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Politics

County drops Brooker Creek pumping plan

The plan to use the preserve to water golf courses is dropped.

By THERESA BLACKWELL
Published March 14, 2007

Pinellas County has dropped a controversial plan to pump water from the Brooker Creek Preserve to irrigate two neighboring private golf courses.

Saying on Tuesday that the project wasn't worth the acrimony it had generated, County Administrator Steve Spratt said officials will pull their application to reactivate the wells.

"This is it," Spratt said. "I intend to withdraw it."

Opponents were elated.

"I'm very glad he made the decision," said Matthew Poling, 16, the former senior executive of the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve. "I don't think that pumping water from a nature preserve to a golf course is a good idea."

Public opposition to the proposal began after Poling and his father, Steve, discovered a portable pump on one of the wells in the fall of 2005.

As originally proposed, the county wanted to pump an annual average rate of 415,000 gallons of water a day - or up to 1,008,000 gallons on any one day - from the Floridan Aquifer beneath the preserve during the dry season.

They later reduced the requested average to 284,256 gallons per day, but the proposed peak remained at 1,008,000 gallons per day.

The effect on the preserve, they said, would be negligible.

But in the 10 months since the Times first reported the plan, the Friends of Brooker Creek Preserve, the Sierra Club and the St. Petersburg Audubon Society sharply criticized the proposal. They feared pumping could adversely affect wetlands, uplands, plants and wildlife.

Wells send wrong message

In December, an advisory group called the Environmental Science Forum voted 9-4 to recommend against reopening three old wells in the preserve to provide water for East Lake Woodlands golf courses during the dry season.

Pinellas County Utilities officials had said pumping from the wells would leave more reclaimed water for homeowners.

But after the Southwest Florida Water Management District returned the county's permit application recently, asking for more information, Pinellas County Utilities Director Pick Talley was ready to give up, too.

"It was just another program to increase our conservation effort," he said. Most members of the science forum, a group Spratt created to give advice on environmental policy questions, said allowing the pumping would send the wrong message as water conservation becomes more and more critical.

Spratt told commissioners of his decision during their meeting Tuesday morning.

After he finished reading from a three-page memo outlining the decision, commissioners Karen Seel, Bob Stewart and Ken Welch said they supported his decision, and others present offered no opposition. Commissioners Susan Latvala and Ronnie Duncan were not at the meeting.

At times, the controversy over the pumping plan had led environmental advocates to make stinging charges against Spratt, and Welch took a moment to praise the administrator Tuesday.

"I just want to commend you on your conduct during these debates," Welch said.

Questions still remain

Later, Spratt said, commissioners still need to address broader policy questions about water production and use in the preserve, considering that the utilities department bought the land for wellfields.

Commissioners are scheduled to consider the issue in a workshop Thursday on policy toward the Brooker Creek Preserve.

Talley agreed.

"The board needs to consider whether there is going to be any policy set that we can or cannot use water from the preserve for off-site purposes," he said.

"As far as I'm concerned, all land in the Brooker Creek Preserve is the same - regardless of who bought it - and it should all be preserved," Poling said.

Environmental advocate Lorraine Margeson of St. Petersburg says a charter amendment could help prevent sagas like the pumping initiative.

"It's one little win in a big heck of a mess," she said. "The only way to completely satisfy the tax-paying citizens is to legally and forever preserve the preserve."

Times staff writer Will Van Sant contributed to this report. Theresa Blackwell can be reached at tblackwell@sptimes.com or 727 445-4170.

If you go

Workshop set

A County Commission workshop on issues and policies in the Brooker Creek Preserve will be from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday in the Commission Assembly Room on the fifth floor of the County Courthouse, 315 Court St., Clearwater. County staff members will first present a detailed summary of actions related to the preserve. Then commissioners will have some discussion before the public speaks, most likely in the afternoon.

Two additional work sessions are planned in April and May.

[Last modified March 14, 2007, 05:45:41]