Agriculture Committee recommends solutions to county

By John M. Ayers

The Gilchrist County agriculture committee held a meeting on April 5 at 7 p.m. to further discuss issues related to the spraying of irrigation on county roads in Gilchrist County.
Marvin Weaver, Gilchrist County extension director, told members of the agriculture committee that since the meeting in December, county officials have still been receiving complaints about water being sprayed on county roads. Because of this, everyone that has an irrigation well permit with the Suwannee River Water Management District was invited to attend the April 5 meeting.
The SRWMD was represented by Carlos Herd and Jon Dinges who discussed the permitting of wells and the water situation in the district.
Tommy Jones, a member of the agriculture committee, reported the farmers are using Best Management Practices to conserve water.
The farmers are not going to waste water on roads if they can help it, but sometimes it may hit for a few seconds before it cuts off, or an equipment failure can happen, Jones explained.
“We are all here because we are concerned,” Rachelle Philman said. “Everyone at this meeting is in agriculture.”
Philman asked what was being done about public knowledge.
Jon Dinges of SRWMD explained that not enough is being done to make homeowners aware of how much of a drain a single residence has on the water supply.
Dinges went on to point out that the SRWMD has just 68 employees covering a 16 county district that makes up north central Florida.
Hugh Thomas, an employee of the Florida Department of Agriculture, Division of Water Policy said the complaints the county has received just go to show you the changing times.
“It used to be that if you had a complaint with your neighbor, you went and talked to him and worked it out,” Thomas said.
Several agriculture committee members wanted to know specifically what the complaints were and whom they were from.
A farmer has a right to know who is complaining and what they are complaining about, one committee person explained.
Ultimately the committee members felt like there needs to be a procedure in place for handling complaints.
The committee recommended that all complaints be submitted to the Gilchrist County Road Department superintendent, where a form identifying each complaint would be filled out.
The committee expressed their concern that a complaint would not be official unless the caller gave their name and address.
Superintendent Billy Cannon would then contact the farmer that the complaint involved and give him a copy of the complaint and a reasonable time period to address the problem and correct the issue. If the superintendent receives two or more complaints about the same pivot issue and nothing has been done about correcting the problem, the county would submit that complaint to the Suwannee River Water Management District. The district would then review the water use permit and take appropriate actions involving the problem.
Kelly Philman said, “We can correct the problems involving the irrigation spraying on the county roads. Some of the new pivots are digital design and will take more than one setting to achieve the correct spraying.”
Philman pointed out that in Georgia signs are put up warning oncoming traffic that there is a possibility of spraying on the county roads. He added that Georgia is a farm friendly state.
Scott Tucker, vice chairman of the agriculture committee, reported that some agriculture producers have older design pivots that are not as easy to correct on these issues. The older pivots have to be retrofitted with correcting equipment that is costly and takes time. He asked for cooperation from the county and the people involving these water spraying issues.
The County Commissioners explained to members of the agriculture committee that they strive to get agriculture producers and the residential community to understand that they are working for a best solution for all of Gilchrist County.
The County Commission accepted the recommendations and will put them into effect immediately.