Members of the public still have some time to weigh in on draft rules intended to better protect the state’s 30 designated Outstanding Florida Springs (OFS), according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
The deadline to submit public comments is Thursday, October 3: three weeks after FDEP’s workshop in Apopka last month. Dozens of concerned citizens flocked to that workshop, and to a rally held immediately beforehand, to speak out about why Florida’s springs need more protection — and why they say FDEP is dropping the ball.
A state law enacted in 2016 directed FDEP to “adopt uniform rules for issuing permits that prevent groundwater withdrawals harmful to the water resources and a uniform definition of the term ‘harmful to the water resources.’” Eight years later, FDEP has issued a notice of development of rulemaking, and extended it — twice — but no new rules are yet in place.
Florida Springs Council Executive Director Ryan Smart blasted the agency at last month’s rally, saying FDEP has made “zero progress in adopting a valid rule.”
“Instead, for the third time, [FDEP] is once again proposing the same permitting rules that were already in place more than a year before the law was amended: the same rules that have already proven to cause significant harm to Outstanding Florida Springs,” Smart said.
Smart said as of Monday, more than 1,000 comments had been submitted to the agency via FSC’s online template form about the September workshop and draft rules. Members of the public can also submit written comments to FDEP by October 3, via email: OWP_Rulemaking@FloridaDEP.gov.
