A water war is brewing in the State Capitol and between local communities along the St. Johns River. <\/p>\n
The dispute revolves around a renewed effort to remove the Kirkpatrick Dam and drain the Rodman Reservoir in Putnam County.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Anglers like C.C. Fort flock from all over for the great fishing near the Kirkpatrick Dam.<\/p>\n Fort, who primarily lives in Pennsylvania, also owns a home in Putnam County and spends three months there every year just for the fishing.<\/p>\n THIS WEEK IN THE 904: <\/b>The Future of the Rodman Dam<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cSunfish, blue gill, just anything. You never know what you\u2019re gonna get. It\u2019s like a box of chocolates,\u201d Fort said.<\/p>\n But just north of the county in Duval, there\u2019s an effort underway to urge state lawmakers to support legislation that would tear down the dam by the end of 2032.<\/p>\n 2022 STORY: <\/b>SAFETY REPORT: Rodman Dam poses \u2018high hazard\u2019 to surrounding homes, $1.6M in urgent repairs needed<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n Jacksonville City Councilmember Jimmy Peluso (D-District 7) is sponsoring the local resolution.<\/p>\n He argued removing the dam would restore a critical flow of freshwater into the St. Johns River, which has been blocked for nearly 60 years.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s only gonna make the river cleaner and far better for both, you know, the manatees that are in the river, other animals that are in the river, the water quality that JEA will be using,\u201d Peluso said.<\/p>\n But opposition from Putnam County leaders has blocked past efforts to remove the dam.<\/p>\n RELATED: <\/b>Rodman Dam named by American Rivers as one of its \u201c25 Dams to Watch in 2022\u201d<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cBecause it looks like you\u2019re picking on Putnam County,\u201d Putnam County Commission Chair Leota Wilkinson (R-District 2) said.<\/p>\n Wilkinson said she worries removing the dam would harm the animals currently living in the Rodman Reservoir, the local water table, and the local economy.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, there\u2019s people that make $50,000, $60,000 a year just gathering bait off of that reservoir and if you look it up, you\u2019ll see that it\u2019s nationally known,\u201d Wilkinson said.<\/p>\n Last year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed more than $6 million intended to kick start the dam removal project.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n Last month, he doubled down on his opposition when asked about the new state legislation during a visit in Jacksonville.<\/p>\n But Peluso said he hopes the inclusion of an economic development piece for Putnam County this year sways his position.<\/p>\n \u201cMake sure that Putnam County feels like, okay they\u2019re getting the love that they deserve,\u201d Peluso said. \u201dMeanwhile, for the rest of us that love the river and love the ecological effects that are gonna come from the Ocklawaha being freed up, it\u2019s going to be great.\u201d<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n The state legislation still has one more stop in the House and two more in the Senate before hitting the chamber floors. <\/p>\n In Jacksonville, the City Council Neighborhoods and Rules Committees voted against putting Peluso\u2019s resolution on an emergency cycle.<\/p>\n That means it won\u2019t be ready for a final vote until the tail end of the state legislative session.<\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A water war is brewing in the State Capitol and between local communities along the St. Johns River.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":562807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[12189,5229,245669,27165,3059,12187,3188,723,67808,3153,11561,7310,245668,48908,14626,48496,245665,245671,425,245673,48497,2830,32137,86408,245670,245666,245667,245672,98096,290,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-562806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-america","tag-cc_fort","tag-chair","tag-county","tag-duval_county","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-fort","tag-governor","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jake_s_stuffan","tag-jake_stoan","tag-jea","tag-jimmy_peluso","tag-kirkpatrick_dam","tag-leota_wilkinson","tag-local","tag-ocklawaha","tag-peluso","tag-pennsylvania","tag-putnam","tag-putnam_county","tag-putnam_county_commission","tag-rodman_dam","tag-rodman_reservoir","tag-ron_desantiss","tag-saint_johns_river","tag-state","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=562806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/562806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=562806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=562806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=562806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}