What’s going on with the health of Wakulla Springs?
With questions about water quality, lawsuit forces FDEP to propose rules for Springs protection.
Bob Knight remembers when he could see clear through the water in Wakulla Springs.
Knight, an aquatic ecologist in his 70s, spent his career researching springs and creating plans to save them. With four decades in the field, Knight says Florida needs to make more progress with restoring one of the world’s deepest springs found just south of Tallahassee.
Stakes are especially high for Wakulla Springs, one of the world’s largest freshwater springs. Three-hundred million gallons of water surges up from submerged caverns and flows into the Wakulla River every day.
Wakulla Springs’ health has fluctuated, showing initial improvement after years of decline. But, it’s now deteriorating once more.
In November, the nonprofit Florida Springs Council sued the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, alleging the agency violated a state law from 2016 after unreasonably delaying the adoption of protective rules for springs. Advocates worry water management districts continue to issue permits too freely, and that too much water is being taken from the Floridan aquifer.
On Dec. 10, the deadline for their response, FDEP issued a proposal for new rules to protect springs. Could the rules benefit a struggling Wakulla Springs?
The new proposed rules define harm to water resources and establish requirements and protective conditions for water permit applicants. Applicants must demonstrate:
That the water use is in the public interest.
There are no conflicts with existing legal permits.
That the water use doesn’t cause harm to the aquatic ecosystem, including animals and plants.
Locals and others who have dedicated their careers to studying springs have become more concerned about freshwater health after Florida’s inaction to create protections. Even with new rules proposed, scientists and advocates agree they are worthless without proper enforcement.
Chemicals and Green Slime
Pollution in Florida’s waterways, including Wakulla Springs, is typically caused by nitrogen from agricultural, commercial, and residential development. Fertilizers and septic tanks can contaminate waterways with waste and other chemicals that raise nitrogen levels.
High nitrogen levels can spark algae blooms that quickly deplete oxygen in the water. George Weaver knows these blooms well. He’s a retired Florida State University psychology professor and a volunteer sampler with the citizen-led Florida Lakewatch.
“There used to be kind of almost a slimy sort of stuff that would float around in the water and hang on to the grasses,” said Weaver.
He kayaks monthly to three places along a stretch of the Wakulla River behind his house to collect and process water samples. The green slime used to be so packed that he had to tilt his boat’s motor up to move in the water.
“That stuff is long gone. Compared to the early ‘90s, the river is in great shape,” Weaver said.
While Weaver recognizes Wakulla Springs isn’t as healthy as it should be, he says it used to be worse.
“We've seen a noticeable change in the river in the sense that I can now run up and down the river any day of the year and the water is clear. It may be a little tannin, a little browner than it used to be, but there is no clogging or anything of that sort,” he said.
Like in a cup of tea, tannins are produced when water is infused with material from forest debris. Tannins give Wakulla Springs and many other rivers in Florida the famous blackwater hue.
While tannins may not be like green slime, they are still a sticky issue at Wakulla Springs.
Tannins alone aren't considered a pollutant, but they can block crucial sunlight from reaching underwater plants. Without proper sunlight, plants can’t produce enough energy, so tannic waters generally have less plant life than clear waters.
Decreasing vegetation could be a threat to manatees, fish, birds, and other wildlife that rely on the springs.
Weaver supports additional protections for the Wakulla River, but he remains cautious about the details of the new proposal brought forward by state environmental regulators.
Although tannins are increasing, data from Florida Lakewatch shows that heavy metals and nitrogens have been gradually decreasing.
Initially, scientists were stumped by falling nitrogen levels at Wakulla. Under the previous spring rules, in many of Florida’s other major springs and waterways, nitrogen has been rising alongside continued urban development and intensive agriculture.
“Nitrate levels started coming down, but then the flow started going up at Wakulla Springs, and that was a phenomenon that sort of puzzled everybody,” Knight said.
Scientists and advocates came to attribute decreases in chemical pollution at Wakulla to several factors, including some housing developments switching to central wastewater. They praised a lawsuit that forced the city of Tallahassee to change its fertilization practices and upgrade city water facilities.
Scientists, including Knight, also attribute low nitrogen levels to increased flows at Wakulla from the Apalachicola National Forest.
When water passes through the Apalachicola National Forest, it mixes with oak leaves as well as pine and cypress needles and becomes tannic. Scientists think high-tannic water from the forest is now coming out at the Wakulla springhead, which is why Wakulla is hardly ever clear anymore.
Certain language in the newly proposed rules, if enforced, can be used to address these changes in water transparency and flow.
Water in the Apalachicola National Forest is low in nitrogen due to the absence of significant urban or agricultural development, which protects it from common pollution sources like septic tanks and lawn fertilizers.
Clean, low-nitrogen water coming in means clean, low-nitrogen water going out.
The Bigger Picture
However, when it comes to protecting springs, reducing nitrogen pollution is only one piece of the puzzle.
“Nitrogen never was the whole problem,” Knight said. “A big problem in a lot of springs is just the decreased flow. The fact that the flow is going up at Wakulla, as they get more and more of that flow from the west, is not a bad thing for the spring.”
Scientists think flow is going up at Wakulla because overpumping is causing water to move through the ground in a new way.
Withdrawing water from the aquifer causes changes to underground water levels and the whole direction of the basin, causing Wakulla to be fed increasingly by the Apalachicola National Forest rather than other historic sources.
“You would think that Wakulla is representative of our Florida springs, but it's really not. It's really a significant outlier in a lot of ways,” said Ryan Smart, Executive Director of the Florida Springs Council.
Smart himself is an expert on spring rules: He just sued the state to create new ones.
According to Smart, though springs' harm rules supposedly protect Florida’s waterways from pumping that would increase harm, the state’s water quality issues are exacerbated by what is effectively an open-door permitting process.
Smart criticizes the FDEP for selectively presenting data that fits their narrative of adequately protecting Florida's springs. While they may highlight the nitrogen reduction in Wakulla Springs, from homes switching from septic tanks to advanced wastewater systems, they often ignore the increase in new homes with septic tanks in other areas of the county.
“Wakulla is the political poster child when it comes to spring protection,” Smart said.
FDEP will highlight the successes of infrastructure projects while shying away from discussing evidence that the unintended effects of over-pumping lowered chemical pollution.
According to Smart, FDEP’s newly proposed spring rules are essentially the same as the previous spring rules that haven’t been properly enforced.
Even though Wakulla is doing well compared to other Florida springs, George Weaver still remembers a time when it was much clearer.
“The good news is that it was worse, and now it's a lot better,” Weaver said. “The bad news is it used to be way better, but I mean that's true of a whole lot of things that fifty years ago, there were a lot of things that were a little different.”
Supporting the health of Florida’s waterways: Insights from Dr. Bob Knight and Ryan Smart
Monitor where your wastewater flows
Manage fertilizer use and consider healthier alternatives
Plant native plant species
Monitor politicians’ stances and records on water rights
