TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Questions and concerns spilled into a state Senate committee last week regarding a proposed $1.1 billion water pipeline across North Florida, part of a groundwater restoration project .
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection is asking the Legislature to ratify rules for water pumping and conservation around the Ichetucknee and Santa Fe rivers near Lake City.
The region each summer attract hundreds of thousands of visitors who go cave diving, swim in state parks or seek a cool-down while lazily floating down spring-fed rivers in tubes.
But the rivers’ flows have been reduced by nearly 20 percent over the past century, with some residents and officials blaming groundwater pumping by Jacksonville area utilities.
