The Alachua County Commission wants Ginnie Springs and other county springs to keep strongly flowing.
To bring attention to water depletion in Alachua County, the commission pledged its support to keep water regulation of Florida's rivers and springs under local control rather than state control.
In a unanimous vote Tuesday morning, the commission approved a resolution to continue its support of keeping control of public water within water management districts, which are the agencies that control how much water can be pumped out of the ground to irrigate land throughout the state.
The resolution came in reaction to a Florida Senate bill that would take water regulation power from the water management districts and give it to the state.
Two springs in North Florida that were once tourist destinations in the 1920s are now dried up because too many areas around the state are pumping groundwater out of North Florida, said Chris Bird, director of the Alachua County Environmental Protection Department. He is concerned Ginnie Springs could follow.
"Water and lack of it is probably the most pressing problem in the future of Florida," commissioner Lee Pinkoson said.
There are five water management districts in Florida. Alachua County is split between two districts: the Suwannee River Water Management District and the St. Johns River Water Management District.
When residents request a permit to irrigate their land — usually farmland — their water district denies or grants them a permit to set up a well that pumps groundwater from the Floridan Aquifer, a large underground body of water that fills springs across North Florida.
"As a result, there is less water to feed the springs," Bird said.
While supporting water management districts will not solve the problem of disappearing water, the commissioners said at the meeting, it would allow local governments to keep a watchful eye over the springs and rivers.
If the state government takes control of water regulation and distribution, it could pump from wherever it pleases, he said.
