Rodman Dam records case appealed; environmentalists seeking to restore flow to Ocklawaha River

An environmental group gave notice Monday that it is appealing a circuit judge’s decision in a public-records dispute involving information about a long-controversial dam at North Florida’s Rodman Reservoir.

Florida Defenders of the Environment and an individual plaintiff, Jim Gross, filed a notice at the 1st District Court of Appeal after Leon County Circuit Judge Angela Dempsey last month ruled against their records request.

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Environmentalists have called for decades to remove the Kirkpatrick Dam, formerly known as Rodman Dam, which was built in the 1960s as part of the Cross-Florida Barge Canal project.

The barge canal project was later abandoned, but the dam remained on the Ocklawaha River, creating the Rodman Reservoir.

Environmentalists have sought to restore the flow of the Ocklawaha. The public-records lawsuit, filed in October, sought what are known as “emergency action plans” about the dam from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

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The lawsuit alleged that the dam is in poor condition and “is subject to breach especially in the event of severe storms that commonly occur in Florida.” The lawsuit came after the department rejected a public-records request.

In a Feb. 24 order, Dempsey backed the department, which has provided redacted versions of the records to the plaintiffs.

The order said the department argued that other requested information was exempt from disclosure as it contains “threat assessments, emergency evacuation plans and … building plans, blueprints. schematic drawings or diagrams depicting the structural elements of a structure.”

American Rivers, an advocacy group that works “to create a future of clean water and healthy rivers,” named Rodman Dam as one of its “25 Dams to Watch in 2022:”

“Thousands of dams need to come down in the U.S., and there are opportunities for river restoration at every size and scale. American Rivers curated the following list of 25 dam removal projects to illustrate examples and highlight opportunities of the types of dam removal projects that exist across the country.”

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