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Swiftmud Makes Few Waves Over Pasco Landfill

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By STEVE ANDREWS

sandrews@tampatrib.com

Published: February 12, 2009

Visit the Southwest Florida Water Management District's Web site and click on Green Swamp. A picturesque presentation, complete with sounds of birds as well as a description touting the swamp's importance to Central Florida's water supply pops up.

"The Green Swamp is really, in a sense, the hydrologic heart of Central Florida," said Michael Molligan, the water management district's communications director. "Four major rivers flow out of the Green Swamp."

The swamp is so important to the district that it spent $76.3 million to buy 109,064 acres to protect this land and water resource for future generations. The district also protects an additional 27,635 acres through conservation easements.

Yet the agency has made no public statements on a plan to put a 90-acre landfill about a mile and a half from the Green Swamp near Dade City.

"We don't have the ability as an agency to say you can't develop somewhere," Molligan said.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is expected to decide today whether to approve or deny a plan by Angelo's Aggregate Materials to build the landfill.

Molligan says the district has discussed the issue with DEP. He characterized the discussions as sharing concerns that the landfill will create problems for the aquifer.

According to DEP spokeswoman Pam Vazquez, the water district has not provided DEP's Solid Waste Division any scientific information, nor has it provided documentation to DEP's Environmental Resource Permit Program.

Meanwhile, a consultant hired by Tampa Bay Water says there might be trouble for wells if the landfill leaks and contaminates the aquifer.

A Jan. 30 report by Thomas Farkas of PBS&J noted the presence of several sinkholes.

"It is our opinion that the sinkhole features identified at the site increase the likelihood of contaminants, if released from the landfill, reaching the Floridan Aquifer and potentially impacting surrounding groundwater resources in the immediate area," the report stated.

Farkas wrote that it is unlikely that potential contaminants would impact the Hillsborough River, a water supply used by Tampa Bay Water.

However, he warned that "potential contaminants migrating off-site through the Florida aquifer could flow in the direction of Crystal Spring and/or the municipal production wells located near the city of Zephyrhills." Farkas added, "Spring water discharged at Crystal Spring flows into the Hillsborough River."

Donald Polmann, director of science and engineering at Tampa Bay Water, says the agency's board will discuss the landfill at a meeting Monday.

According to Polmann, the consultant's report calls for more engineering work to determine water flow direction beneath the landfill.

News Channel 8 reporter Steve Andrews can be reached at (813) 221-5779.

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