“The forests downstream are stressed and dying. “The Ocklawaha would flow at a much faster speed making for a healthier river,” Spontak said. Since the late 1960s, a trickle of the natural flow makes it to the longest river in Florida, which flows north more than 300 miles from Indian River County through Jacksonville and out into the Atlantic Ocean.
RODMAN RESERVOIR DRAWDOWN SCHEDULE FREE
The Rodman Dam cuts off the free flow of the Ocklawaha about nine miles from the St. That dam forms Lake Rousseau, but those structures don’t attract as much resistance as the Rodman Dam. Retrofitted for the barge canal, the dam stopped producing energy in 1965. On the Withlacoochee, the original Inglis lock and dam date back to 1910 and used to generate power. Now seen as bizarrely tall, their height was to allow enough clearance for the large barges traveling down the canal.Įureka is also home to the nearly completed Eureka lock and dam, though it was never put online. In addition to the Rodman Dam, the Ocklawaha River bridges in Silver Springs and Eureka went up. Just less than a third of the project was finished during that time, with much of it impacting Marion County. It chugged along until 1971, when President Richard Nixon finally killed the project. In 1963, President John Kennedy, and after his assassination, President Lyndon Johnson, revived it as a national defense project. Remnants of their unfinished labor are still visible in the median just north of Belleview.īut the money dried up, and the project sat stagnant for almost 30 years. Thousands of men descended on Ocala to begin work near the Santos area, where one of several new soaring bridges, including one planned for Interstate 75, would span the artificial channel. The channel would connect the Ocklawaha to the Withlacoochee River, where barges could eventually exit to the Gulf of Mexico near Yankeetown. Johns to the Ocklawaha and eventually through a man-made channel south of Ocala to Dunnellon. Johns River at Jacksonville from the Atlantic Ocean, travel down the St.
The canal would allow barges to enter the St. In 1935, in the depths of the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt allocated $5 million (about $94 million in 2020 dollars) to start construction of a canal. Ideas for a canal across Florida date back to Spanish rule in the 16th century, but work on such a project didn’t start until the 1930s, according to T he Florida Historical Society. The event attracts people from around the country trying to land a so-called Rodman giant. The internet features dozens of videos and articles related to fishing the Rodman during drawdowns. The drawdown temporarily concentrates bass into smaller confines, which can make for prime fishing. They noted new sprouts of cypress and elm trees on exposed banks while marveling at the alligators, turtles and other wildlife roaming the newly exposed land.īut fishermen also were out in force. Recently, a Star-Banner photographer, as a guest of Spontak’s group, visited the area as the reservoir was at one of its lowest levels.ĭuring the excursion, the group traveled the natural river channel and wondered at springs once again visible.
The two sides agree on little, but both flock to the area during the drawdowns. Small springs also become visible, and new plant life immediately starts to sprout. The water level drops from about 20 feet to 11 feet and exposes the remnants of cypress stands long ago toppled by tank-like machinery. The debate remains largely unchanged in the decades since the Rodman Dam went online in 1968, as part of the since-abandoned Cross Florida Barge Canal project.Įvery three to four years, the state draws down the reservoir, also known as Lake Ocklawaha, to kill off invasive aquatic plants. Margaret Spontak looks over the enormous artificial lake, covering almost 10,000 acres in Marion and Putman counties, and sees an environmental nightmare with the Rodman Dam choking the natural flow of the Ocklawaha River and cutting off fish and manatees from freely traveling the waterway.
As a boy, Steve Miller remembers looking out over the recently flooded Rodman Reservoir and thinking it looked like a wasteland of tree stumps.Īlmost 50 years later, Miller now sees at an area transformed into a thriving wildlife habitat, with world-class fishing that helps support a largely rural economy.
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