Plan for Wal-Mart faces new challenge

[L Roebuck]

Plan for Wal-Mart faces new challenge

By NATHAN CRABBE
Sun staff writer
July 14. 2006 6:01AM

HIGH SPRINGS - The debate over a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in Alachua is having repercussions a few miles northwest in the city of High Springs.

The High Springs City Commission voted 3-1 Thursday to challenge the supercenter's stormwater permit. The vote follows Alachua County's decision to reach a voluntary agreement with the company, which High Springs commissioners said didn't guarantee protection of their city's future water supply.

"It puts the level of participation solely at the discretion of the applicant, which is kind of like the fox guarding the henhouse," said Commissioner Kirk Eppenstein.

The supercenter is planned to be built at U.S. 441 and Interstate 75. An Alachua County study found that dye placed in a nearby sinkhole traveled northwest to Hornsby Springs, just north of High Springs, within 13 days, likely passing through a site planned as a well field for the cities of High Springs and Alachua.

The Suwannee River Water Management District bought the 375-acre well field in 2003 for more than $2 million with a Florida Forever grant and other funds, said John Dinges, the district's director of resource management. The site is intended to be leased to High Springs and Alachua for their drinking water supplies, he said.

The district also approved Wal-Mart's stormwater permit last month. Dinges said the permit contained enough protections to assure that the store wouldn't pollute groundwater in the well field or nearby springs.

But the permit has generated opposition from cave divers and local government officials, who say the dye study shows a direct conduit for pollution that demands strict regulations on the store.

On Tuesday, Alachua County commissioners agreed to drop a challenge to the permit if Wal-Mart voluntarily agreed to tougher stormwater controls. The company agreed to cover its garden center to prevent runoff from fertilizer, increase the amount of pervious surface on the site and take other steps.

High Springs Commissioner James Gabriel said the the agreement let Wal-Mart study the issue and consider protections rather than requiring them.

"Maybe we want them to do more than think about it when we're choking down our water," he said.

High Springs Mayor Pro Tempore Thomas DePeter, who cast the dissenting vote, said he wanted more information on why Alachua County decided against pursuing the challenge. He suggested a potentially costly state appeals process could have been the reason.

"My guess is it might have had a dollar sign in it," he said.

Nathan Crabbe can be reached at 352-338-3176 or [e-mail].

Full Article: www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060714/LOCAL/207140338/1078/news

[L Roebuck]

High Springs to Wal-Mart: protect water or else
By Christa Jenkins-Desrets
Herald Writer

HIGH SPRINGS n High Springs City Commissioners again have taken steps to challenge a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter in Alachua near the Interstate 75 interchange, saying that the site could potentially damage their city’s water supply if too few precautions are taken.

High Springs officials submitted a letter last Friday, July 14, challenging Wal-Mart’s stormwater permit through the Suwannee River Water Management District.

And if the water district officials do not accept that challenge, High Springs officials also are taking measures to bring the matter before the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings, a body that hears cases involving governmental entities.

Alachua County commissioners had challenged the permit just a week before but accepted an agreement with Wal-Mart officials who said they would participate in some practices that would decrease chances of damaging the water supply but would only consider participating in a comprehensive water study.

This study would ask Wal-Mart to test the water for quality and biological life before development, then on a regular basis afterward. Wal-Mart would not commit to the study, with officials saying they would only consider it in the future.

But High Springs officials decided at their July 13 meeting that that was not good enough.

“I don’t think this document goes anywhere near where it needs to go,” Commissioner Kirk Eppenstein said, referring to the Wal-Mart-County agreement. “It puts the level of participation solely at the discretion of the applicant.”

Mayor Byran Williams had previously issued letters on March 27 and June 23 expressing concerns about the site and asking the water district to use extra scrutiny when issuing permits for the site since it was particularly vulnerable to water issues.

But that permit was issued anyway after a public hearing on June 13, the same day that Tropical Storm Alberto hit the area.

Williams asserts in a July 14 letter that the original public hearing for the water permit was not sufficient because of the state of emergency at the time, plus the fact that High Springs officials were not notified of the meeting even though they had previously indicated their concern.

City Manager Jim Drumm echoed similar comments.

“The day they held their public hearing, all the emergency management personnel came out and said ‘stay home,’” City Manager Jim Drumm said. “…It’s a shame we weren’t invited to those discussions.”

If the Suwannee River Water Management District decides not to hold another public meeting, Drumm said, the city has already began the filing process for an administrative hearing through the state.

Such a hearing would be much like a court hearing, according to City Attorney Jim Pendland, and each side would present evidence to support their case.

One of the most important pieces of evidence supporting the idea that additional safeguards need to be in place, said Pete Butt, of Karst Environmental Services, is a set of dye tests that he managed last year.

In those tests, a series of colored dyes were released into Mill Creek Sink, which is near the proposed Wal-Mart, and found that after only 12 days, that dye had traveled six miles through the underwater cave system to Hornsby Spring in High Springs.

These results, Butt said, are conclusive evidence that underwater caves connect the area around Wal-Mart to water supplies in High Springs.

Without the proper safeguards to prevent runoff from Wal-Mart into the nearby sinkholes, Butt said, the aquifer water could begin to degrade.

Eppenstein said that this possible result is what makes the matter pertinent to High Springs.

“The goal is not what is going to be placed there, but how it will be placed there,” Eppenstein said. “Water and air do not have jurisdictional boundaries.”

And if the water did get contaminated, Drumm said, the city would have to initiate a purification system, which could take years.

In the meantime, he said, supplying water to residents could mean installing underground pipes to pump it from as far away as Lake City. This process would likely cost more than fees for an administrative hearing, he said.

“They (Wal-Mart) probably have deeper pockets, but then what will we do if our drinking water is contaminated,” he said. “…The cost (of pumping water) would be unbelievable.”

Williams submitted his latest letter to the water district July 14, and as of Wednesday, commissioners were still awaiting a response.

Article: www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2006/07/20/news/news03.txt

[L Roebuck]

Let’s protect ‘Big Dan.’ Let’s protect ourselves

When Christ was born in 4 B.C., Big Dan was already 680 years old.

He had lived in Florida for hundreds of years when the Spanish created the first European settlement in St. Augustine. Big Dan stood tall and proud as Confederate soldiers marched through the woods to fight courageously in two Gainesville battles during 1864.

In 1896, he weathered a giant storm as wind ravaged his home in High Springs, demolishing the town in its path. He even survived the hurricanes that rocked Florida over the past few years, mourning his dozens of neighbors that did not make it through the seasons.

But within the next few years, Big Dan may be killed.

By Wal-Mart.

The retail giant is planning to build a Supercenter in Alachua next to a cave system whose water feeds directly into Camp Kulaqua’s Hornsby Spring.

That’s where Big Dan lives. The bald cypress is 2,690 years old and has a girth 10 times larger than those of his neighbors. He’s 80 feet tall.

But you have to wonder what will happen when Wal-Mart places its Supercenter on the hill behind McDonald’s in Alachua and allows water to drain into what is called a “dry pond,” meaning only the ground filters the water.

When Alachua County environmental officials asked Wal-Mart to take water samples and figure out how much life was living in the underground (underwater) cave system under and near the Alachua site, Wal-Mart said that it might n yes, might n participate in such a study.

How big of them.

In Wal-Mart’s defense, there are plenty of other businesses in the area that could affect the water quality in the underground river known as the Mill Creek Cave System. The runoff from U.S. 441 and possible even from Interstate 75 could be affecting that water quality.

But when a business the size of a Wal-Mart Supercenter comes along and its owners decide to dump all the parking lot runoff into the earth in a dry pond, that should raise eyebrows.

It certainly did with Alachua County officials, who threatened to tie up Wal-Mart in legal wranglings until Wal-Mart met some environmental standards. And Wal-Mart did. But the biggest question of them all n whether a Supercenter should be built there and what effect it might have on area water n was left up to Wal-Mart to decide.

When High Springs officials learned last week that Wal-Mart was not going to be forced to do water tests, the High Springs City Commission did something about it. They have asked the Suwannee River Water Management District to reconsider the matter or the city will tie up Wal-Mart in court-like hearings over the matter.

But now High Springs needs your help. We know that Camp Kulaqua is run by the Seventh-day Adventists and that likely their religious beliefs tell them not to get involved in political matters. But this goes beyond political matters.

This is an environmental matter. This affects the liquid blood that sustains the way of life in this area.

Wal-Mart n and other businesses in that Mill Creek area, too n need to be forced to participate in the water study, which will include an in-depth look at not only the water quality but also what is living in the water.

Tough consequences should be written into the water study. If Wal-Mart builds its Supercenter and the quality of the water dramatically goes down or the biology in the underground caves starts dying n then Wal-Mart should be forced to clean up its act if it is found at fault. Wal-Mart should even be forced to close down and rip down the building and rip up all concrete as the last-ditch measure.

This sounds radical. We know. But doesn’t it sound just as radical to build a Supercenter at such an ecologically sensitive site?

Now is the time for the Seventh-day Adventists, for High Springs residents, for Alachua County residents, for environmentalists, for school children, for parents n everyone n to show their support of the High Springs City Commission.

Keep reading The High Springs Herald. Learn when the public meetings will be held. Show up in force.

We know that it’s sometimes hard to “humanize” something like water pollution. But how about we simply focus on “Big Dan,” as the kids have named the 2,690-year-old tree. Can we afford to lose this historical gem, this symbolic icon of how precious water is to our area?

No, we cannot.

Let’s protect our water. Let’s protect Big Dan. Let’s protect ourselves.

Article: www.highspringsherald.com/articles/2006/07/20/editorial/editorial072006.txt