My Friend Sandra

 

My friend Sandra was a tiny woman with a commanding presence, fiercely penetrating eyes, and the most intense devotion to her teacher that I’ve ever experienced. I’d say that I met her by accident, except I don’t think that’s what it was.

We met as roommates when I shared a small dorm room with Sandra and a couple of other women the first time I attended the 10-day teachings given by my refuge lama, Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, at a Tibetan-styled Buddhist monastery and teaching center near the top of a mountain in upstate New York. I didn’t know anyone there, and since I’m introverted by nature, I wasn’t looking to make new friends. But I saw something on top of the bureau where Sandra kept her things that got my attention—a side-by-side view of the 16th and 17th Karmapas, the one who died in Chicago in 1981 and the one who was born in Tibet in 1985—and I gasped. The resemblance was striking! Sandra and I fell into conversation, discovered we shared a reverence for Karmapa, and our friendship was born.

We got to know each other at mealtimes, when she told me about her experiences in San Francisco, Texas, and Alaska. She had been a student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a crazy wisdom master who was instrumental in bringing Buddhism from Tibet to the West. Sandra had worked in housekeeping, often as an executive housekeeper, most all of her life. I had known her for a while before she shared that she was an artist, and showed me a portfolio of beautiful black-and-white photographs someone had taken of her as a young woman in San Francisco, in Victorian rooms with bay windows suffused with light, holding totems of wood and feathers that she had constructed to honor the sacred feminine. 

We got to know each other at the front gate of the monastery where she went to smoke cigarette after cigarette. We had long talks about the dharma—the teachings of the Buddha—and how it might or might not flourish here in the West. We got to know each other on walks down to the pond where once we spotted a dark shape foraging for berries on the other side of the water—a mother bear!

Sandra had an intense way of questioning casual comments if she didn’t understand their meaning, and a way of looking at me with her clear blue-grey eyes that made me think she could see right through me—not in a disturbing way but almost a hypnotic way. I wonder if she could see auras. I’m sure this was the way she questioned and looked at everyone. I can understand how some might describe her gaze as unnerving, and how some people could perceive her as difficult. But those were not my perceptions.

I came to see, over time, how completely devoted she was to Karmapa, how everything she did—from scrubbing toilets, cleaning floors, changing bed linens, doing laundry—was done in the spirit of making an offering to him.

Once, she read me a long prose poem she had written about the monastery and how it was located at the center of a sacred mandala, with the rising sun and moon and the Hudson River to the east, the Ashokan Reservoir to the south, the shoulder of Mount Guardian to the west, and Indian Head Mountain to the north. I was shocked. I had always thought I was sensitive to earth energies, but Sandra described in vivid detail a sacred landscape that I inhabited but had not yet perceived.

I traveled to the monastery for a series of teachings that were given over several years, teachings that were particularly precious to me. On those visits, Sandra and I often found time to go into the nearby village for shopping, conversation, dinner, and a glass or two of wine. It was Sandra who—after finding out that Halloween is my favorite holiday—led me one October to a restaurant on the banks of a small creek, where we ate Chinese food and watched as dusk turned to nightfall and dozens of carved jack-o-lanterns lit the opposite bank of the creek. It was Sandra who visited me when I stayed “off campus” at an inn by the banks of another lovely stream, and led me up the bluestone rocks to a place where someone had painted gorgeous graffiti on the side of a little bridge. It was Sandra who began stacking stones in vertical columns around the monastery and arranging them into horizontal spiral patterns in the parking lot, offerings of beauty in unlikely places. It was Sandra who helped to plant and then tended two small trees that honored the first visit to the United States of her teacher, the 17th Karmapa.

I saw Sandra for the last time on Karmapa’s second visit to the monastery in 2011. We made plans to see each other the day after Karmapa left, but when I went up the hill, I couldn’t locate her. I knew she had been very sick, and that Karmapa had told her she could probably stop chemotherapy after this next round of it—and I had a bad feeling about her health. I think now that perhaps the reason I couldn’t find her was that she didn’t want to say goodbye. I don’t know how I would have managed to say goodbye to her.

Sandra was five years younger than I am. She died on December 28, 2011, the day after the annual Amitabha retreat began there at the monastery near the top of Mount Guardian. Amitabha is the Buddha of Boundless Light, the buddha who presides over Dewachen, a pure land that lies beyond the setting sun where inhabitants can continue their education by taking teachings from whichever Buddhist master they choose. After she had passed, word came from India that Karmapa said that he, himself, would give Sandra a personal escort to Dewachen.

Sandra was my friend but beyond that, she was my teacher. She taught me that there is no harsh dividing line between the sacred and what my mother would call “the real world.” Sandra taught me that doing laundry, scrubbing toilets, and stacking stones can be sacred work—that it’s our outlook that determines whether we experience the sacred or the profane.

And Sandra taught me about impermanence. One day, our lives will end. In the meantime, what is it that we have to offer?

Sacred Springs Stories, Part 2: My Ichetucknee Story, Springs in Buddhism & Closing Remarks

Ichetucknee Head Spring

My Ichetucknee Story

The first time I went to Ichetucknee, it was a beautiful sunny autumn day in 1969, the year before the State of Florida bought the land that became the state park. My two roommates and I were the only people there! After being in the water for a while, I left Chad and Pam splashing around in the spring and walked up the little hill (where the restrooms are now), spread out a big towel, and lay down in the sun.

It wasn’t long before I started to hear pspsps whispering, like you’d call a cat. Pretty soon the whispering got louder, and finally resolved into a spoken language—a language I’d never heard before.

I thought there must be someone in the woods so I stood up and did a 360-degree turn, but there was no one there.

I later learned from my parapsychology teacher that this kind of auditory hallucination is common in places where people have had intense emotional experiences.

I didn’t realize it then, but that was when the Ichetucknee marked me. To this day, it is one of my very special—sacred—places, what Carlos Castaneda called a “power spot.”

I never figured out what the language was. Maybe it was the language of the nagas.

Springs, Water & Nagas in Tibetan Buddhism

A naga from the Rubin Museum's traveling exhibition, "Himalayan Art in 108 Objects," at the Harn Museum of Art in Gainesville, Florida

I have it on good authority from some of my Tibetan Buddhist teachers that there are beings who may live in our springs who are invisible to most people, although some are said to be able to see them. (I’m not one of those.)

These beings, called nagas, have the torso of a male or female human and the lower body of a snake. They like springs and they like magical trees, and sometimes they guard Buddhist teachings that they reveal to humans when the time is right.

There are three types of nagas. The good ones serve the dharma, the Buddhist teachings. The mutable ones can alternate between being good and bad. You don’t want to mess with the bad nagas.

One thing all these nagas have in common is that water pollution makes them sick. And when they get sick, they take revenge on the polluters by sending natural disasters and diseases, particularly skin diseases.

Now, most of you won’t believe this, and that’s OK—I don’t expect you to believe it. I believe it because I’ve heard it from my teachers and I know them to be trustworthy, and also because I’ve been interested in strange things—what one of my friends calls “the woo-woo”—since I was very young.

But even if you don’t believe nagas exist, isn’t this idea a remarkable analogy for what we are experiencing now—water pollution, natural disasters and diseases? I’m reminded of people like one very respected elder in the springs defender community who can no longer go into the water because he gets a rash from algae.

The Buddhist teachings I’ve received lead me to believe that our human minds are connected to our external environments in ways that we may not completely understand.

17th Karmapa's (Ogyen Trinley Dorje's) Monlam Pin

This slide shows a pin that was designed for a Buddhist prayer festival by the 17th Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, who leads one of the Buddhist lineages I’m affiliated with. He thinks of the Earth as a benevolent goddess and here’s what he wrote about his design of that pin, which speaks to the idea that human beings and Mother Earth exist in an interconnected relationship:

Now the time has come when the earth is scowling at us; the time has come when the earth is giving up on us. The earth is about to treat us badly and give up on us. If she gives up on us, where can we live? There is talk of going to other planets that could support life, but only a few rich people could go. What would happen to all of us sentient beings who could not go? What should we do now that the situation has become so critical? The sentient beings living on the earth and the elements of the natural world need to join their hands together—the earth must not give up on sentient beings, and sentient beings must not give up on the earth. Each needs to grasp the other’s hand.

Note that he mentions the importance of joining hands with “the elements of the natural world.” In Buddhism, those elements are earth, water, fire, air and space—not just outer space, but the space between things.

The last thing I’ll say about the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism is this: The essential nature of the element of water is considered to be a Buddha—a female Buddha called Mamaki. So water is a sacred element in this system.

How do we hold hands with Mother Earth? What would be different if we talked about our springs not as “resources” or “recreational opportunities” but as Buddhas—as living natural systems? What if we told our stories about springs with reverence? What if we understood water as something that’s alive and sacred with which we exist in relationship, as something that deserves our care? Because for a lot of us, that’s what water is.

Can we hold hands with Mother Earth and with our priceless springs on a spiritual level? And what might change if we elevated our relationship and our stories in that way?

Closing Remarks

One last thing and then I want to close with couple of snippets from literature.

I think those of us who first encountered the springs, as I did in the middle of the 20th century, may be the last people who know what a healthy spring is supposed to look like. And I think it’s important that we document what our springs have meant to us. So I encourage you to share your stories with your children and grandchildren and with as many other people as you can. Tell your stories, share your photos, make art, write music, honor our sacred springs with your creative gifts in whatever ways you choose. Document, document, document!

Here's a poetry snippet from “Life Chant” by Diane di Prima, who was in that cohort of American poets that includes Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder:

may the wind deal kindly with us

may the fire remember our names

may springs flow, rain fall again

may the land grow green, may it swallow our mistakes

And this is a favorite, from the novelist Charles Frazier:

The spring rose up from its deep source and smelled of wet earth and the stones at the center of the world. Whatever you believe, and whatever God you pray to, a place where clean water rises from the earth is in some way sacred.

Sacred Springs Stories, Part 1: Background & Opening Remarks

 

Background

When I was let go from my job with the Ichetucknee Alliance, I didn't think my work on behalf of Florida's freshwater springs was finished. But I was puzzled about what might come next. Every time I consulted the tarot cards, they told me to "join heaven and earth."

I floated an idea to do just that to several people I know in the water advocacy community, and most of them replied with enthusiastic agreements to participate. It took quite a few months, however, for the full-blown idea to manifest.

The result of that manifestation was the program "Sacred Springs Stories" that was held on February 6, 2025, thanks to the great generosity of Bob Knight, Haley Moody and the good people at the Florida Springs Institute's Welcome Center in downtown High Springs, Florida. You can see the flyer for the program in the image above.

There will eventually be a video of the program, but I also wanted to post here some of what I wrote for remarks that I made there. I couldn't say everything I wanted to say because of time constraints, but since this was likely my "swan song" for my work on behalf of our springs, I'm posting what I wrote here as a partial record of the event.

I hope those of you who were able to be there enjoyed our presentations!

Opening Remarks

I’m starting this evening by talking about our current zeitgeist, or spirit of the time, to acknowledge how many of us are feeling these days. Here’s a quote from one of the Tibetan Buddhist teachers I’m familiar with—the 16th Karmapa, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, who talked about living through what he called a Dark Age and how our minds are connected to our environment:

It's called the Dark Age because the more uplifting and meritorious qualities of the human world are diminishing whereas the gross and neurotic aspects of the human qualities are more present and becoming more apparent. One could say that it's like clear water that diminishes or dries up, allowing you to see the mud and clay appearing. This kind of situation has to do with the quality of the human mind.

I assure you that we are here tonight not to dwell on the idea of a Dark Age, but to offer some inspiration, beauty, and upliftment to all of the human minds gathered in this space. Thank you for taking the time out of your busy days to join us. Let’s get started.

Calligraphy by Joon Thomas

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree:
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.

This beginning of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1797 poem “Kubla Khan” may well have been inspired by Florida’s freshwater springs as they were described by William Bartram in 1791.

Over 200 years later, I heard echoes of “Alph, the sacred river” at Rum Island Spring. I had finished swimming and was coming out of the water when I saw a young woman standing on the bank, looking at the spring. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” I said. Her response? “It’s sacred.”

When I first read this quote by Gus Speth, these words jumped out: “The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with those we need a spiritual and cultural transformation. And we scientists and lawyers don’t know how to do that.” (A reference to the human mind, again)

Science—the kind of science that’s done here at FSI and in our universities—is absolutely the bedrock upon which our work toward springs health stands.

But science alone is not enough.

The reflections of the human mind that we find in the social sciences, arts and humanities are just as important for springs restoration as geology, hydrology, and systems ecology—but these human dimensions haven’t been given as much attention as the hard sciences, and that needs to change. Why? Because our springs are living systems and they need living people to join hands with them by doing more than just studying the problems, raising awareness and filing lawsuits.

What Speth was talking about is culture change—changing the mental paradigms of how we live on Mother Earth, one heart at a time, so that we can change the behaviors that are causing damage. Those changes must include the idea that we humans exist in a relationship with Mother Nature who sustains us. Humans and natural systems are interconnected.

When the Gainesville water writer Cynthia Barnett introduced the idea of a Florida water ethic, she too was suggesting culture change.

Another writer, Janisse Ray up in Georgia, stresses that stories are the building blocks of culture. To change our culture, we need to change our minds and our stories—the stories we tell ourselves, our families and friends, and our neighbors.

There are some thinkers who are even starting to say that it is relationships, not atoms, that are the building blocks of the universe—but that’s a topic for another time.

This gentleman is suggesting that stepping outside our culture may give us new perspectives, new ideas, new inspirations. As you listen to our storytellers, please think about how you think about our springs and about the stories you tell about them, and how that is either similar or different from tonight’s stories.

Can we tell stories that include the kinds of relationships we have with water? Stories that rejuvenate our hearts, minds and communities as well as our springs? Stories that weave our fleeting earthly experiences with the timeless spiritual truths we know to be sacred?

We won’t tell you how or why you should consider something to be sacred; that’s for each of us to decide. Just know that there are many different reasons that places can be called “sacred.” One of those reasons is that people sometimes have extraordinary or even paranormal experiences at some spots. These experiences occur in all the world’s cultures and you may hear some examples tonight. Because these experiences can neither be proven nor disproven, we encourage you to listen with open minds and to understand that the importance of such experiences is revealed through what they mean to the person who has them.

One of my spiritual teachers has suggested that to inspire real environmental change, we must evoke new emotions in people. After each story, there will be a pause of one minute. Please hold your applause until the end of the program and please use that one minute as a kind of meditation, to open yourselves to inspiration or to think about what feelings or ideas came up for you during the presentation.

(to be continued in Part 2)

UF Water Institute FACETS Project Reports About Water-Related Communications

Gilchrist Blue Spring on the Santa Fe River in Florida

Back when I was working for the Ichetucknee Alliance, I was invited to participate as a representative of that group in the University of Florida Water Institute's FACETS project; FACETS is the acronym for "Floridan Aquifer Collaborative Engagement for Sustainability."

The project brought agriculturalists (i.e., "growers"), environmentalists, scientists, and public policy people together to examine how changes in crops, agricultural practices, and land use could impact water quality and quantity in the Santa Fe River basin in Florida and the Flint River basin in Georgia.

Not surprisingly, one of the conclusions was that there is no "magic bullet" to restore water quality and quantity in both of those areas; however, there were some interesting findings that might be used to nudge positive changes in very localized areas within those basins.

The part of the research that I was most interested in, however, delved into how the various participants in the project communicated with each other. Some of those findings have now been published and I'll list the links to those reports below. I may come back and add my summaries of the reports a bit later in subsequent blog posts but for right now, I just want to get the word out about these reports in case anyone is interested in reading them--and if you are engaged in communicating about our water issues, you really might want to take some time to check these out!

Communicating About Water in the Floridan Aquifer Region: Part 1—What Do People Know About Water Science? by Sadie Hundemer and Shenara Ramadan

Communicating About Water in the Floridan Aquifer Region: Part 2—Do People Believe Water Science? by Sadie Hundemer and Shenara Ramadan

Communicating About Water in the Floridan Aquifer Region: Part 3—How the Right Messages and Messengers Can Increase Bipartisan Support for Water Policy by Sadie Hundemer and Shenara Ramadan

Communicating About Water in the Floridan Aquifer Region: Part 4—The Media’s Role in Water Perceptions by Sadie Hundemer and Shenara Ramadan

Communicating About Water in the Floridan Aquifer Region: Part 5—Increasing Collaboration Between Producers and Environmentalists on Water Challenges by Sadie Hundemer and Shenara Ramadan

Communicating About Water in the Floridan Aquifer Region: Part 6—Stakeholders’ Mental Models of Regional Water Challenges by Sadie Hundemer and Shenara Ramadan

What Do Florida and Georgia Residents Know About Water? by Sadie Hundemer

All of the above reports and links are publicly available on the FACETS website here.

The report on the final FACETS meeting is here.

The Proposed Florida Right to Clean & Healthy Waters State Constitutional Amendment: Let’s Put the Heart in the Springs Heartland!

The Santa Fe River, looking east from Rum Island

This amendment creates an enforceable, fundamental right to clean and healthy waters, authorizing a person to sue for equitable relief when a State executive agency, by action or inaction, allows harm or threat of harm to Florida waters… See: https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/ 

A quote on Facebook recently caught my eye: “One reason people insist that you use the proper channels to change things is because they have control of the proper channels and they’re confident it won’t work.”

Thinking back on the 10 years I spent working for the Ichetucknee Alliance, during which I also did some work for the Silver Springs Alliance and helped at the founding of the Florida Springs Council, I can vouch for the truth of that quote.

All of our springs defender groups have been working through proper channels and “fighting the system” (the water management districts, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Florida Legislature) to make the kinds of changes—increased flows and decreased pollution—that we need to save our beloved freshwater springs. But as the Florida Springs Council documents so well in just one example for the Santa Fe River basin, our efforts so far have failed: https://www.floridaspringscouncil.org/santafe 

Part of the reason we have failed is because Floridians have bought into a couple of myths about our water. The first myth is that we have an infinite supply of freshwater. The second myth is that “out of sight, out of mind” is an effective pollution prevention strategy. Neither of those myths is true.

Another reason we have failed is because the decision makers in our state agencies—many of whom have been and are appointed by Florida’s governors—find it politically advantageous to ignore enforcement of Florida’s water laws.

The most important reason we have failed, however, is because our current laws actually permit individuals and businesses to damage natural systems in order to profit. Taxpayers are then left to pay for restoration projects. We’re privatizing profits and socializing losses.

I’m remembering another quote, this one from Buckminster Fuller: “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

To save our springs, we need to change the ways we are living with water. We need a new water ethic. We need to change the water paradigms that have guided us up until now, because those paradigms are not working. We need to change our thinking from “fighting” to “building a new model.” We need to change our strategies to aim for getting what we want instead of just asking for what we think we can get. Instead of fighting the existing system, we need to begin creating something new that’s based on love for our springs and rivers. We need to be working toward what anthropologists call “culture change.”

Changing our culture and our thinking is linked to changing our laws, and the proposed Florida Right to Clean & Healthy Waters (RTCW) state constitutional amendment does that in a profound way—by guaranteeing Floridians a fundamental RIGHT to clean water, a right that’s on a par with the freedoms we are guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. The amendment offers us the highest possible protections for our waters and enables us to hold our state agencies accountable for their failures to protect our waterways. This is the kind of Green Amendment that is gaining traction throughout the United States; see: https://forthegenerations.org/ 

In an effort to put a similar amendment on the Florida ballot in 2024, the RTCW team received about 100,000 signed petitions; however, that number was short of the approximately 900,000 petitions needed.

Now, the RTCW team has regrouped, strengthened the petition language, and re-strategized the campaign for the 2026 election cycle. If you signed a petition during the 2024 effort, you will need to sign again for 2026. Here’s the link from which you can print the new petition: https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/petition 

Candidates for public office may also register on the RTCW home page (https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/) for a June 21, 2024, training event that will explain more about what the proposed amendment will and will not do. It’s important to understand that the proposed amendment does not allow lawsuits to individuals or businesses, only to state agencies for their failures to enforce our laws.

Remember that when given the chance to vote yes or no on saving our environment, Floridians have historically voted “yes” by large margins. The RTCW amendment will be a winner if we can gather enough petitions to get the amendment on the ballot.

You can show your love for our springs and rivers—help us put the heart in the Springs Heartland—by volunteering to help as an individual, a business or another kind of organization. Click on the “Support” tab here to see the pull-down list of ways to help: https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/ 

Petition campaigns are expensive. You can also help by donating to this effort: https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/donate 

In particular, if you can help to collect petitions, please call David Moritz at ‭(352) 575-6297‬ or go here to sign up: https://www.floridarighttocleanwater.org/team-3‬‬‬‬ 

Independent campaign consultants have told us that our petition-gathering effort has a strong foundation and can be successful. We simply need more people to get involved. You could even create your own team to help out and have fun together at the same time!

As we approach the July 4th holiday, please remember that there’s no economic stability and no life, liberty or pursuit of happiness without clean water—and the RTCW effort aims to ensure clean water not only for us, for our rivers and springs, but also for our children and grandchildren.

Breaking the Barriers to the Ichetucknee's Restoration, Part 2

Ichetucknee Head Spring (my photo)

I originally wrote this article for the website of the Ichetucknee Alliance when I was working for that nonprofit organization as their communications coordinator. The article has disappeared from the Alliance's website, so I am republishing it here.

The Barriers & Some Suggestions About How to Break Them (continued from part 1)

Barrier #4: State Funding Priorities. There are at least four large problems with state funding priorities. 

The first problem is that state funding is being wasted on ineffective projects that do not target major water users and major polluters. This is explained in the 2021-2022 Springs Funding Report by the Florida Springs Council (FSC) here: https://www.floridaspringscouncil.org/funding

Water management districts are either unable or unwilling to propose cost effective springs restoration projects that target the major sources of nutrient pollution. Springs funding is being wasted on ineffective projects, some of which are reported to have no benefit to spring water quality or flow. Legislation should be passed to allow other entities, like the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS) and accredited land trusts, to directly submit project proposals to the Department of Environmental Protection for consideration for springs restoration funding. (from page 1 in FSC's report) 

Other excellent recommendations for change are listed in FSC’s report, including (from page 2), “Stop preempting local rules and ordinances to improve water quality and reverse previously passed state preemptions.”

The second problem is that state funding priorities neglect North Florida, which has a smaller population and therefore fewer voters than South Florida. South Florida always receives more state funding for water issues.

Barrier Breaker. Given that North Florida’s springs—the largest concentration of springs in the world—is a priceless treasure every bit as important ecologically as the Florida Everglades, funding for water issues should be evenly divided between the two halves of the state, not allocated on the basis of population. 

The third problem is that funding is usually allocated to fix problems rather than to prevent those problems from occurring. Lessons learned from Florida’s Everglades have made it abundantly clear that it is easier and cheaper to prevent problems than it is to fix them after they’ve occurred.

Barrier Breaker. The role of Florida’s water managers needs to be reframed legally and conceptually from “problem fixers” to “problem preventers.” 

The fourth problem is that state agencies mask ineffective actions to protect natural systems by claiming to spend large amounts of money on protection, while, at the same time, failing to take effective actions such as limiting water use and insisting that pollution be controlled at its source. 

Barrier Breakers. Floridians must realize that at their core, our water problems are political problems. Florida voters must insist upon effective actions by electing officials and representatives with strong histories of environmental advocacy and action—candidates who are willing to bring people together to agree that tough decisions are needed, who are willing to make those tough decisions, and who are able to lead by inspiring people to make the changes needed to manifest a new vision for living with Florida’s waters.

Barrier #5: Water Pricing. For rural residents on wells, water is free except for the cost to install and maintain the well and the power required to draw the water. There are no price incentives other than those costs for rural residents to conserve water, although urban and suburban residents on municipal water systems pay fees for their water.

Barrier Breaker: Tiered water pricing for all water users would address inequities in water pricing and encourage stronger efforts at water conservation.

Barrier #6: Lack of a Compelling Vision for the Health of Florida’s Natural Water Systems. It’s been said that if a foreign country were doing to our natural water systems what the State of Florida is allowing to happen to them, we’d be at war. That statement has the ring of truth when you consider that the Howard T. Odum Florida Springs Institute has documented over 20 years of springs health declines; see especially pages 4 and 19 here:
https://floridaspringsinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/1-Springs-Conservation-Plan-Executive-Summary-FINAL.pdf 

Barrier Breaker: Florida needs an overall vision to guide water management decisions and the ways we all live with water. We like this vision, below.

Realizing that the health of its people, economy and natural water systems are interconnected, Florida will restore, preserve and protect those natural water systems and will become an international model of wise water use.

What are your ideas for a new water vision for Florida?

Breaking the Barriers to the Ichetucknee's Restoration, Part 1

What a healthy spring should look like; photo of the Ichetucknee by Charles Dutoit in the 1980s.

I originally wrote this article for the website of the Ichetucknee Alliance when I was working for that nonprofit organization as their communications coordinator. The article has disappeared from the Alliance's website, so I am republishing it here.

Introduction

Why hasn’t the Ichetucknee’s lost flow been restored yet? Why are the nitrates in the Ichetucknee higher than the state standard? Why is it so hard to get our state agencies to take effective action to restore, protect and preserve springs and spring runs like the Ichetucknee?

One of the answers to this question, of course, is that state legislators, agency administrators and staff are much more comfortable giving “the illusion of protection” than they are with making the tough decisions that are needed to stop pollution at the source and limit the amount of water that is being pumped from the Floridan aquifer. Taking such tough actions could alienate donors to political campaigns and is viewed as being “bad for business,” while the long-term costs of inaction and allowing our springs and aquifer to fail are ignored.

But there are other reasons for the state’s failure to act, reasons that we can find embedded in state and federal laws and in our own personal behaviors.

A list of some of these barriers to springs protection follows. (Some of you may remember the Alliance’s list of “Florida Water Sins” that was included in the older version of this website; several of those sins are mentioned in this article.)

Our intention is not to overwhelm you with the magnitude of these barriers, but to inspire you to action and advocacy.

If everyone who reads this article would choose to work on breaking even one or two of these barriers, we could build a groundswell of actions for the Ichetucknee and our other springs that could turn the “the illusion of protection” into actual protections.

Please read the following list with this question and vision in mind: Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could make Florida an international model of wise water use?

Put on your creative thinking caps! You might decide join forces with the Alliance, with another springs advocacy group, and/or with groups outside the “water choir” that are working on breaking down some of these barriers. Or you might invent a new water conservation technique or a way to stop pollution at its source. Be bold!

The Barriers & Some Suggestions About How to Break Them

Barrier #1: Apathy and feelings of powerlessness.

These days, it’s easy to become apathetic and to feel powerless to make change. We’re all busy, and working for change is hard and can be energy draining.

Barrier Breakers. Remember that people are motivated to save what they love.

Consider your feelings about the Ichetucknee—the springs, the river, the Floridan aquifer. Remember that the springs are the “canaries in a coal mine” that indicate potential problems with our water supply.

What has the Ichetucknee meant to you? What would it mean to you if it dried up? If your children couldn’t enjoy it the same way you have? What would it mean to you if the water from your tap was polluted, or if you turned on the tap and nothing came out? Do you care enough to get involved?

To inspire you, check out the many roles that the Ichetucknee has played in the lives of people in its surrounding communities: https://belovedblueriver.org/river/

Remember that the Ichetucknee is part of the Springs Heartland of Mother Earth—the largest concentration of freshwater springs on the planet, a unique, world-class natural system that is every bit as significant ecologically as Florida’s Everglades.

Barrier #2: Greed.

One of the reasons Florida’s lawmakers balk at effective actions to protect springs systems like the Ichetucknee is because they are beholden to special interest donors who could withhold political campaign contributions if they think springs protection will hurt them financially. One of the reasons businesses balk at changing their practices to help our springs and rivers is because they think that doing so will cause them to lose money.

Barrier Breakers. Think about water and natural water systems as a common interest, not a special interest. Do you think special interests should take priority over common interests? Are the profits of a few more important than the wellbeing of the many? Wouldn’t businesses that choose to “do right” by our springs and rivers reap financial rewards from a grateful public?

What if the Ichetucknee had the legal rights to exist, to flow, and to thrive? Could that create a legal balance with special interests where no balance currently exists? Consider supporting efforts to grant legal rights to natural water systems and/or working with groups that are trying to get big money out of political campaigns, so our elected representatives will no longer be owned by special interests.

Learn more about efforts to grant legal rights to natural water systems: https://belovedblueriver.org/relationship/changing-the-relationship/nr-legal-1/
and
https://www.centerforenvironmentalrights.org/ 

Do an Internet search for “end Citizens United” to learn how people are working to overturn that Supreme Court decision. Search “getting big money out of politics” to learn how and why we should create a more democratic (note lower case “d”) society.

Barrier #3: Ignorance & Myths.

Many Floridians don’t understand the basic concepts that are important for restoring, protecting and preserving the Ichetucknee. That lack of understanding isn’t their fault; it’s simply that many Florida residents came here from somewhere else or that these basic concepts are not usually part of the standard K-12 education. People who saw our springs for the first time in the mid-20th century know what we have lost; people who see the springs for the first time today have a completely different baseline from which to view springs conditions.

Barrier Breakers. Education is the best antidote for ignorance, and these shifting baselines demonstrate the need for more education about Florida’s hydrological cycle and the changing conditions of our springs. Here’s some helpful information for you to share with friends and family members.

To learn about Florida’s hydrological cycle, see: https://floridasprings.org/springs-101/

To learn who makes water decisions that affect our springs and how those decisions are made, watch The Ichetucknee – Tomorrow: https://youtu.be/id0T4_yHV1Q

Included under the heading of “Ignorance” are several prominent myths that create barriers to the restoration, preservation and protection of our springs.

 Myth #1: The Myth of an Infinite Water Supply 

 First is the Myth of an Infinite Water Supply, but the amount of freshwater available to us is finite. See: https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/freshwater-systems# 

 Embedding a strong water conservation ethic in Florida’s society could help to debunk this myth. For that effort to be successful, state agencies, local and state governments and springs advocacy groups should collaborate with each other (so that the public gets consistent messages) and with public relations and advertising experts to develop creative campaigns to educate people, encourage water conservation and inspire innovations in that area. 

Myth #2: The Myth of Legal Protections 

The second prominent myth is the Myth of Legal Protections that enables our state agencies to create the “illusion of protection” even while our current laws actually permit harm to our springs. The things that our state agencies tout as providing springs protections—the “alphabet soup” of agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs), Basin Management Action Plans (BMAPs), Minimum Flows and Levels (MFLs), and Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs)—have proven to be ineffective. For just one example, see the Florida Springs Council’s report about how long it will take the State of Florida to clean up our Outstanding Florida Springs (hint: 191 years for the Lower Santa Fe and Ichetucknee rivers, based on projects proposed in 2021-2022): https://www.floridaspringscouncil.org/funding 

 Additionally, federal laws make it impossible to prevent pollution that’s produced by non-point sources such as agricultural operations because non-point sources are unregulated.

To learn more about how federal laws hamstring springs restoration, preservation and protection efforts, read the lead article (“Is It Really Illegal to Create the Community You Envision?”) here: https://celdf.org/resources/common-sense-new-edition/ 

The Myth of Legal Protections also masks several other severe problems that create barriers to springs protection:

• Absence of accountability for state agencies means there are no penalties for pollution or lost spring flow.
• State agencies fail to enforce Florida’s water laws.
• State agencies rely on inaccurate water models for decision-making. Those models do not account for the unique ways that water moves through the underground limestone aquifer.
• The effects of regional water usage (ex: in South Georgia) are beyond the control of local and state officials.
• State water laws mention “public trust” as a factor that must be considered in water use decisions, but Florida has never defined what “public trust” means.
• Failure to adopt the Precautionary Principle, which recommends taking the most conservative course of action that causes the least amount of environmental harm when scientists disagree about the sources of that harm.

What could bust the Myth of Legal Protections? Should the directors of the water management districts and the secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection be elected instead of appointed by the governor? Should we take care to elect governors who have a history of solid environmental stewardship? Should a higher priority be placed on and should more money be allocated to enforcement of water laws? What could be done to improve regional water models used to make water management decisions? Could “public trust” be encoded in water law to enable Florida’s waters to be managed conservatively, similar to the ways a financial trust fund should be managed? Should Florida encode the Precautionary Principle in its environmental laws?

What ideas do you have?

Myth #3: The Myth of the Environment Versus the Economy 

The Myth of the Environment Versus the Economy advances the view that preventing or fixing environmental problems costs too much money and that environmental regulations are bad for business. 

 What such arguments fail to take into account, of course, are the long-term costs of environmental destruction and the fact that the health of people, business, and the economy are all directly tied to the health of the environment. The kind of short-term thinking on the part of the public, public officials, elected representatives and business owners that is demonstrated by this myth is what is causing damage to springs and river systems like the Ichetucknee.

We need to understand and acknowledge that no one wants to live or do business in areas where the environment is trashed and there are problems with the water supply. And we know that the cost of fixing problems is more expensive than the cost of preventing problems. The Myth of the Environment Versus the Economy is easily debunked when you realize that in Florida, where tourism is our biggest industry, our environment is our economy. Having a reputation for a clean, beautiful environment is how Florida attracts businesses and tourists from throughout the USA and from the rest of the world.

 (continued in part 2)