Judul : Salt Lake Valley Health Department
link : Salt Lake Valley Health Department
Salt Lake Valley Health Department
(upbeat music) - ground water as asource is not unlimited. it's finite, just likeany of our sources. - for some years we'vebeen coming close to an environmentalcrisis because
Salt Lake Valley Health Department, of water issues in florida. - but the root cause,which is the pollution, sadly, is wide spreadthroughout the st. johns river. - they're telling usthat we're drinking water
contaminated with nitrate. - nothing happens in florida, or really in any government,without a disaster. - [narrator] the sinkholedrained 215 million gallons of radioactive and acidicwater into the aquifer that supplies drinkingwater to central florida. - if we pass lawsthat don't recognize that holistic connectionbetween ground water and surface water, we will fail.
- in florida, if youwant to do anything, it requires water. for 88 hundred squaremiles of eastern florida, that water is connectedto the st. johns river. who gets to use thatwater and the consequences of how it's used,well that's decided by who has best connectionsto state government. i'm bruce hamilton,florida law says this water is your water.
this is an hour-longdiscussion about how this water is managed and theconnections and consequences your children will have to livewith for their entire lives. to begin, it's importantto understand how all of the water inflorida is connected. you may not look atthe st. johns river and immediately thinkof the water that comes to your kitchen sink, but theyare irrevocably connected. the consequences ofharm to one eventually
flow to the other. most of our drinking watercomes from the underground river known as the floridan aquifer. the aquifer isconsidered ground water. wetlands, creeks,lakes, and rivers are called surface water. 54 inches of annual rain andstorm water that runs off of the land and pavement,flows into them. but while the st. johnsand all of its tributaries
are surface water, they'realso fed by the aquifer through more than 100 springs. wetlands and undevelopedland, filter the water and allow it to soakinto the floridan aquifer and your public utilitytaps it, treats it, and transports itto your faucet. along the way, as water makesthat big circle, man steps in. agriculture, industry,real estate, cities, and homeownerswith septic tanks.
more than 1.2 million septictanks line the st. johns, its tributaries and springs. during september 2016,evidence of the connection between the surface andthe aquifer was exposed in a most dramatic way. a pond of effluent fromthe mosaic fertilizer plant in mulberry, floridaopened a sinkhole that drained 215 million gallons of contaminated waterinto the aquifer.
whether or not therewill be consequences for the drinking water forpolk county remains to be seen. this sinkhole eventmay be tragic, but throughout thest. johns watershed, the river and aquiferare continuously absorbing massive amounts offertilizer from agriculture, organic and chemicalpollution from industries including georgia pacific,and from the largest utility on the river, the jacksonvilleelectric authority.
there are two stateagencies that are primarily charged with managing bothsurface water and ground water. the department of environmentalprotection, d.e.p., is concerned with thelevels of pollution in water across the state. when it comes to thequantity of water, for 18 eastern counties, thest johns river water management district decides whogets to take the water, how much they can take,and how it's used.
through projects like theupper st. johns river basin project, the watermanagement district is mitigating existingpollution by restoring land from agriculture towetlands and marshes. this project, more than30 years in the making, at a cost of 250million dollars, encompasses morethan 166,000 acres. but will that, and the otherrestoration projects underway, be enough to mitigatethe insatiable
demand for growthand development? and, will there be thewill to pay for projects occupying that much land? because, just as surfacewater and drinking water are connected in florida,so are growth and politics. - so, it's not justseminole county, it's all central florida andin turn it's all florida. and the one thing that wehave to come to grips with, is that our economyis based on growth.
growth, though,has to be managed. - we pretty much dismantledmuch of our growth management system and our system ofenvironmental protection. we don't have thescientists who are there to call upon to helpus with this anymore. - in the last six or eightyears, the state has undone many of theenvironmental protections that the previouslegislatures had enacted. - [bruce] in the nextsegment of troubled waters,
we'll find out whatpollution looks like, what can't be seen, andthe effect it can have on your health and your wallet. - a green algae outbreak,a green monster, could happen at any timeunder the right conditions. - in the river, we'veidentified at least four types of toxins. two of them are hepatotoxinswhich will target the organs like the liver.
- it is incumbentup us as leaders, as elected officials tocome to terms with the fact, that if we don't protectflorida's resources, our economy is going to sufferand potentially collapse. - [narrator] agrotesque, green goo! squirting a primordialjuice all over our river! - this is not good. - [narrator] the green monster,it came from the river. - a decade ago, thegreen monster documentary
chronicled the massivegreen slime that covered the surface of this riverthrough downtown jacksonville. the green monster feeds on anover-abundance of nutrients. over the last 10 years,there have been efforts to reduce those nutrients. how well are they working? - visit florida is not goingto show this on their website. this is bad for the economy. - this river is sick withtoo much nutrient pollution,
so it's a ticking time bomb. a green algae outbreak,a green monster, when you cannot access ourwaterways due to toxic green slime, it's not only anenvironmental crisis, it's also an economic emergency. - when they're too manynutrients in the river, and you have a combinationof the nutrients and increased temperature, then you start to get theperfect conditions for blooms.
- [bruce] while blooms andnutrients might sound healthy, even pretty or harmless. this green stuff is not. it's actually a bacteriaand can be toxic. this past summer's heatcombined with too many nutrients cooked up the dangerous recipe in the st. lucie andindian river lagoon. - the most recent event,major event, was in april of this year when wehad a massive fish kill,
where more than 100,000 pounds of fish floated to the surface. - [bruce] the deadly greenalso showed up on parts of the st. johns river,just south of jacksonville in crescent lake, doctorslake and here at the mouth of welaka springs. water samples taken revealedtoxins exceeding harmful toxic levels established bythe world health organization. - some states have standards,some of them don't.
florida does not. we don't have standards fordrinking water or recreation for any of the four major toxinsthat we find in the water. - [bruce] robert burkstrains volunteers to detect the toxic green stuff calledcyanobacterial harmful algae blooms or c h a b. precautions, likewearing gloves, are a must whentaking test samples. - bring it back up.
remember, don't fillit all the way up. - some of those toxins targetorgans, like the liver, some the nervoussystem, and the muscles that control breathing. so it's really bestnot to touch, ingest, or breathe in anyof the contaminants from that toxic algal blooms. it can have an array ofhealth effects on people and even kill pets,wildlife, and fish.
- the problem is, youhave small children which, because they aresmaller body mass, it's going to be more toxic tothem, than perhaps an adult. - [bruce] even the statesees the toxic outbreak as a problem. - what have we done toprevent the green monster? and that's what wedid eight years ago. we signed a basinmanagement action plan. we gave everybodytheir assignments.
they've reduced nutrients 90%. - 90% is 90% of thegoal they established for reducing nutrients inthe river but unfortunately that goal was set way too low. the pollution problemis a much bigger problem than our regulatoryagencies want to admit and want to address. we have to do much betterif we're going to clean up the st. johns river and preventthese pollution problems
and prevent these algae bloomsthat we're seeing happen all over our state. - everyone has chippedin and done their parts. some had to be reminded,but as a result, we have seen greatlyimproved water quality. we're not seeingthose significantalgal blooms anymore. - [bruce] well, that depends on your definitionof significant. - this is the green monster.
this is the welaka springwhere i bring people out on my eco-heritage tours and this used to be abeautiful clear spring. this is some of the waterright out of the spring run here and it's just dark andgreen and covered with algae. i would never bringanybody on a tour out here unless they weretaking a sample. - the water tested fromwelaka spring the day after our interviewwith florida's d.e.p.,
showed toxin levels theworld health organization associates with a high riskof acute health effects from recreational exposure. a sample taken here indoctor's lake last summer showed toxin levels100 times higher than the w.h.o. standard. - these isolated eventshave been highly toxic and demonstrate thatthe pollution is there and the conditions are ripe foran outbreak of intense size.
it could happen at anymoment because this algae is just the symptom. the nutrient pollutionis the cause. - [narrator] these are generated from agriculturalrunoff primarily, and also from people puttingfertilizers on their yards, and from septic tanks. - nutrients occurnaturally in the river, but it's when they'refueled by all this excess,
that's when theseoutbreaks happen. the root cause, whichis the pollution, sadly, is wide spread throughoutthe st. johns river. - 80% of the problem iswhat we call sheet runoff. it's the stuff that kind ofruns off the land when it rains. you get a huge thunderstorm,it all washes all that stuff into the river. - if i was abenevolent dictator, the one thing i would banis st. augustine grass.
- this bright greengrass is st. augustine. it requires more watering,fertilizer, and pesticide than other grasses thatare more drought-tolerant. and since we'rewatering it more, that means that fertilizer, pesticides and grassclippings are flowing into our waterways. - we use millions of poundsof fertilizer every year in this state and thatfertilizer is ending up
in our drinking water,our ground water and then in our springs. - i think we should be horriblyworried about our springs. the springs are a mess. - silver river, now, becauseof the nitrogen fertilization in the springshed isputting out about 600 tons per year of nitrogen. that's like a dump truckof fertilizer being dumped in the headspring every day,coming out of the aquifer
and that nitrogen has affectsall the way downstream in the ocklawahaand st. johns river. - [bruce] while fertilizing,watering, and mowing your lawn contributes to that messthrough storm water runoff, there's an even greater threatlurking just below the turf. - nitrogen is whatcauses your algae blooms. nitrogen is whatcauses your fish kills. nitrogen is the problem,and septic tanks contribute massiveamounts of nitrogen.
- in this county,volusia county, we have 100,000 septic tanks and most of them have input into the st. johnsriver watershed. that's releasingnutrients into the system. - [bruce] geminisprings is one of at least five floridasprings actually closed to swimmingbecause the water quality is considered unsafe.
- it has a fecal coliformbacteria and we've also found all kinds of pharmaceuticalsand other chemicals that have found theirway into the springs. it's when you flush thetoilet, it all goes right back into the environment. when we put an artificialsweetener in our coffee, both the caffeine and thesucralose, that chemical, washes right outinto water stream and you can measureit in the spring.
- and there's kind of a fallacythat only malfunctioning septic tanks are bad. all septic tanks are bad,when they're in high enough concentrations nearbodies of water. - yet, here in florida thereare 2.7 million of them. and, that's the reasonfor signs like this. - i want to emphasize thehealth of the tributaries, because that's where theseptic tanks have the greatest negative impact, and whatyou'll see in jacksonville,
are many tributaries that areposted with signs that say, caution, fecalcoliform contamination. - [bruce] jacksonville'scity council voted to spend 15 million dollars overthe next five years to reduce the numberof septic tanks. - initially, we will get thisfirst thousand septic tanks remediated in hopefullythree to four years, but certainly withinthe first five. and keep workingaway at our list.
- there are currentlysome 21,000 septic tanks in designated neighborhoodsthat the health department has identified as critical. so getting rid of 1,000 of them, that hardly addressesthe growing dilemma. - i can tell you septic systemsare a problem state wide, for a lot of our springs, andwe've done the calculations, and to retrofit what we needto, to fix our septic system problem for springs, it'supwards of 2.4 billion dollars.
- right now, we have a majorproblem where we're continuing to put septic tanks in theground, even though we know they're going to haveto take them out. - a high percentage offlorida's waterways are impaired because of nitrogen andfecal coliform bacteria. you've got manure and fertilizerseeping in from farms. you've got wastewater fromutilities and industry, all seeping chemicalslike mercury. - there are absolutely directlocal sources of mercury
in a number ofdifferent communities. and addressing thepotential impact of those local discharges hasreally been largely ignored. - we've seen mercuryall up and down all of florida's water bodies, not just the st. johns river. - [narrator] with all thenew development coming in, people don't wantto eat the fish. they're afraid toeat the shrimp.
- the levels of pollutantsthat are measured in fish are safely consumedif you eat fish about once every two weeks. if you eat fish moreoften than that, then you potentiallyhave a problem. - [bruce] throughout floridathere are subsistence fishermen who feed their families onthe fish they catch every day. construction-site runoffis another growing problem facing our waterways.
the soil from these sitesaccumulate and end up burying aquatic life, disruptingthe food chain, degrading water quality,and adversely impacting our recreational opportunities. - the public needs tobe better educated about its potential impact onthe river continually. we need to be constantlykeeping an eye out for the dangers wedon't know about. - and there's plenty ofdebate over the dangers
we do know about. just this summer, the floridadepartment of environmental protection voted to changewater quality standards. the d.e.p.'s environmentalregulatory commission voted to increasethe limits on nearly a dozen cancer-causing chemicals that are dischargedinto our surface waters. - when we plug thescience into the formulas, some get more stringent,some get less stringent.
we live with that number. we protect our citizens. - i'm not aware of that science. i can't find a scientist who is. so, i don't believethat's the truth. i think they relaxedthe chemical, the limits on clean water,to business interests. probably includingfracking interest. - for the most part,industry is doing exactly
what they're allowed to do. they are allowed todischarge into our waterways and into our air, poundsand tons of chemicals that we know can beultimately harmful, not only for the environment,but human health. - you need to get ready formore pollution, more algae, more mortality unlessall of us get together and figure out a way todo something different. - failing septic tanks, stormwater runoff from development,
industrial pollution andfertilizer all leaching into our ground water damagingour habitats and wetlands. these are consequencesto our future. coming up who isusing, who is hurting and who is protecting our river. - in 2015, we had 100 millionpeople visit the state. 2015 is a record. and they're sayingby 2030 we're going to have another 50 million.
- i mean our state law saysthat there will be water for all reasonableand beneficial uses, which just completelyignores that water is a finite resource. - the more we draw waterout without replenishing it, the more and morepotential tragedy we have. - [bruce] robbie schollhas been crabbing on this river sincehe was a child. these crabs havealways been his source
of income and his love. - 10 dollars a week to akid who's just 12 years old is pretty good moneyespecially in 1958 and it just became a passion. most of the time i putin an eight-hour day at least six days a week. it's, i'd say a labor of love. i just enjoy being outside. - [bruce] robbie is oneof hundreds of people
who make their living on thest. johns and its tributaries. they're often seenbut not noticed. they work, support theirfamilies, and provide food for thousands. - we should never forgetthat what happens out here that commercial crabber overthere and all these crab floats and the folks that are outhere throwing shrimp nets and to a great extent thecommercial shrimp fishery on the beach is dependenton this thing being healthy.
- ben williams grewup on the st. johns, and made a livingselling seafood as acommercial fisherman. you know, for somepeople it's just, i cross the buckman bridgeover the st. johns. or, i eat over atone of the fish camps and look over the st. johns,and that's as far it goes. - well, they don't understandhow much economic value comes out of the thing. and most people think,oh, that's a river.
that a great place to runbig ships up so we can unload this river is, inessence, an estuary. marine shrimp,atlantic white shrimp. there's millions of them righthere within a thousand yards of us, because it'ssummertime and they're working the river right now. - the estuaries workbecause you have fresh water that flows in and meetssalt water coming up at the tides andit's that balance of
salt and fresh water thatproduces the unique conditions that support species likeblue crabs and shrimp and hundreds of species of fish. and if that salt balanceis out of whack which it is right now, you start to seedeclines in both commercial and recreation catchesof many species of fish. - [bruce] the health ofthe st johns is important not only to the fishingindustry but to tourism and quality of life.
- nobody ever moved herefrom any state, to florida, because we had thebest strip malls. they come to here becauseof the idea of florida, and that's what wehave to preserve. - people come herefor our ecosystems. they recreate on our ecosystems. it's like a hub for tourism. - people come here fromall over the world, spend money to fly into florida.
stay in our hotels,eat in our restaurants, buy souvenirs to takehome, and take pictures of our natural beauty. and that's the best type ofvisitors, taking pictures and leaving, and not havingleaving a large footprint, except for their dollar. - and probably about 75%of our business is directly from paddle sports. the health of the waterwaysaround north florida
is a big deal. the atlantic ocean, theintracoastal waterway, and probably most importantly,the st. johns river. - natural resourcesprovide an economic benefit to providing usinfrastructure that we aren't putting a value on. it's called ecosystem services. and our natural resourcescan be buffers for storms. they can clean up pollutedwaters before they get
they have this amazingability to clean our air and to provide food for us. - [bruce] that food isnot only fish and crabs that come from the river. commercial farms cover nineand a half million acres of florida's land andthey all need clean water. the agency responsiblefor making sure everyone gets that clean waterin our watershed is the st. johns riverwater management district.
- we do regulatorypermitting, both consumptive use permitting of water andalso environmental resource permitting to makesure that we can do the best job possibleprotecting the environment. - the limits of a consumptiveuse permit or c-u-p are based on need and whetheror not the water source can support the withdrawal. but some critics saythose guidelines areoften disregarded. - we, in the state of florida,
have never seen a consumptiveuse permit we don't like. - very, very few consumptiveuse permits are denied. and when they are denied,it's usually because of extreme public pressurethat's been brought to bear. - [bruce] according to thewater management district, over the last 10 years, outof the 2800 cups applied for only 14 were denied. smart says the system isdesigned to make it difficult for permits to be denied.
- if a water managementdistrict were to choose to deny a permit becauseof a minimum flow in level, then their whole watersupply plan would have to be reviewed by the department of environmental protection. huge bureaucratic undertakingand they would have to redo this plan, so thereare hurdles and obstacles put in the way of folks who wouldeven want to deny a permit. - the actual permittedquantities forboth surface water
and ground waterwent down last year. so that's kind of a surprisefor a lot of people. - saying that the permittedquantities of water went down, is like saying that youlowered the speed limit on the roads. it says nothing about howfast people are driving. we do not even monitor howmuch the permit holders are using throughoutmost of the state. and that's intentional.
- under a law passed bythe 2016 legislature, water management districtsare required to monitor water that flows throughpipes with a diameter of eight inches or larger. they are not required tomonitor pipes or several pipes that measure smaller thaneight inches in diameter. - so, they're not reallytrying to monitor anyone. so, it's one thing totalk about permitted, but what we need to betalking about is actual use.
and we need laws inplace to at least know how much water is being used. - conservationists contend that we have already permittedtoo much water use. most geologists contendover-pumping the aquifer is the leadingcause of sinkholes. so while we're losingwater pressure underground, there's increasing pressureon clean water above ground. and they're saying by2030 we're going to have
another 50 million. you know, in light of thosekinds of growth expectations and the impacts thatcome with it, holy cow! - [bruce] and speaking ofcows, there's deseret ranch, just a few miles fromthe orlando airport, it stretches along 40 milesof the st. johns riverbank. for now, it is a cattle ranch. but developers hopeto change that. - it's 133,000 acres.
the largest development thatwe have ever had planned in the state offlorida, in history. it's the size of orlando,winter park, winter garden, and apopka put together. it's massive. - the plan for the property,owned by the mormon church, is to be home for 500,000,half a million people. that means there willbe houses, apartments, schools, officesbuildings, and guess what?
they all use water. - they anticipate111,000,000 gallons of water per day will be needed in thefuture for this development. - deseret plans to meetthat need by keeping water from getting tothe st. johns river by damming two ofits tributaries. even withoutconsidering the impact of the enormous deseretranch, central florida is pushing the aquifer's limits.
that's why the watermanagement district is considering drawingup a plan that includes pulling 160 milliongallons of water a day from the st. johns river. for people who live incommunities downstream, including palatka andjacksonville, that's a cause of great concern. it makes them worry aboutthe st. johns river's future. - what happens when youreduce that fresh water flow,
you start getting more saltwater into the st. johns from the mouth. and when you get more saltwater going further upstream, it does damage to thewetlands, to the grasses. those are thekidneys of the river. and so you start reducingthe river's ability to cleanse itself and naturallyfilter out those pollutants that continuously areput into the river. and so it does a hugedamage to water quality.
- [bruce] a recent study bythe university of florida shows that over thenext five decades, the state's sprawlingdevelopment, including rooftops, parking lots and roads willcover as much as a third of the state's landscape. many say, true growthmanagement in this state ended several years ago. - come 2011, thelegislature decided to gut our growth management acts.
they took away the departmentof community affairs and recreated a departmentof economic opportunity and they stripped awayall the teeth within the growth management acts. so, it really left uswithout any oversight. - [bruce] the focus ofthe combined economic, growth departmentis job creation. - but deo, departmentof economic opportunity, really is tasked with,not opposing anything
because they don't wantto be a job killer. - [bruce] so whenit comes to growth, without any incentives, itmakes more economic sense for a builder to developon inexpensive open land, instead of where developmenthas already begun. - business willtake the opportunity and destroy a natural systemin order to make the profit and they'll do it becausethat's the american way. it's been that wayfor hundreds of years.
only until recently havelearned the significance of protecting natural systems. - if you want topave the spring. this state is going to stopyou, but they're not really caring about whatis, and is not, an appropriate development,that's really up to local communities,local governments. which means it's up to thelocal people who live there. - the state needsto incentivize, andlocal governments
need to examine theirlocal comprehensive plans and their land use regulations,as well as, impact fees. about incentivizingmore urban infill. - it's been said that thethreats to our river amount to death by 1,000 cuts. storm water runoff,septic tanks, urbansprawl, agriculture, but there is onemore proposed cut, and if it happens, it's goingto be deep and very expensive. after 300 miles of abusefrom growth and development,
jaxport plans to spendnearly 800 million dollars to dredge the last 13miles of the river clawing open an even greaterpath from the sea. - the more that the riveris turned into a highway it's of concern for manatees. it's a concernfor water quality. it's a concern for what's goingto happen to the vegetation. - there are too many unknownsin the impact of dredging, environmentally, aswell as, economically.
- we've seen the track recordof the army corps of engineers and how many times, theimpacts have been much greater than what they anticipatedand yet in this case they have virtuallyno mitigation to offset thosepotential impacts. - there's gonna be impacts. they've underplayed theimpacts to salinity, there's no question about that. they've underplayedthe cumulative impacts.
how long have we beendredging the st. johns river? 100 years. how many differentprojects have people said, don't worry, it's notgonna cause a problem. and, the next onewon't cause a problem. and, the next onewon't cause a, well that's cumulative impacts. you start backing themup and pretty soon we've got high salinity watercoming out of the atlantic
and killing our submergedgrasses around the city of jacksonville. that's related tohistorical dredging. i know it. they know it. they just don'twant to admit it. i worked for ports. i've been a consultantfor five different ports in florida on theside of dredging
and on the side of mitigation. i know how it works. and jaxport should know it too. their mitigation planis woefully inadequate. if you're going to spendclose to a billion dollars on a project, youshould be able to spin off some money forthat and do an adequate mitigation program. - [bruce] according toan economic study done
at the universityon north florida, it would cost billions toduplicate the water-filtering ability of the st. johns river. based on the cost ofprocessing wastewater, the study determinedthe wetlands provide up to 122 billion dollars worthof nitrogen removal each year. - no component of theeconomy is more important than natural systems. you destroy the naturalsystems and the economy
of florida is goingto go down the tubes. - in order to havea healthy economy, you've got to havea healthy river. you've got to have ahealthy environment. - you can protect theenvironment while creating a strong economy, infact, a strong economy depends on a healthystrong river. - simply put all waterin florida is connected. as we've seen, our drinkingwater and the food we eat
all depend on clean waterfrom the aquifer, springs and our st. johns river. runoff, sprawl and development. the fertilizers andpesticides used on our lawns, at farms, andchemicals from industry all create pollution anddamage our valuable water. when we combine theseproblems with the impacts from future growth we havea recipe for disaster. there are consequencesto our actions.
we are all accountable. coming up we're going tosee what community members and government officialsare doing or not doing, to protect our river. - many of the best scientists in these water managementdistricts have been fired. - the sad thing is,our elected officials, they've turned their backon florida's environment and our waterways, and they've
turned their back on citizens. - pollution is our worst enemy, with a politicianhanging on its tail. - so, at the department,our mission is to kind of safe guard ournatural resources,make sure we have good sustainable ecosystems. and the particular challengewith the st. johns river that we faced withthe local communities was making sure that ithad good water quality
to support diversity ofwildlife and habitat, and those types of things,so we can enjoy it, fish in it, and recreate in it. - my opinion, florida has thebest water law in the country. so, from florida statute, thewater management districts and dep put rulesinto place for, to execute the missionsthat are provided for them in florida statute. - no one's being heldaccountable for their pollution.
agriculture'sgetting off the hook. industry's getting off the hook. our state governments,basically opened up the doors to allow the polluters to comein and re-write the rules, and re-write the laws. - it's been said, whiskey's for drinkin', water'sfor fightin' over. in the old west, wherewater was scarce, there were plenty of fights.
people were shot over water use. here in florida, wherewater is plentiful, there hasn't been any violenceand the soldiers in this war, they're not cowboys,they're lawyers, politicians, lobbyists. - i've been up at thelegislature the last three years trying to get stronger lawsto protect silver springs and these, and the st. johnsriver and the ocklawaha river. been frustrated at everyturn by the hundreds
of lobbyists that arerepresenting private interests. people that are actually makingtheir money by extracting these resources. extracting the water,first of all, for free, which is used byindustry, by development, and by agriculture,with no really, no public interest involvedin how they use it. - during the economic downturn,while there were many jobs lost, lobbyists were busyat work in tallahassee,
opening up the booksand creating loopholes in our waterquality protections. and so now, so we lost fourdecades worth of regulations and protections tokeep the pollution out. - dep seems to think that theirjob is to promote industry. i think their job shouldbe to protect the public. - regulations is a dirty wordin tallahassee right now, but these regulationsare protections. and protections are criticallyimportant to make sure
that we're investing wisely now, so we won't have to paythe higher price later. - in the past few years,probably the most damaging thing that has happened hasbeen the appointees to the st. johns watermanagement district board and the other watermanagement district boards, - unlike times in thepast, our governor is no longer appointingstrong environmentalists to serve on water managementdistrict governing boards.
- and all of them havebasically business interests that run counter toprotecting the environment. - it's no longer, to me,a serious purpose for them to be on the board,so that they can fix serious watermanagement problems. they're there to carry outthe political directives out of tallahassee. - the current governor cameinto office and slashed and burned the budgeton environmental issues,
now we're seeing theconsequences of that. - look at what's happeningto the environmental problems around the state now. they're growing like abad algae in a dark room. and it's going toconsume this state. - well, now, instead ofhaving the best science make these decisions, manyof the best scientists in these water managementdistricts have been fired. - since governor rickscott took office,
the agencies responsible forprotecting our environment have enduredsignificant budget cuts and laid-offhundreds of workers. the st. johns riverwater management district and d.e.p. each lost20% of their workforce. - the employee numbers,those are going to change. those are goingto go up and down. we did have a recession. - without a doubt, our mostvaluable asset is our people.
it doesn't matter ifthey're the scientist, the lead engineers, or thesupport staff that makes sure we get our paychecks, forexample, so we have people that we need in fourdifferent offices up and down our district. and they make surethey get the job done. that requires focus,but they're dedicated and they're kickingit right now. - we've seen is a real braindrain at our state agencies.
it's really critical thatwe have good scientists, good people working. there are still somegood people there, just not enough of them. they don't have theresources to do their jobs. - and therefore bad decisionsare made or bad decisions go unchallenged because therearen't people with the kind of reputation in thescience of hydrology or whatever is appropriate,to challenge bad decisions.
- there's good peoplestill at our agencies. unfortunately, they feelthreatened, their jobs, their job security feelsthreatened because if they do their job, and they holdpolluters accountable, they may lose their jobs. - we clearly have exceeded thecapacity of pumping the water out of the aquifer. the people who saidthat three years ago, no longer work at watermanagement district.
they've all been fired. that sends a powerfulmessage about working there. well, don't go tell the truth. or, make sure you tellour version of the truth because you're going tocause problems otherwise. - [bruce] so you'resaying that politics are at play that arekilling the st. johns. - oh, yeah. exactly.
- some of the scientists wespoke with who were fired or frankly gave up, saidthe impact of politics on their work was nothingshort of profound. because they work insuch a specialized field, and they worried abouttheir jobs and ability to support their family,they couldn't talk on camera about thatpolitical pressure. one who is notafraid is jim gross, a former assistant divisiondirector and geologist
for the st. johns district whois now the executive director of florida defendersof the environment. - has the science been comprisedby the political agenda? most definitely, yes. unfortunately it'svery difficult for meto have to say yes, but that has occurred. let me give you some examples. i mean in the districtwater supply plan. they came out in decemberof 2013 as perhaps
the best example of this,after it had been out on the street for publicreview, and for several months, there was a meeting insidethe agency to discuss it and this was senior levelfolks that met together, and it was announced bythe second in command in the agency that thiswater supply plan could not, could not ever be broughtbefore the governing board for approval because it wasnot politically acceptable. it might jeopardize thegovernor's re-election campaign.
and so, we were toldin no uncertain terms, change the data andthe results in the plan to meet the political agenda. - [bruce] we madeseveral requests to interview governor scott, but he was not available. and our waterways, andthey've turned their back on citizens. they're not fulfillingtheir constitutional mandate
to protect our waterways,to protect our lands. and it makes me angry. it makes me angry as someonewho is in charge of protecting these waterways. it makes me angry as a mom. i've got two kids dependingon these waterways. they love to fish everyweekend, and i'm not sure if it's safe for my skinny sevenyear old to eat fish out of florida waters every weekend.
- [bruce] in 2014,the people of florida voted with a landslide 75% toamend the state constitution to provide a dedicated fundingsource for purchasing lands for conservation andprotecting the water. but what we soon learnedwas that the majority of legislators voted to ignore their new constitutionalresponsibility. - they've used these fundsfor workers comp insurance. they've used these fundsthat should be dedicated
for acquisition of publiclands for maintenance of lands and roadsthat aren't even part of the conservation program. they're using it for seatcushions for office workers. i mean, there's morethan 250 million dollars of this dedicated fundinghas been misappropriated and we believe it's aconstitutional violation. - we are engaged inlitigation against the state of florida to try to see ifwe can bring that money back
to the people wherethey wanted it spended. - we, as floridians deserve that this constitutionalamendment be fulfilled and that the will ofthe voters to invest this dedicated funding,go to conservation land and not ongoing maintenanceissues that may or may not have anything to do withprotecting our waterways. - well, i can tellyou that the governor has absolutely asked for themoney to fix the everglades,
to fix lake okeechobee, tofix indian river lagoon, to fix our springs. we've got unprecedentedlevels of money coming in to springs restoration at50 million dollars a year. five years ago, itwasn't even funded. so, you have a lot of amendmentone restoration dollars getting appropriatedfor our ecosystems. it's happening. - the line item forforever florida used
to be 300 million dollars. and now its whittled down to 15. do the math. we cannot do the thingsthat we are supposed to do, in terms of making surethat we conserve lands for public use, andfor sustainability. - the legislaturepassed a water bill which i think significantlyweakened the standards for water, particularlythings like, how much water
can an individualor a firm or a farm, pull out of the ground,and under what conditions can they do it. it's now kind of wild west time. - it's all about jobs andthey don't, the politicians that they're answering todon't seem to understand that, in order to havea healthy economy, we got to have ahealthy environment. and that's the job of everybody.
- coming up, we'll find outthat florida is not doomed yet we'll find out howconnections in tallahassee can be used to generatebetter consequences when troubled waters continues. - if you can't do thingsthat have like a big impact, do things that have asmall impact because altogether we'remaking a change. - if we truly wantto make a difference about how our government istreating our environment,
or how our government isfailing our environment, we must band together andstand up for these waterways. - everyone living everywherein florida should speak up. - for the better part of thehour we have talked about the actions that we andgovernment have taken that have had a negative consequenceson the health of our river, our economy, andeven our way of life. but we have it in ourpower to change the course of the future, andthere are people
who are taking mattersinto their own hands and doing just that. the city of debary wasquietly planning to develop 100 acres of the 900 acrepreserve around gemini springs. but it didn't stay quiet. - another reporter said,hey there is something going on down there. they want to use partof gemini springs, and so we wrote this storyand then it just seemed
like the citizenscame out of nowhere. - i was in shock! all of us were. you know as if, what? what are they doing? you know, seriouslythey're trying to develop on conservation land? - and, mary sue scott,this resident from debary who's there almost everyday with her family.
who had never reallybeen involved in any kind of a community project before,just started going to town. - i created a petition andspread it on social media. and it spread like wildfire. the first day we had 500signatures and it grew. a thousand here a thousandthere and i had immediate help from so many peopleemailing me, messaging me. what can i do to help? - she was not acommunity activist.
not one of these people whogoes to routine meetings and learns how to standup for the environment. she was just a regular personwho saw something happening in her back yard andknew that it felt wrong. - [bruce] mary sue reached outto the st. johns riverkeeper, the audubon society andevery other environmental organization she could find. over the course of a few months, they had the attention of thewater management district,
volusia county and thelocal city council. - we have a councilman who, ihad already sent the petition to all of them, and weeks laterhe emailed me and asked me, can you send methat petition again? and i emailed himback and said, why? are you gonna sign it? and he just wrote back, no. numbers speak. - [bruce] in the end, thewater management board
voted to transfer ownershipof the preservation land to volusia county and requireda conservation easement that should protect thispublic land forever. - the debary story is oneexample of what can happen if we hold our publicofficials accountable. one motivated person energizeda grass roots movement and changed thecourse of events. together, we canmake a difference. if we truly value ourrivers and our waterways,
we will give them a voice. if we do, there is hope. if not, the consequencescan be tragic. our waters need us now. - [bruce] aliciasmith volunteers withthe rising tides, a young adults group and helpsthe st. johns riverkeeper and north florida land trust, organize regular clean-upsalong our waterways. - also we try to let peopleknow on a smaller level
that they can do thingsevery single day. you don't have to goto these big festivals, but just take a walkaround your neighborhood that is getting involved. - [bruce] and robertfield did just that. he was just out forhis morning walk when he saw city workerswith leaf blowers at the jacksonville landing. - and they were blowingbasically everything
in their path just out ofthe way and into the river. and i stoppedthem, and was like, what are you doingwith the leaf blower? this is just going in the river. and they said, well that'sjust how we're told to do it. i wound up reachingout to the director of the parks department,i copied the mayor of jacksonville on it andthen i sent a separate email to all the city council members.
after some back andforth and talking to them and getting the jacksonvilleenvironmental agency involved as well. they realized theyhadn't been training their staff properly. they weren't followingthe right protocols. so, what ended uphappening is over 100 parks maintenance staffworkers have to go through re-training so they're moreaware of how to clean up
areas that are along the river and along creeks andalong watersheds. - all of us have a stakein what our impacts are to the river. so, whether it's justcleaning up your own yard. making sure that youyourself are not the cause or the source of pollutioninto the waterway. that alone is gonna be thegreatest impact we can have. you know, everysingle person adds up.
and every single person'slittle piece of lawn, little piece of yard,little piece of property, that is the st. johnsriver watershed. that's what makes up thest. johns river watershed. the ultimate locationwhere it's all going is gonna be the st. johns river. (relaxing music) - fact is, we are all involvedwhether we want to be or not. we've seen that all floridawaterways are connected.
we've seen the connectionsbetween growth, and agriculture, between politics and protection, we've seen how citizen'sgroups and individuals can make a difference. and now it is up to youto decide how your action or inaction willhave consequences onour troubled waters. - at the time ofthe greatest threat, did we step forward anddo our part in saving what is best of our florida?
will our great grand childrenlook back and say with pride, look what my great grandmomma and great grand daddy did for this state? - it's our river. we own it! we need to takeresponsibility for it. and, if we get involved byholding our government agencies accountable, if we electgood people that are going to work for the riverand work for us,
and then we reach outand keep relationships with those elected officialsand hold them accountable, get involved when decisionsare being made that affect the future of theriver, and we make sure our voices are heard, wecan protect the river. i'm optimistic thatthe future is bright but it's gonna take thecitizens getting involved and making a difference. - the st. johnsriver needs us now!
florida's rivers, springs,and waters, are in trouble. it is time to take action andstand up for florida's waters.
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