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Topic Title: Algae plaguing Florida's iconic springs triggers major legal battle
Topic Summary: Could the tides possibly be turning?
Created On: 03/12/2019 11:31 AM
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 03/12/2019 11:31 AM
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worksuxgetsponsered

Posts: 8728
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Soon after taking office, Gov. Ron DeSantis promised long-awaited fixes for the ailing Everglades, the green slimes at the waterfronts of Stuart and Martin County and the red tides along Sarasota and Fort Myers.

Those aquatic disasters have rallied broad alliances of environmentalists, anglers, waterfront homeowners, motel and restaurant owners, boaters, beachgoers and local politicians in the heavily populated bottom half of Florida.

Meanwhile, the majority of the state's hundreds of springs - a collection unlike anywhere else in the world - are confined largely to rural and less-affluent places north of Interstate 4, Orlando and Tampa Bay, and often are secluded in woods or wetlands at the end of a quiet county road.

For environmentalists taking on the state over springs in a costly legal challenge, politics haven't tipped in their favor.

Clay Henderson, executive director at Stetson University's Institute for Water and Environmental Resilience, said authorities, with a nod from the new governor, could regroup and revise their springs strategy.

Otherwise, environmentalists say, what remains is a do-or-die fight.

The trouble is excessive growth of algae feeding on - as documented by authorities - pollution seeping into groundwater from septic tanks, sewage systems, agricultural and lawn fertilizer and stormwater.

Once jewels of blue water, neon-green eelgrass and brilliant-white sand, Florida springs typically have been rendered darkly slimy.

"We have plans in place that are aggressive," said Tom Frick, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's director of restoration, describing for lawmakers recently how premier springs are targeted for rehabilitation within 20 years. But many citizens groups have labeled the state's approach as so feeble for regulations, projects and funding it would lead to further degradation of springs even if it succeeded as designed.

Their legal challenge, to be conducted in September as a state hearing, will be immersed in pollution rates, sources and remedies, Floridan Aquifer dynamics and nature's limits.


O'sent contines

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.
 03/12/2019 12:38 PM
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SurferMic

Posts: 1251
Joined Forum: 06/30/2012

feeling like this will not get fixed only worse, the price to convert from Septic to sewer for one home is astronomical

Edited: 03/13/2019 at 05:40 AM by SurferMic
 03/12/2019 12:59 PM
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garcia

Posts: 1470
Joined Forum: 03/12/2007

I went to the springs this past fall and was devastated. We went camping at the springs ever summer vacation in the '60s. (Spending the whole day in the 72 deg water lowered our body temperature such that we could sleep in our 6-man canvas tent with three small windows.) The springs are the best part of Florida and they looked like sh_t this last time. There was so much algae that I couldn't even see the bottom in Wakulla Springs. The Devil's Den was full of drift algae and looked like sh_t, too. (The part that was in the cave out of the sunlight looked okay but not great.) I almost cried when I saw how bad they looked. Out of all the things we are seeing, this one affected me most.
 03/12/2019 07:29 PM
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Cole

Posts: 68176
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Seminole County pulled their spring monitoring stations two years ago. Not that anyone ever looked at the data anyway.

Sucking them dry so other shit gets pulled in doesn't really help the situation either. Rick Scott is an enemy to this state.

http://floridapolitics.com/arc...reek-lands-cattle-farm

I'm not sure if this was ever approved, but what was, and what impact is it currently having?

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I was right.

Edited: 03/14/2019 at 05:51 AM by Cole
 03/13/2019 04:14 AM
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worksuxgetsponsered

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Having everybody switch from septic to sewer isn't a feasible option and it wouldn't have the nutrient reduction needed to curb the problem, but requiring people to have their septic's inspected for proper installation and every 5 years for leaks is a good start. Especially in areas that impact our springs.

At first appearance, it looks as if DeSantis is on the road to righting some of Scott's poor decisions.

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

Edited: 03/13/2019 at 04:15 AM by worksuxgetsponsered
 03/13/2019 05:33 AM
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tom

Posts: 8013
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"Se-pi-tic-toc" is scientific Latin for "magic box in the ground"; septic tank is the generic pronunciation. Septic tanks do not leak. When 10 gallons of dirty water from the house flows into the tank, 10 gallons of dirty water flows out of the tank to the groundwater. Mass balance people. Septic tanks are protective of public health, not the environment. worksux is right, replacing them all is not fiscally feasible. At $15K per unit (Martin Co. numbers, yes, they're actually doing it) it would cost $1.4 billion to do the 90K tanks in Brevard alone. I disagree that the nutrient load reduction would be insignificant. At 15g N/per capita/day and assuming 2 persons/tank, removing 1/2 the tanks would reduce nitrogen loss* by over 1M lbs N/yr. For comparison, Brevard probably uses somewhere in the range of 200K lbs N/yr for fertilizing grass**. OK, here's the *, this presumes that sewage treatment is doing the job of removing the nitrogen. Right now there is no regulation on how much N can be present in reuse water; hence, treated domestic waste water, "reuse water", is returning significant nitrogen to the environment. Fail. And here's the **, totally unnecessary to fertilize grass. $1.4B to connect septic to sewer, how much $$ to not fertilize grass? (curse the lack of line breaks )

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Edited: 03/13/2019 at 06:18 AM by tom
 03/13/2019 06:27 AM
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Central Floridave

Posts: 52249
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Environmentalists oppose passage of this Florida fracking ban. There's a good reason.
http://www.miamiherald.com/new.../article227419609.html
 03/13/2019 07:12 AM
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scombrid

Posts: 18018
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I grew up in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The original Chesapeake Bay Agreement that set up the bay program was signed in 1983. They've been working on getting rid of septic tanks and funding advanced wastewater treatment for a long time. They aren't there yet but they are way ahead of us. Brevard's 1/2 cent sales tax is supposed to raise 300 million in 10 years. Every penny should be spent on capturing and treating human waste either in direct project funding or to capture matching grant money. Stop with the stupid fluff feel good bandaid projects. Well, maybe spend a little money on educate people on best landscape practices. But that is where the money should be going, wastewater and lawns. BMAP for IRL has us paying an extra assessment on our water bill. Where's that money being spent?

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 03/13/2019 11:00 AM
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worksuxgetsponsered

Posts: 8728
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FTR..I didn't mean it would be insignificant, just that conversion alone wouldn't be enough to stop the nutrient contamination of the springs.



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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.
 03/13/2019 01:42 PM
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dingpatch

Posts: 19032
Joined Forum: 07/24/2003

Screw the friggin sea grass. I need to have my lawn as green as possible! LOL

Sad, but true around these parts.

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Dora Hates You
 03/14/2019 06:26 AM
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TeeBirdForever

Posts: 357
Joined Forum: 08/21/2016

Green lawn and use your fishing rods to make a fence.
 03/15/2019 07:40 AM
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scombrid

Posts: 18018
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It is depressing. I did my interval workout on Grand Canal on Wednesday for a change of scenery. Neon green lawns with irrigation running and running and running. Then I go for a run on Rockledge drive and it is the same. Juiced up mega fertilized yards, a lot of which have the little peligro pesticidas signed because the chemlawn folks from TruGreen et al. are out doing the "weed and feed" rounds with their magic herbicide/fungicide/insecticide/fertilizer cocktails. Then on the commercial radio there's a spot for Scott's Bonus-S weed-n-feed every 2 seconds.

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 03/15/2019 08:12 AM
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somebodyelse

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You were talking about algae in the springs.... Last Summer the cars were parked outside the entrances of two springs and the springs were at capacity.... Nobody else was being let in.... we went to a 3rd spring, and found the last two parking spots................................. How much of the problem is ink from Tattoos washing into the watershed???? ........ I am kidding but that many people packing into the water and tramping on the vegetation has to have a major detriment.......

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 03/15/2019 12:03 PM
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3rdworldlover

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$15k per unit?
Is that to pull the tank?
Seems high
 03/15/2019 05:45 PM
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scombrid

Posts: 18018
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Originally posted by: somebodyelse You were talking about algae in the springs.... Last Summer the cars were parked outside the entrances of two springs and the springs were at capacity.... Nobody else was being let in.... we went to a 3rd spring, and found the last two parking spots................................. How much of the problem is ink from Tattoos washing into the watershed???? ........ I am kidding but that many people packing into the water and tramping on the vegetation has to have a major detriment.......
Absolutely the trampling and physical damage to swimming hole springs is a problem. The forest service closed down wading in Juniper Run by US 19 a few years ago. The improvement of the habitat just by excluding foot traffic from the sugar sand stream banks and creek bottom has been awesome. But the algae problem is affecting lots of areas that are not trampled. Big runs like the Silver River have lost a lot of SAV in the last 15 years.

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 03/15/2019 07:21 PM
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tom

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I rounded up, it's $14 & change. 1) install new lift station and force main to nearest existing lift station. Upgrade pumps at that one and any downstream as required. 2) dig up the streets etc. to install gravity mains to lift station, replace streets etc. 3) tie homes in to new gravity mains, replace sidewalks, driveways, curbs etc. 4) abandon tank in place by pumping out, crushing and filling. $15K / unit is when you do a bunch of units, a neighborhood, and sewer is already nearby. I.e., low end of the scale.

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 03/18/2019 04:26 AM
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worksuxgetsponsered

Posts: 8728
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When I did my assessment last semester for 2 neighborhoods in Orange County it was more like 20+K per household for conversion and nutrient levels compared to other areas that had been converted in the last 2 years, were not much higher.

edit: I used a VERY generic costing go by....

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

Edited: 03/18/2019 at 04:33 AM by worksuxgetsponsered
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