A nonprofit presented a clear demand in a new lawsuit against Florida’s environmental regulators: Follow the law and make your own rules to save Florida’s struggling springs.
The lawsuit, filed this month in Hernando County, comes nearly nine years after Florida lawmakers passed a measure that requires the Florida Department of Environmental Protection to create rules that would prevent commercial, agricultural and utility industries from drawing a damaging amount of water from springs.
The law was designed to protect springs like the Wekiwa and Ichetucknee, where advocates worry permits are being easily approved by water managers and the withdrawing of too much groundwater has strangled springs of the flows needed to fend off pollution and let biodiversity thrive…