"Nothing better illustrates the relationship between dramatic alteration of the waterscape and piecemeal reform than the struggle to preserve the awesomely beautiful and rugged stretch of the Stanislaus River, a stream that rises in the Sierra Nevada, north of Yosemite, before eventually joining the the San Joaquin River, west of Modesto."
The Great Thirst, by Norris Hundley Jr.
Florida's "natural treasure" and the struggle to protect biological diversity, fisheries and forests from "pork barrel politics" for special interests.
Ocklawaha, or Oklawaha, is an Indian word meaning "crooked river."
Overview | Meaning | Dam's Impact | Florida Defenders | Nixon's actions | Current policies | Alliance to restore | River Facts | The Prospect
The Crooked River of no Return
"Knowledge is power." (Sir Francis Bacon)
Mastery of some ecological functions to construct a second nature within the original creation: the Greco-Roman tradition of
Comprehensive Riverine Management.
The waterscape was reconditioned to meet the needs of a growing population for landscape.
The Utopian Vision of natural features in service to the republic.
The power of a few legislatively effective people to block executive, cabinet and agency power thereby stifling the popular will.
The limits of pragmatism, progressivism, populism, and civic science.
Problems of knowledge based advocacy.
The focus on permitting and the idea of negative benefits versus best practices.
The prospect of federal action.
Tradition versus Reform: The Fate of the Oklawaha River.
Tradition of Conservation as part of large Public Work's projects to economically revive poor areas:
Examples of Comprehensive Riverine Management as a weapon of choice to combat rural isolation.
TVA: Tennessee Valley Authority, 1933; navigation, electricity and flood control.
Columbia River. project, 1934; irrigation, navigation, flood control and electricity.
California Central Valley project, 1935, irrigation, flood control and electricity.
Public works versus "pork barrel politics"
Public works are those projects in districts such as roads, bridges, harbors or airports that benefit economic interests.
Versus
"pork barrel politics"
The use of political influence to leverage power in order to bring federal money to a Congressional district as a favor.
The Rodman Dam was approved in 1964, as part of the Cross Florida State Barge Canal project.
Built by the Army Corps of Engineers and managed by the Cross Florida State Barge Canal Authority.
The St. John's River's largest tributary was to be dammed up by a forty foot structure that would flood twenty feet high, creating a reservoir of 9000 acres and drowning twenty springs along sixteen miles of the Oklawaha, an amazingly beautiful stretch that included one of the south east country's most boated clearest and famous waters Silver Springs.
Even before water could back up behind the Rodman Dam, opponents from Alachua Audubon Society and local home and property owners lead by spokes people from the University of Florida had transformed the struggle into a national fight by engaging the Environmental Defense Fund, (Now Environmental Defense).
Traditionalists wanted Federal money to revive an ailing regional economy. Palatka and the central St. Johns River. had once been a navigational center for commerce and tourists until steam boats faded from service after the First World War.
Before the Supreme Court decision of Baker vs. Carr to reapportion state legislatures to better reflect the demographic power of urban voters, rural politicians from among the oldest settled counties such as Marion County and partnered with interested parties in Leesburg and Palatka to bring ocean going traffic and federal relief dollars to agriculturally worn out lands in Lake, Marion and Putnam Counties -- "to actively promote the proposed dams and ship canal."
When engineers realized a deep ship canal was too costly and could damage drinking water supplies by digging across the recharge lands for the Floridan aquifer, the project was altered to create a State Barge Canal. Unfortunately the barges would require two or three dams to flood the areas in order to supply water for the locks to raise the canal over the Central Florida ridge west of Ocala.
Anti dam forces "Florida Defenders of the Environment" and allied friends of the Ocklawaha River. were outspent by pro Canal forces, until the railroads recognized the State Barge Canal as a threat to their lucrative traffic to Miami, Port Everglades and Tampa ports.
Urban interests from these South Florida areas readily opposed the project.
The group's tactic was to go to court to enjoin the Army Corps of Engineers to stop the project. In one of the earliest uses of the National Environmental Policy Act, the judge agreed with the complaint filed by ED & FDE attorneys that the Environmental Impact Statement, required under the new law (1970) must be filed by the Corps before the project could be completed.
By 1968, however the damage to the Forest Lands and the obstruction of fish and manatees migrating upriver to Silver Springs was already a reality.
After President Nixon, a South Florida home owner (Key Biscayne) was persuaded to halt the project in 1972, Soon Governors from Claude Kirk Jr. on began to understand the need to stop the project.
Every Governor of the state since Kirk has opposed the dam making a total of seven chief executives who want the River. restored and the Dam removed.
"Opponents now pinned their hopes on the courts."
This approach earned FDE a reputation of being "elitist" even though fisherman and small property owners wanted the dam removed since it cost the federal government a million dollars a year to run and the state government--once it took over in 1992, $350,000 annually-- and served no purpose, except for boaters who fish for bass in the reservoir.
Originally the State of Florida Versus the Army Corps of Engineers.
Now
The United States Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Environmental Protection Agency Versus the Florida Legislature.
An Alliance of over fifty organizations are calling for the immediate funding to restore the Oklawaha and remove the remaining scars of the barge canal from the biologically diverse forests of the lower Oklawaha River Valley.
Putnam County Environmental Council
Audubon of Florida
Defenders of Wildlife
Florida Wildlife Federation
Florida Council of Churches
Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club
Save The Manatee Club
Save Our Suwannee
World Wildlife Fund, US
are some of the groups supporting the effort.
Ocklawaha River., Facts:
Drainage basin is 2,718 square miles.
Length 148 miles long from Welaka to Lake Apopka upstream.
Discharge (average annual in cubic feet per second- cfs): 1,186 cfs
Average annual runoff (in inches per year): 13.46
drainage area (above the Connor gauging station locate 51 miles [1/3] upriver), 1,196 square miles
20 springs exist along the north and south shores of the River. between Welaka and the Silver River.
The confluence of the Ocklawaha and the St. Johns Rivers is actually a series of six to ten or more braided streams that mingle among and maintain a bottomland hardwood swamp of mixed water loving trees including, gum, cypress, maple, water hickory, titi trees, tupelo and magnolia.
Lake Ocklawaha
16.9 square miles of surface area, average depth of 2-3 feet. Putnam and Marion Counties.
The lake fluctuates between 20 and 12 feet above the flood plain.
Equivalent sized lakes near the River.: (Counties)
Lake George 73 square miles of surface area Lake, Marion, Putnam, Volusia.
Crescent lake, 26.8 square miles of surface area, Flagler & Putnam.
Orange lake, 20.6 square miles of surface area, Alachua and Marion.
Lochloosa lake, 13.7 square miles of surface area, Alachua.
Newnans lake, 11.5 square miles of surface area, Alachua.
Total area of nearby lakes: 145.6 square miles of surface area in five surrounding counties is eight times the size of the current reservoir.
Expert opinion says:
"Both the St. Johns Water Management District (1994) and the Department of Environmental Protection (1998) have conducted studies documenting problems resulting from the Rodman Dam."
1997 US Fish and Wildlife Service issued a "Biological Opinion" in favor of restoration.
"Construction of the project initially resulted in destruction of much bottomland forest. By changing the hydrology, the dam reduces productivity in the St. John's River. The dam is also harmful to migratory aquatic species, especially manatees."
"In the warm and nutrient rich waters of the reservoir, aquatic weeds and algae have flourished, requiring the use of mechanical and chemical treatments to control undesirable water plants."
Joann Mossa, "Surface Water" Water Resources Atlas of Florida, Fernald & Purdum, eds., (FSU: Institute of Science and Public Affairs, 1998), pp. 79-80.
The prospect: is the time ripe for restoring the biological wealth of the basin?
Less than one dollar (80 cents) per resident in Florida would be enough to restore the River. by removing the water from behinds the dam and its ongoing maintenance costs from the state budget.
Key time to act is now because of bipartisan support:
Two Senators Graham and Nelson and the Governor support restoration of the River.
July 19, 2002
State of Florida declined to sign a permit to flood Federal forest property.
USFS after offering a Special Use Permit (SUP) to the State of Florida's Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) was left with a decision to restore the River. in keeping with its Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and in accordance with its Management Plan to restore the flood plain forest.
The federal government USDA: US Forest Service (lead agency).
Ocala National Forests, northern boundary is adversely affected by flood water and exotic weed control. Recreational fishers and divers also lose access to twenty springs, some of which could be used as day-use and fee areas for kayakers and canoeists.
No money is required to let the water out of the dam.
A Congressional appropriation of from $13.7 to $14 million is needed to fully remove the water, reconstruct channels and replant the banks or remove invasive exotic plants as part of River. restoration efforts.
Permits needed to release the water and permit process is costly in terms of delay and expenditures.
Permits have been applied for and been a means of delay since 1997.
Since then $1.5 million was spent on maintaining the dam and canal structures and another $1.2 million was spent to protect Manatees from being crushed in the lock and sluice gates.
$2.7 million has been spent mainatining the status quo over five years.
Three permits, two of which are acquired from the St. Johns River. Water Management District:
Consumptive Use Permit: (CUP) to allow the water to return in large volume to the St. Johns River.
Environmental Resources Permit: (ERP) to allow the restoration.
Permits are acquired from the Army Corps of Engineers (§404 Permit) under the Clean Water Act to affect wetlands and restore the stream flow.
President U.S. Grant took a steamboat along the Ocklawaha River just after the Civil War and is said to have called the scenery "most charming." President Nixon a century later called it a" natural treasure," deserving of protection when he isued and executive order halting construction.
Mr. David Struhs, the State of Florida Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection says "its a matter of time," before the dam is removed. (October, 2002, Gainesville NPR Interview)
Governor Jeb Bush is the seventh Chief Executive of the state and the third Republican Governor to favor restoration. The leadership of the Florida Senate is, however, refusing to fund either studies or restoration of the River.
Lesson: The power to oppose action is always greater than to propose remedies.
This power to thwart popular or widely supported intentions is characteristic of legislative assemblies such as ours and their powers are even more significant with weak Governorships, such as exists in Florida and many Jacksonian states committed to local control and laissez faire policies.
Overview | Meaning | Dam's Impact | Florida Defenders | Nixon's actions | Current policies | Alliance to restore | River. Facts | The Prospect