by Joe Wilhelm Jr.
Staff Writer
Despite a day of pleas from people living near shrinking bodies of water throughout the district, the St. Johns River Water Management District governing body approved a water use permit for JEA Tuesday that will allow it to serve its customers through 2031.
The board voted 7-1 in favor of a 20-year consumptive use permit that consolidates 27 previous JEA permits, which have a combined allocation of 155 million gallons of water per day (mgd), into one permit. Board member Richard Hamann of Gainesville was the lone dissenting vote. Chair Leonard Wood, Vice Chair Hans Tanzler III, Treasurer Maryam Ghyabi, Secretary John Miklos, Douglas Bournique, Lad Daniels, Chuck Drake and Arlen Jumper voted in favor of the permit.
JEA Managing Director/CEO Jim Dickenson sat a couple feet away from a podium that hosted speaker after speaker opposed to the permit, but he understood that one of the biggest consumptive use permit requests in the district’s history would carry with it an equally big target.
“We are somewhat used to it, but we have the responsibility to provide water for a million people,” said Dickenson. “I understand their emotion as they see their lakes and waterways shrinking. But all of our studies have shown that we have little impact in that.”
Both JEA and the St. Johns River Management District recognized that lack of rainfall has also contributed to the shrinking of lakes in the district.
Currently serving about 700,000 customers, JEA expects that number to reach one million by the end of the new consumptive use permit (CUP). According to the St. Johns River Water Management District, a CUP “typically allows water to be withdrawn from groundwater or surface water for reasonable-beneficial uses — such as public supply (drinking water), agricultural and landscape irrigation, commercial use and power generation — in a manner that does not interfere with other existing legal water uses and protects water resources from harm (such as saltwater intrusion and drying up of wetlands, lakes and springs).”
Under the new permit, the maximum base allocation is 142 mgd. If JEA meets certain requirements in the permit, the allocation could be increased to 155 mgd in 2031, and if JEA achieves reuse of water greater than the permit’s conditions by providing more reclaimed water to other permitted groundwater users, the allocation could increase up to 162.5 mgd as these other groundwater uses are reduced or eliminated.
The JEA is required to meet certain requirements throughout the life of the permit and are also subject to review at the 10-year mark.
Some of the key requirements are:
• Actively participating in the development and implementation of an approved minimum flows and levels (MFL) prevention and recovery strategy for Cowpen Lake and lakes Geneva and Brooklyn in Keystone Heights.
• Providing reclaimed water for reuse within JEA’s service area in the following amounts: 31.55 mgd by the end of 2020, 37.36 mgd by the end of 2025, 43.76 mgd by the end of 2030.
(JEA reused 11.05 mgd of its wastewater flow in 2010.)
• Submitting an alternative water supply facilities master plan by Feb. 28, 2015 to provide for an additional 20 mgd from sources other than groundwater, and facilities to supplement groundwater and reclaimed water use when needed.
While the permit requires action by JEA to increase daily water consumption, the about 200 people attending the Tuesday meeting weren’t comfortable with the District’s history of enforcing the permits when requirements aren’t met. One of the board’s newest members, Lad Daniels of Jacksonville, addressed the concern.
“The window is there to look at this over the years, to revisit it along the way,” said Daniels. “The hammer hasn’t really left this board.”
Despite the reassurances of the board, St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon was disheartened by the board’s approval of the permit.
“I’m disappointed. They let JEA off the hook because (the JEA) doesn’t have to do anything to increase conservation practices,” said Armingeon. “How does it look when we are down there fighting with Central Florida over water conservation and they approve this permit? We look hypocritical.”
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