"Manatee Pit"
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A mine at Manatee Springs?!? Ask anyone and they will tell you that an open pit strip mine does not belong less than a mile from a State Park--especially a State Park with a first magnitude spring and extensive cave system. Well someone is trying it.
In April of this year, Limerock Industries, Inc., based in Chiefland, Florida submitted an application to mine to the Bureau of Mine Reclamation at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. The application was for a 160 acre pit that is about 5 miles outside of Chiefland. If you have ever gone to Manatee Springs State Park, the mine would be in the middle of the "crop rings" that are on your right as you head into the park. In July 2001 Limerock Industries applied to Levy County for a Mining and Excavation Permit. At this point, the public was notified and we all found out about the request to put a mine next door to a state park, the Suwannee River and Manatee Springs Cave.
The local community kicked into action and started a spirited opposition to the mine. The mine would also be about 500 feet from the edge of a platted subdivision of lots less than one acre. There were public protests and rallies that were covered by TV 20 in Gainesville, the Gainesville Sun and the Chiefland Citizen. Unfortunately, the television and newspapers reported incorrectly that Limerock Industries had been issued a DEP permit to mine at what Limerock Industries was calling "Manatee Pit." In fact, the permit was not to be issued until August 30, 2001. The good news is--they still don't have a DEP Industrial Resource Permit.
The map that Limerock Industries used in their permit application was Sheck Exley's map that was published back in the early 80's. Since then a whole lot of exploration has been done there. The goal of those who wanted to stop the pit was to find a tunnel that branched off to the north and or east that might head in the direction of the proposed mine site. There are several tunnels that branch off of the main passage to the north, but none of them went very far. The exception is the Blue Water Tunnel. It is about 2,500 feet upstream from Friedman's Sink and has absolutely clear visibility--even when the rest of the cave is bad.
The Blue Water Tunnel was discovered during the initial exploration of the cave. Adventurous backmount divers explored the Blue Water Tunnel back in the 80's and 90 feet of tunnel was added to Exley's map. The tunnel ended at a pretty serious sand restriction. John Mosely and Tom Morris pushed the restriction using sidemounts and added several hundred feet to the original survey. When they heard about the proposed mine, they turned over the survey data and offered to go back and try to push the tunnel even further. Once the new data was plotted on the existing map, it indicated that the Blue Water Tunnel is trending to the northeast. It is heading toward a large karst feature that is located in the middle of the proposed mine site.
Once the new data was given to DEP, the Park Management asked that water samples be taken at each Manatee Springs Cave water source. Mike Poucher organized 12 cave divers to collect samples in all of the water sources and at the headspring. The water was tested for pH, temperature, conductivity, turbidity (NTU) and Nitrate/Nitrite (mg N/L). The highest nitrate level in the cave was found in the Blue Water Tunnel. It was almost four times that in the other tunnels--4.5. The rest of the cave varied from 0.86 to 1.7 mg N/L.
Prior to the August 30th deadline, DEP Bureau of Mine Reclamation sent a notice to Limerock Industries that more studies would be needed to assure that the proposed pit would not effect waters of the State. The new deadline was set for November 1, 2001.
In September, John Mosely and Cindy Butler went back to the Blue Water Tunnel and added another 444 feet to the survey. They were supported by a group of cave divers again organized by Mike Poucher. This data was also provided to the DEP BOMR.
In the last week of October, an employee of Limerock Industries requested a "timeclock extension" of the permit application so they could gather the data that DEP BOMR had specified in their previous memo. The new deadline for issue or denial of the permit is set for February 1, 2002. New information regarding the nitrate loading of the area surrounding Manatee Springs has recently come to light and been forwarded to the DEP Bureau of Mine Reclamation.
At this time, Levy County Planning Commission is studying the Mining and Excavation Land Development Code. They are attempting to add to the regulations so that the rules more closely match the goals of the Levy County Comprehensive Plan. As they stand today, the rules are very vague and open to interpretation.
There have been four meetings of the Levy County Planning Commission. On January 7, 2002, they recommended changes to the Mining and Excavation Ordinance to the Levy County Commission. On February 5, 2002, the County Commission will hold a workshop on these regulations at 1:00 p.m. at the Levy County Courthouse in Bronson, Florida.
If the rules as they stand now are adopted, I don't see how there could be a "pit" at Manatee Springs. In order to assist the DEP Parks Department, anyone with any historical survey data or water quality data are invited to share it with Susanna Hetrick at the following e-mail address: Susanna.Hetrick@dep.state.fl.us
If you are interested in helping with future water sample collection or surveys of Manatee Springs, please contact me at mlongakorn@aol.com or 352-728-6536.