The Moody Family Housing just rezoned is in a recharge zone for our drinking water supply, the Floridan Aquifer. What will keep runoff from this subdivision from feeding through the wetlands and sinkhole into the aquifer? Should we depend on county engineering, which never put in the traffic calming measures required for nearby Nelson Hill, or other county staff, who gave waivers for other required items there, or just didn’t require them to be implemented? What assurances can we get from our county government that Moody Family Housing won’t pollute our drinking water?

The above map is a detail from Lowndes County’s own Water Resource Protection Districts Ordinance (WRPDO) overlay Map. Here’s an even more detailed view courtesy VALOR GIS (turn on Streams and Waterbodies, NWI Wetlands, Muncipal Boundaries, and Groundwater Rechard Areas):

One of the county’s own maps about REZ-2013-09 clearly shows the Phase I rezoning is in an aquifer recharge area:

There’s a sinkhole in the recharge zone, in the Phase II site right next to the REZ-2013-09 Phase I, clearly shown on the developers’ own site map.

As three VSU professors later spelled out to the Air Force and the Lowndes County Commission:

In addition to issues of possible land subsidence and formation of sinkholes, the EA should state whether potential pollutants from this residential area will be delivered as runoff or directly piped into the Upper Floridan aquifer.

Yet this fundamental fact of the aquifer recharge zone and its implications for our drinking water were never mentioned by Lowndes County staff or Commissioners during any of the extensive commentary about that rezoning.

What will the county do to keep pollution from this subdivision out of our drinking water?

-jsq

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