State “Springs Protection Bill” Needs Flushing

Unfair, Unreasonable, and Unrealistic for rural areas.

This column presents a conservative viewpoint about items of interest in our community and our lives. Focus is on items impacting your pocket book, your personal freedoms, and your rights. I hope you will read the column regularly and it occasionally influences your opinions and actions.

I love the outdoors, our rivers and lakes, our ocean, the blue sky, our abundant wildlife, and our lifestyle here in good ole Jackson County. I also am pledged to defend my personal and property rights, to resist efforts of others in government to legislate their way into my life, my values, and my pocket book. I feel that common ground does exist between these two goals which will reasonably meet the needs of both.

As has been made abundantly clear in previous columns, I feel that the EPA, their state counterpart, the FDEP, and many extreme environmental groups are out of control. They are being allowed to enact rules, policies, and new legislation at the expense of the property rights, personal liberties, and pocket books of private citizens and businesses by an inept, liberal, misguided group of politicians. There is little or no oversight of these agencies, and they wield tremendous, unfettered power.

The latest example of their continuing intrusion on property owners is the “Springs Protection Bill” which was passed during the last legislative session and became law July 1. This was initially a “stand alone” bill which never made it out of committee, and was then cleverly attached to a springs protection bill which then enabled it to get through the law making system.

If this bill is fully implemented as written and intended, it will have a disastrous impact on hundreds of thousands of rural property owners across the state. Additionally, it will require the addition of hundreds of “Craptacrats” across the state, thus growing the size and cost of government as new regulations are enforced.

This bill requires that every septic tank in the state be pumped out and inspected every five years…..whether it needs it or not. If these inspections reveal any divergence from the stringent requirements for septic systems, which already have been enacted, the owner will be forced to upgrade, replace or retrofit, whether it needs it or not. Almost 100% of the systems installed before 1983 would not meet today’s requirements. The cost of permitting and inspecting will amount to hundreds of dollars for each property owner, and the cost of replacement quickly expands into thousands of dollars.

I contacted Representatives Marti Coley and Brad Drake about this new law. I was pleased to find out that Representative Coley voted against the bill. “It is a bad bill, and I did not support it,” Coley stated. “ It might be appropriate for some densely populated areas in other parts of Florida, but it places an unreasonable, unnecessary burden on sparsely populated rural areas such as much of North Florida.” Coley went on to state that she is the Chairperson of a joint Administrative Procedures committee which oversees how agencies are enacting legislation. She hopes that through that oversight she can help influence the application of these new regulations in a manner which creates more reasonable requirements for rural households.

When I spoke with Brad Drake, he was quick to inform me that he also voted against the bill. “It is a bill which is bad for the citizens of North Florida, and I opposed it from the beginning. However, the environmental crowds in the center and southern part of the state pushed it through, and it was signed into law by Governor Crist.” Drake stated that he hoped that during the next session he can form a coalition of North Florida legislators who can push for exemptions for sparsely populated counties.

This issue could cost Jackson County residents hundreds of thousands of dollars if they are forced to fully comply with the legislation as written. The Department of Health will administer the implementation of the new law during the coming months. Property owners with septic systems should remain active and alert on this matter.



Rudiments: Odds and Ends Worth Mentioning-

● Only 112 days until the mid term elections. It should be interesting.

● If you happen to have a copy of our paper from last week lying around the house, please take time to note the look of pure love and adoration the little girl’s face demonstrated as she nestled in the arms of her Dad who had just returned with the 144th. It was a rare picture.

● (Say Something Nice) If you are in a retail store somewhere in the county and see a canister asking for donations to the “Pennies for Pencils” fund, please drop some change into the jar. The money will go to buy necessary school supplies for grade school students whose families can not buy the items, in all county schools…public and private. Often the teachers fill this need by taking money out of their own pockets, and this fund will ease that burden.

● They are getting ready to tear up the streets around the Court House as they put all utilities underground, and landscape a new center median in the street. More misery for local automobiles and drivers…All this Stimulus is hell!



“We were guaranteed by our founders, ‘Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness’….many today have interpreted that as a Promise of happiness, a car in every garage and a flat screen in every living room!



Personally, I can see the need for tighter regulations in specifically identified sensitive springs areas, such as the “Blue Springs Basin”, but I feel it is over environmental radicalism which is pushing for a state wide application.

Note: The opinions stated in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Hatcher Publications.