Rodman Reservoir to go; river will flow

Federal officials tell the state to start restoring the Ocklawaha River, riling anglers while pleasing environmentalists.

By CRAIG PITTMAN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 9, 2002

Federal forestry officials have told the state to start work this year on restoring the Ocklawaha River, dammed more than 30 years ago as part of a massive canal that was never completed.

Under a timetable made public by the U.S. Forest Service on Tuesday, the controversial Rodman Reservoir would be gone by 2006.

The first step, this fall, would be to collect water quality information. But then, starting next year, the 9,000-acre reservoir would be gradually drawn down until it's only 4 feet deep. Then about 2,000 feet of the 7,200-foot-long Kirkpatrick Dam would be torn out to allow the river to flow through unimpeded.

Tearing down the entire dam would cost too much, forest service officials said, but ripping out part of it would still restore the river. The total project could cost about $14-million, with the state and federal government likely splitting the expense, forest service spokeswoman Denise Rains said.

However, if state officials drag their feet, federal officials say, the Forest Service can step in and do the job anyway -- and then send the state the whole bill.

Although the dam belongs to the state, the U.S. Forest Service owns 600 acres inundated by the reservoir. The agency would like to see that acreage converted back to dry land as part of the Ocala National Forest. The federal agency also owns some of the land under the dam.

Tearing down the dam "would be the highest and best use for our public lands, not only for this generation but also for generations that follow," Forest Supervisor Marsha Kearney wrote in the agency's official decision.

Forest service officials say the dam is ruining water quality in the Ocklawaha River, reducing downstream productivity by fish and shellfish in both the Ocklawaha and the adjacent St. Johns River, and spreading exotic and nuisance plants such as hydrilla.

Tearing down the dam would solve those problems, Kearney wrote. It would also allow bears, manatees and other animals to move freely along the restored river corridor, she said.

Environmental groups, which have been lobbying to rip out the dam ever since it was built in 1968, hailed the restoration plans.

"That's what we wanted: some kind of deadline," said Richard Hamann, president of Florida Defenders of the Environment.

But anglers want to keep the stump-filled reservoir because it's such a good place to fish for bass.

"Of course we're going to fight it," said Ed Taylor, president of Save Rodman Reservoir. "We're not going to accept them affecting land that does not belong to them just to accomplish their goals for the land that does belong to them."

Taylor promised to appeal the federal decision and call on allies in the Legislature and Congress to block funding for tearing down the dam. If that doesn't work, he said, there's always a lawsuit.

"If it ever came down to the so-called move to pull the plug," Taylor said, "then we've got enough legal questions to ask to tie it up in court for years."

Getting rid of the reservoir would likely mean a drop in the number of anglers now drawn to Putnam and Marion counties, forestry officials have conceded. But Kearney predicted that the local economy will benefit more from canoeists, bird-watchers and other ecotourists who would be drawn to the restored river.

The dam and reservoir are remnants of the Cross Florida Barge Canal, which was supposed to let barges slice across the peninsula between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. Completed in 1968, the dam backed the Ocklawaha up for 16 miles, drowning any trees still standing.

President Richard Nixon halted construction of the canal in 1971, but the dam and reservoir remained and were later turned over to the state. Gov. Lawton Chiles and the Cabinet voted unanimously to rip out the dam, but the Legislature repeatedly stymied the effort by cutting the project's funding.

Last year Gov. Jeb Bush sought $800,000 to launch the restoration effort, but lawmakers blocked him too. One of the dam's biggest champions in the Legislature is Senate Majority Leader Jim King, who on Tuesday was named president-designate by his fellow Republicans. He could not be reached for comment.

Asked to predict whether a King-dominated Legislature will approve spending money on restoring the river, state Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Lucia Ross laughed and declined to comment.

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