Hurricane Georges has changed life for all of us in the Lower Florida Keys and getting back to normal is taking longer than we had hoped. Although we did not experience a direct hit to our offices, gift shop, boats, or homes, the reef that protected the island of Key West from the brunt of the storm took a direct hit and it shows. We lived without electricity and got to know our neighbors better. We are still unpacking our computers, offices and homes. Many people in the Lower Keys are still without homes or electricity.
The legislation we helped draft to rid the city of Key West of illegal cesspits is set for hearing in November and hopefully by the time you read this, it will be close to passage. Thanks to Richard Grosso for the research done at the Nova Law Center to tweak our draft and to City Attorney Bob Tischenkel for conforming it to city standards. This will help City Utilities Director David Fernandez continue his job of replacing the sewer lines around town and hook up any of these remaining units when he gets to those neighborhoods. Fewer than 90 properties should be affected, but this will help improve water quality.
The folks at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection were asked to come up with new rules for the package sewage treatment plants in use throughout the Keys. These plants utilize shallow injection wells and service multiunit campgrounds, condos, apartment houses, and restaurants. We were supporting standards that reached awt (advanced wastewater treatment)meaning the nutrients are stripped. But existing technology cannot meet that standard according to a CH2MHill study the county commissioned. So the working group agreed to recommend the weaker standard of B.A.T. (best available technology) for plants processing less than 100,000 gallons per day. We know of unconventional technologies in use in Virginia and elsewhere providing additional filtration that reduces both the volume of effuent and the nutrients therein. We recommend further exploration and adoption of additional treatment methods that will bring up the treatment levels to awt. If not, the days of these on-site systems should be numbered. The master wastewater plan being developed could then include regional plants that can do the job. Nutrient-stripping is a must to accommodate all the people living on the Keys given the porous substrata and the lack of confinement of anything injected underground.
The Re-study of the Everglades cleanup plan has been released by the Army Corp of Engineers and public hearings begin in November. This $8 billion program proposes to capture up to 85% of the water now drained from South Florida by creating massive lagoons and underground aquifers, with some being used for agriculture and some released to create more natural sheet flow through the Everglades into Florida Bay. Water will be stored underground, recharging the aquifer, by pumping it into more than 300 wells holding 1.6 billion gallons a day. The Tamiami Trail would be rebuilt to allow water to flow more naturally under it. The plan is not yet funded by Congress. Reef Relief is concerned that the water quality be improved so that what is stored be of good quality. Pollution reduction should begin with the agricultural interests so that we can be assured that the water will not contaminate underground sources of drinking water and continue to pollute Florida Bay and our downstream coral reefs. This runoff has been the single largest contributor to the decline of our coral reefs. It's time to clean it up. Earlier plans included addressing phosphates but not nitrogen in the clean-up plan. Both nutrients are doing harm.
This meeting, chaired by Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and Department of Commerce's Robert Mallett, and held at Biscayne National Park October 21 and 22, was a top-down affair that included some new voices from agencies that were surprised to find that their activities have a bearing on the health of our coral reefs and others who were proud of their accomplishments.
Babbitt compared coral reefs to the buffalos that disappeared between 1870 and 1880—a tragedy of the commons because they are used by everyone. He cited the Everglades Task Force as an example of the "fruitful possibility of success" and the Keys sanctuary as a model.
Presentations were made by representatives of noaa, epa, Department
of Agriculture, Justice Department, Defense Department, National
Science Foundation, nasa, Department of State, usaid, Interior
Department, and U.S. territorial interests such as Guam and the
U.S. Virgin Islands. Grassroots representatives were invited but
unable to speak (we were delegated to a tent with tv's where we
got to watch the proceedings), although we had opportunities to
talk to the panelists during breaks and at a reception hosted
by the Center for Marine Conservation. nasa's Janet Campbell voiced
support for grassroots efforts and cmc's Roger McManus verbalized
the need to get beyond research and monitoring to actually save
coral reefs.
Dr. James Porter of the us epa Water Quality Monitoring Program
gave a compelling factual and emotional presentation on the results
of 131 stations being monitored in the Florida Keys National Marine
Sanctuary. The extent of corals with diseases increased 466%,
the number of different diseases increased from 2 to 14, and coral
species affected by diseases increased 244% from 199698. He implored
the task force members to improve water quality, especially the
"dirty water from Florida Bay and the Everglades."
The Task Force released a press statement with glowing statements about doing the right thing. We hope they do. In the meantime, I found the meeting somewhat discouraging. Maybe it's because I know that many of the statements made of successes just aren't so or our reefs would be in much better shape. The more you know, the worse it gets. But this will give us a chance to reach more people and increase awareness. If this task force can work on the following issues, it will go a long way toward saving coral reefs:
Preservation 2000, the land acquisition program in Florida that began in 1990, has reached the goal of one million acres of land preserved throughout Florida. This is good news for natural areas. Congratulations to all the people who worked so hard to make this happen.