Health of beloved Florida spring should improve after water plant’s closure

HERNANDO COUNTY, Fla. — Sheli Thomas and her daughter stay in Clermont, simply minutes from Disney, however their magic kingdom is an hour away in Hernando County.

Thomas, who has made it her mission to go to each Florida spring, is endlessly mesmerized by the great thing about Weeki Wachee Springs.

“Pristine Florida. Actual Florida. Crystal clear, lovely water,” she stated. “Simply lovely nature.”

Tuesday, the mother-daughter duo spent the day kayaking the spring-fed river.

“The water was completely beautiful,” Thomas stated afterward as she loaded their boats onto the roof of her SUV. “It did appear [clearer].”

Quickly, the water of the pure attraction might develop into even clearer and cleaner due to what occurred throughout city — on the Spring Hill Water Reclamation Facility — on the identical time Thomas and her daughter paddled the spring run.

Hernando County leaders and others participated in a valve closing ceremony to mark the closure of the power, which is positioned behind the Walmart Supercenter on US Freeway 19.

The county closed the power, which had been in operation since 1967 as a result of it was finally sending water wealthy with nitrogen into spring.

Nitrogen and different sorts of nutrient air pollution may cause algae to bloom in springs like Weeki Wachee.

According to the Southwest Florida Water Management District, “giant quantities of algae progress may cause diminished water readability and excessive fluctuations in dissolved oxygen, which is anxious to aquatic life.”

Hernando County stated the water reclaimed on the Spring Hill website will now be despatched to a different facility close to the airport, the place newer know-how will scrub extra of the nitrogen from reclaimed water earlier than it’s used to irrigate an area golf course.

WFTS

Utilities Director Gordon Onderdonk estimates that the closure of the Spring Hill facility will take away 46,000 kilos of nitrogen from Weeki Wachee Springs annually.

“The Basin Administration Motion Plan that was created for Weeki Wachee Spring set a 20-year aim of eradicating roughly 195,000 kilos of nitrogen per 12 months,” he defined. “So, that is roughly…one-fourth there simply from eradicating this one undertaking proper right here, so it’s an amazing accomplishment.”

In keeping with Onderdonk, closing the valve in Spring Hill isn’t the one resolution Hernando County is deploying to enhance the spring’s well being.

A separate undertaking will convert lots of of properties not removed from the spring from septic tanks to a central sewer system. In keeping with the Basin Management Action Plan for Weeki Wachee Springs, septic tanks account for the spring’s largest supply of nitrogen air pollution.

Hernando County has additionally requested the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fee (FWC) to designate a stretch of the Weeki Wachee River as a Springs Safety Zone.

Such a designation would drastically change what’s and isn’t allowed on the river. If authorized, it will purpose to cease guests from getting out of their boats to swim or stroll on riverbanks, sand level bars, or the river backside by prohibiting nearly all banking and anchoring of kayaks, canoes, and different boats alongside a roughly 5-mile span of the river.

The zone could be enforced by county regulation enforcement.

To Thomas, the efforts are each good and dangerous.

Whereas she applauds efforts to take away nitrogen air pollution from Weeki Wachee Springs, she believes the Spring Safety Zone would hinder her skill to benefit from the pure gem.

“Conservation is necessary,” she stated. “I’m 100% on conservation, however we now have to have the ability to take pleasure in this as a result of in any other case, what’s the aim.”

Others, although, imagine the safety zone is required to forestall the spring from being cherished to dying.

As ABC Action News documented last year, rope swings are bending and snapping timber. Some paddlers are beaching their kayaks, canoes, and boats and, because of this, eroding the fragile river banks. Guests’ ft are trampling and injuring crops each above the water and beneath it, together with eelgrass, which is a valuable meals supply for manatees.

In keeping with County Administrator Jeff Rogers, the FWC will host one other public enter session in February earlier than making a call on the Springs Safety Zone for Weeki Wachee Springs.

Rogers believes FWC’s resolution might are available Might, and he’s assured the company will grant the county’s request for a Springs Safety Zone.