Water-Use Permit Decision Appealed
By Susan Latham Carr, Ocala Star-Banner, Fla.
Apr. 13–OCALA — Marion County on Thursday appealed the St. Johns River Water Management District’s decision to issue a 20-year water-use permit to pump half a million gallons of water a day in Citra to supply bulk water to commercial bottling plants.
“They have misinterpreted the statute requirement that the permits be issued in the public’s interest,” Assistant County Attorney Tom MacNamara said about the district. “I think the public interest includes whether the use is consistent with the zoning of the property.”
Attorneys for St. Johns could not be reached for comment Thursday. Neither could applicants C. Ray Greene III and Angus S. Hastings.
The county contends the permit is not in the public’s interest because the land is zoned agricultural.
“It’s not consistent with zoning and land use,” MacNamara said.
In order for the property to be used for water distribution to bottling companies, the county commission, an elected body, would have to issue a special-use permit, and none has been requested.
“They don’t have the authority to exclude that fact from their consideration of public interest,” MacNamara said about the District’s board, which is an appointed body. “We are going to make new law, we hope.”
When Greene and Hastings applied in 2005 for the permit to pump the groundwater out of an existing well in the Black Sink Prairie off Northeast 175th Street Road, known also as Pine Church Road. They already had a permit to use surface water for their limerock mining operation.
When the surface water permit expired, Greene and Hastings requested an allocation of surface water to use for mining until the end of 2006. So, the application became a request for both ground and surface water.
Since then, the applicant has received a temporary permit that authorizes dewatering at the site until the end of 2007 in order to continue the mining operation.
Both the well that will draw the water for use as bottled water and the pump for dewatering the mine are located adjacent to the mine at Black Sink.
The county already requested an administrative hearing, hoping to stop the groundwater permit, but lost its argument. The District said the permit meets the criteria for being a reasonable beneficial use, for being in the public’s interest, and it does not interfere with any presently existing legal use of water.
Greene and Hastings’ consultant, Robert “Clay” Albright, could not be reached for comment Thursday. Albright, a commercial real estate broker, is a member of St. Johns governing board, which votes on permits. He excused himself from the Black Sink vote.
The county is appealing the District’s decision to allow the pumping of 182.14 million gallons of groundwater a year to the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach.
“It usually is a six-to-nine-month process,” MacNamara said. “It could be shorter, but it also could be longer.”
In the meantime, because the county, a government entity, has filed the appeal, a stay would be in place preventing the groundwater from being pumped until the matter is resolved by the court.
THE ISSUE A St. Johns River Water Management District permit to pump one-half million gallons of water a day near Citra for commercial bottling.
WHAT’S NEW?
Marion County filed a challenge to the permit in appellate court.
WHAT’S NEXT?
A stay would be in place preventing the groundwater from being pumped until the matter is resolved by the court, which a county attorney said could take six to nine months.
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