Paddlers Charge Silver River, Protesting Expected Cattle Ranch

30 June 2013 Grass­fed beef ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Take Ade­na Springs Ranch, a pro­posed cat­tle ranch being devel­oped by bil­lion­aire Frank Stronach in Flori­da. The beef project is expect­ed to span 10,000 acres and, accord­ing to their web­site, hold up to 15,000 cat­tle. Ade­na Springs Ranch plans to raise the cat­tle on a grass­fed diet, call­ing their indus­tri­al farm­ing prac­tices “health­i­er” and “bet­ter for the envi­ron­ment.”

This past Sat­ur­day, indi­vid­u­als con­cerned with the pro­posed ranch gath­ered along­side the icon­ic Sil­ver Riv­er, a riv­er formed from the dis­charge of Sil­ver Springs, one of the largest nat­ur­al arte­sian wells in the world. Sil­ver Springs his­tor­i­cal­ly dis­charged over 550 mil­lion gal­lons of water per day. In recent years, though, its flow has decreased sig­nif­i­cant­ly. Accord­ing to the New York Times, the “flow rate has dropped by a third over 10 years.” If Ade­na Springs Ranch gets the go ahead from state offi­cials, its farm­ing prac­tices will have a direct impact on the flow and water qual­i­ty of Sil­ver Springs.

Ade­na Springs Ranch is cur­rent­ly apply­ing for a con­sump­tive use per­mit that will allow them to draw 5.3 mil­lion gal­lons of water per day from the Flori­dan Aquifer, the under­ground reser­voir of water that pro­vides drink­ing water to Flori­da res­i­dents, draws tourism mon­ey to the state and encour­ages res­i­dents and vis­i­tors to get out into the wilds of Flori­da and expe­ri­ence its nat­ur­al beau­ty.

The per­mit, if approved, will allow the ranch to draw water from the area sur­round­ing Sil­ver Springs, impact­ing the entire spring­shed, all for the pur­pose of water­ing the grass that will feed the cat­tle. When asked about the impact their water with­drawals would have, Ade­na engi­neer – and Frank Stronach pup­pet – William Dunn said that “they do not con­sid­er cur­rent hydro­log­i­cal con­di­tions when they do their cal­cu­la­tions.”

About the only thing nat­ur­al in this inten­sive cat­tle oper­a­tion will be the release of cow shit and urine into the 130-acre graz­ing lots. Ade­na Springs Ranch says they will com­plete reg­u­lar soil tests to ensure that they’re “not send­ing runoff down­stream to neigh­bors or near­by water­bod­ies.”

The Flori­dan Aquifer, how­ev­er, can be thought of as a giant lime­stone sponge form­ing the foun­da­tion of the state. Rain­wa­ter and runoff seeps through top­soil and per­me­able lime­stone and slow­ly flows through the Aquifer until it rush­es out through nat­ur­al springs or is drawn up for drink­ing or irri­ga­tion pur­pos­es. If cow manure – a nitro­gen-rich fer­til­iz­er sold in gar­den shops every­where – com­ing from Stronach’s cows some­how man­ages to have a neu­tral effect on the envi­ron­ment, and on the nutri­ent lev­els of the sur­round­ing area, than the make­up of that cow­shit would defy veg­etable gar­den­ers every­where.

Find out more infor­ma­tion about the protest and the issues sur­round­ing Ade­na Springs by check­ing out the Water Action Team web­site.