Interview with Jim Stevenson (J)
Interviewer: Lucinda Faulkner Merritt (L)
Tallahassee, Florida
June 17, 2019
L: Thanks. Over the years, the Ichetucknee has faced various threats. I know that Columbia County residents mounted an effort a number of years ago to keep dairy farms out of the county to protect the Ichetucknee from pollution from animal waste. And I remember the controversy around the cement plant that was built on land near the river. I think it was that controversy that led then-Governor Jeb Bush’s canoe trip down the river and his establishment of the Florida Springs Protection Initiative. Can you talk about your involvement in either or both of those things?
J: Yes. In 1995, I formed the Ichetucknee Springs Basin Working Group which was composed of agency people and organizations and private citizens who cared about the Ichetucknee and who had information, whether scientific or just general knowledge, about the Ichetucknee. We met quarterly and learned from each other and gradually became very knowledgeable about the Ichetucknee springs and river.
In 1999, a corporation wanted to put a cement plant four miles from the Ichetucknee, although when the word got to the public it was thought that it would be right on the Ichetucknee River. And again, the public rose up and fought that. Again, all the major newspapers in the state opposed it and there were demonstrations and it really showed citizen activity to protect a natural resource.
So it became very, very political. And Governor Bush had just taken the reins as our new governor. And he had hired Secretary Struhs from Massachusetts to head up the Department of Environmental Protection, neither of which had ever seen a Florida spring. They decided they needed to see the Ichetucknee because of the uproar.
So as I was the most knowledgeable person about the Ichetucknee at that time, I was asked to lead them on a canoe trip. We first met at the Head Spring and I gave them a talk about how the Ichetucknee Basin functioned and what the threats were. Then we got in the canoes and started down the river with me interpreting what they were seeing. We stopped at each spring and while at Devil’s Eye, Secretary Struhs was finally convinced that Florida’s springs were in trouble—not just Ichetucknee, but all the springs. So he directed me to form a Florida Springs Task Force, which I did. It was composed of 15 experts on various aspects of Florida springs.
We studied it for a year and produced a report with recommendations on how Florida needed to save the springs. Soon after that, Governor Bush put in his budget for an appropriation for springs protection and the Legislature funded it to the total of 2.5 million dollars. Now by today’s standards, that may not sound like much money, but back then that was the very first money ever appropriated for protection of a Florida spring.
So we jumped into action and came up with some important projects to help protect not only the Ichetucknee, but all of Florida’s springs. That money continued annually until the Governor Scott administration eliminated the money around 2010.
L: That’s interesting to me that both were Republican governors and here we have one who was supportive of our natural resources and another one, not so much. It’s just an interesting shift that has happened over time, because I think Florida has had tremendous bipartisan support for preserving natural Florida for a long, long time. People who are just coming to the state now or just waking up to the problems with some of our natural systems may not be aware of that—that there was that bipartisan support for a long time.
J: And it was all about politics. The Governor and Secretary went to Ichetucknee on that trip because of politics. There was so much fuss around the state about this cement plant issue that they were seeing votes. They were counting votes. Well, Governor Scott wasn’t faced with a crisis—or at least not a crisis that he would recognize with Florida’s springs—so he never did anything to protect them.
So again, these are often political decisions. They have to be backed up by science, but they are political decisions and it shows that the public must stand up for our springs or we won’t be able to save them.
L: Yes, agreed. And just for the record, the Ichetucknee Alliance—right after Governor DeSantis was elected and took office—we have invited him to canoe down the Ichetucknee, but we haven’t heard anything back. And I think it’s probably exactly what you said, there’s not a crisis up here in North Florida that’s getting his attention as much as the crises in South Florida with the water quality. Even though we have the same problems up here, they’re maybe not as visible for some reason.
J: Our human species has to face a crisis before we’ll take action. We wait until the last buffalo is ready to go off the cliff before we decide to act. This is a phenomenon not just for springs, but virtually any issue.
L: I wish the human species were maybe a little bit smarter than all of this.
You answered most of my question about how the Springs Protection Initiative differed from the Task Force and the Springs Basin Working Group, but can you summarize maybe some of the recommendations that those groups came up with, things that have happened and maybe things that have not happened? I know I’m going off track a little bit here.
J: Yes. The Working Group’s purpose was to learn everything we could learn about how the Ichetucknee functioned and what the threats were, but we had no authority to do anything. We couldn’t ask—well, we could ask people to do things but we couldn’t tell them to do anything. Whereas the Task Force had a little more muscle in that it was appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. So there was more weight given to those recommendations than to the Working Group.
But the science must continue. I mean, we’re continually learning more and more about these springs systems and I don’t know that we’ll ever know it all, but it keeps life interesting.
L: Definitely. And the Ichetucknee Alliance is firmly science-based.
You’ve shared with me a timeline of land acquisition in the Ichetucknee Trace and Basin from the time the land for the state park was acquired in 1970 for close to two million dollars, to the purchase of other lands that were acquired in order to protect the water that feeds the springs and the river. The total for all those purchases is close to 38 million dollars.
That’s a lot of money that Florida’s taxpayers have provided so we can all enjoy the Ichetucknee, but the river has lost flow over the years and nitrate pollution in the Ichetucknee is twice the state standard. We know that both of those things—loss of flow and increased nitrate levels—can lead to algae growth, and you’ve told me that algae in the Ichetucknee has affected you personally. Can you describe that for us?
J: Well as far as my experiences with algae, my last time on the river was four years ago when my wife and I were practice-rolling our kayaks at the Ichetucknee. It was the cleanest water within a couple-hour drive, so we commonly went there to practice rolling kayaks. I was sick in bed the following day because of my exposure to algae in the river. And more and more people are becoming allergic to it. It lets off biotoxins that can affect your respiratory system and cause other ailments as well.
As far as losing flow, in that 350 square miles the City of Lake City is right in the middle of that. It’s not a large city, but they do draw water from I think five municipal wells. So that has some impact. We’ve come to realize that an even greater impact is coming from Jacksonville and perhaps even Brunswick, Georgia, where a large industry and the big population of Jacksonville is withdrawing a huge amount of water. We’re told by the Florida Springs Institute that probably 25 percent of the normal flow has been lost.
L: Right. And so in terms of your algae allergy—that’s strange to say—did that get diagnosed by a physician? How did you know that it was algae that was bothering you?
J: Just from personal experiences. Of course I consulted with various doctors, but they knew little about it but were hearing more and more, especially from South Florida.
(CELL PHONE CALL INTERRUPTS DISCUSSION)
L: So you said you’re hearing more and more, especially from South Florida, about the algae—from doctors, right?
J: Yes, more and more instances of allergic reactions. The reactions that I’m having, I will get rashes and it’s primarily respiratory with me. I can feel it in my chest from these biotoxins when I get near it. So it’s really limited my recreational use as well as exploration. I was a cave diver until this algae hit me and even whitewater kayaking up in the mountains, there’s algae in mountain streams now.
L: Wow.
J: So I pretty much stay out of the water. When leading tours, I have to—I can let folks walk down to the water to see the lake or wherever we’re at, but I stay up on the hill away from the water and they come back up for us to talk. So it’s restricting my activities. It’s just a really serious problem for probably wildlife as well as humans.
L: Yeah, and I wonder if any other cave divers have noticed it. I don’t really communicate with that community, but if it’s affecting you I’m sure it’s affecting other people. And I think that’s really tragic that we’ve let it get to this point, that people are having trouble enjoying our beautiful water. It’s sad.
One of the biggest messages that the Alliance has tried to put forward in the past year is that the problems with our springs and rivers aren’t so much scientific problems—because we know a lot of the science involved at this point, although there’s always more to learn—but they’re also political problems because it’s up to people to solve them. I think you’ve alluded to the fact that you agree with that and so I was going to ask you if you agree with that and if so, why and if not, why not?
J: Well, it all begins with awareness and that’s brought about by education. We tend to think that once the population is educated that they’ll do the right thing. It’s my view that many of these citizens, once educated, will voluntarily change their behavior for the good. But there’s another set of citizens that won’t change their behavior, so that’s where regulations are needed to require them to do the right thing. It’s unfortunate that it has to reach that regulatory point, but it’s necessary.
The politics are obviously a people problem and we don’t want another crisis or two to change behavior and to cause the political winds to blow from a better direction, but unfortunately as we mentioned earlier, a crisis is often necessary to get people’s attention.
L: Yes. I’ve often heard you say that once we lose a major spring in Florida, then more people are going to pay attention. And it’s sad to me that we have to wait for that to happen. I hope maybe we don’t.
I’ve heard too that—not all gloom and doom—that the Ichetucknee River System might well be the easiest spring system in Florida to restore to health. And that’s the stated purpose of the Ichetucknee Alliance, to restore, protect and preserve the Ichetucknee.
My friend Mark Smith has given me a nickname, “The Ich Witch,” so imagine that I’m the magic witch of the Ichetucknee and I’m waving my magic wand and I would like to give you absolute power to protect the taxpayers’ investments and to restore the Ichetucknee. What are some of the things that you would do?
J: Well, people tend to appreciate a natural resource when they can see it and enjoy it. So tours—whether canoe trips or tours of the Ichetucknee Basin I think are really important. I used to, in years past, give a lot of those tours to inform and educate the public. Also schools are important. You know, we adults—it’s hard to get us to change our behavior. But if you talk to some fifth graders, it’s amazing—they’re like sponges. And they take the information home.
In 1999, we held a field trip to Rose Sink. It’s part of the Ichetucknee system. We had 250 fifth graders from the two elementary schools in the Ichetucknee Basin. We had four or five stations set up where they could learn from different instructors. One was a cave diver and he showed them the dye that he had released in the cave that found its way to Ichetucknee. Another was the park biologist talking about the spring basin. Another was the DEP biologist talking about stormwater management, and there were other subjects. Every 20 minutes, they would change to a different instructor. So all the kids got to hear every instructor.
And occasionally teachers will have the students write a thank-you letter to the host who put on the program for them. I received a big stack of really nice letters from these students. Remember, they were fifth graders; I guess that was 10 or 11 years old. One little girl said, “I was tellin’ my daddy about my day at supper and he was going to fertilize the lawn but he decided not to fertilize the lawn.” She had learned that the nitrates in the fertilizer are causing problems at our springs.
A little boy said, “When I get cows, I’m going to keep them out of the creek.” He knew that cows will stand in a creek and recycle on the spot, and that wasn’t good.
Another little boy—it’s kind of amusing—he said, “Why didn’t you people do something about this a long time ago?” Well, he’s right. Why didn’t we?
A little girl got my attention. She said, “Dear Mr. Stevenson, I hope you live for a few more years to help others with Ichetucknee Springs.” I thought that was nice of her.
L: (laughing) That was wonderful and I will share her hope! That’s great, out of the mouths of babes.
I see many posts on social media from people who love the Ichetucknee and our other springs, but it also seems to me that many people are apathetic about our natural treasures or they may feel powerless to make changes.
What advice do you have for people who love the Ichetucknee and want their children and grandchildren to have the same kinds of experiences there that we’ve had?
J: Again, it’s various forms of education, whether it’s school field trips or actually going to the schools with presentations, giving programs to the public in Lake City, and getting advice from some of the leaders in Lake City and Columbia County. These are all steps that we’ve taken in the past and need to be continued. It would be great to have a monthly column in the Lake City Reporter about the status of the Ichetucknee—the good and the bad. People need to know what’s going wrong but people need to know about successes.
We need a model farm. We’ve got a new Commissioner of Agriculture now. Maybe she should be approached about having a model farm in the Ichetucknee Basin to show how little impact farming can actually have if done properly.
So there’s a number of these things that we need to do. You need to come at it from every direction. There’s no single course of action to solve this problem.
L: Yes, it’s a multi-pronged problem that will require multi-pronged solutions.
Columbia County is interesting. I’ve looked at some of the statistics. It looks like most of the water use in Columbia County is for public supply and private supply—people on wells—but most of the nitrate pollution is coming from agriculture. So when we say that everybody is involved and needs to be involved, it really is everybody including those people over in Jacksonville who are drawing water away from the Ichetucknee. And I love the idea of a model farm because one of our other messages is there’s no solution to these problems without our agriculturalists.
Back in 2013, you spoke at a meeting in the Fort White Library that resulted in the establishment of the Ichetucknee Alliance and you’re now on the Alliance’s advisory board. You’ve always advised us to keep a narrow focus on the problems of the Ichetucknee.
Do you have any other advice for us, anything that you haven’t already mentioned that we could do to become more effective? As you know, we’re a small group but we recently had a successful membership drive in Gainesville and we’re planning another event like that in Lake City for this fall.
J: Yes, because of your low membership, it’s hard for you to do very much. That’s why I’ve continually suggested that you folks remain focused on one or two issues. If you spread yourself too thin, everybody just gets exhausted and you’ll find your members fading away. So by picking a couple of priority issues and staying with those, I think you can be more effective.
Next to that is recruitment of more members. If there was a way to inform the public of the need for members and the good things that the Alliance is doing, perhaps that would help you recruit more as well.
L: We try. We do try to do that. We have a website and we have an active Facebook discussion page that people should know about. But I realize we need to do more.
There’s a surprise bonus question here at the very end. Mark Smith’s song that we’re using in this podcast is called “The Wisdom of the River.” He wrote it about the Ichetucknee. There’s a line in the lyrics, “When the river talks, I want to listen ‘cause it might say something that I want to know.”
Imagine for a minute that the Ichetucknee could speak. What wisdom would it impart to us?
J: Well there’s a Chinese proverb that you know very well— that in order to protect the water, you must protect the land. So if each of us living up here on top of the hill will, shall we say, clean up our act, the water flowing to the Ichetucknee will be cleaner and the Ichetucknee will be happier.
L: Thank you, this has been great. Anything else you want to add at the very end?
J: I appreciate what the Ichetucknee Alliance is doing. We cannot save the Ichetucknee without a citizens’ group such as the Alliance. There are other springs citizen groups around the state like Wakulla Springs just south of Tallahassee as the Wakulla Springs Alliance. Without groups like this, we aren’t going to win this battle.
L: Thank you, Jim. I appreciate your time.
J: Thank you.
Continued from Part 1. This interview was originally recorded for a podcast but audio problems led to this transcription, which has been lightly edited for grammar, punctuation and accuracy. Click here to read the whole interview in a downloadable pdf.