loving of springs, like Silver Glen Springs in Ocala National Forest, where there are so many boats on weekend they raft to each other for almost a mile.
8. Dams, like Rodman Dam, blocking flow.
9. Consumptive use permits given ever so freely. “We are seeing growth we can’t support,” Guy says. But then again, no one will put their head on the chopping block and say – this is it, the number of people Florida can support without turning into a desert.
“We need concurrency,” Guy says. “We can’t build houses without roads, how about water?”
Guy talks of going to meetings held by St. Johns River Water Management District where utilities from around the region were asked to tell St. Johns how much water they wanted and where they wanted it delivered so St. Johns could tell them the cost.
Much of that water will be sucked out of the Ocklawaha River. Guy doesn’t think that is acceptable and he is not alone.
What to do? Conserve, build more desal plants (there are already 120 desal plants in Florida, most doing brackish water, did you know that?)
“We need legislation, education, participation, involvement and sometimes litigation,” says Guy.
And here you thought it was a simple test – choose the glass half full or half empty.
Forget the glass. Go with Guy. Worry about the water.
Lucy Beebe Tobias is a freelance writer and photographer in Ocala, Florida. Her book 50 Great Walks in Florida is available for pre-order at www.upf.com