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Marci L. Rose, Esq.
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I t is so amazing to me that we, as the City of Key West are contemplating the type of large plastic Christmas Poinsettias to place on Truman Avenue and actually having a fund raiser for this when our beaches remain closed due to astronomically elevated levels of fecal coliform. It is not that Christmas decorations aren’t nice and all, it is just that it is another hunk of plastic that will eventually have to go somewhere.
Let’s face it folks, we are always going to have to defecate, but we don’t always have to consume and use products that are superfluous and deadly when burned.
We have turned into such a consumer/wasteful/user society. We, people have lost site of the big picture. We, people, believe that as long as we contribute to some type of curative program ie. for cancer research, or attend some type of grassroots meeting where lots of good ideas are shared and some action is taken, we have made our contribution to the world for a year or so and will not spend any time in purgatory with a six pack binder choking the life out of us.
I certainly am not saying that I am any better than anyone else out there and I certainly have my own hypocrisies. When we go to health food stores, we are going to make ourselves feel better and hopefully to avoid being the one in eight that will either get breast or testicular cancer. We are not going to the health food stores to save the environment, because almost everything in the health food stores is still packaged in plastics.
I believe that the only way we can halt the damage that we are doing to our environ-ment as a whole is to make some serious changes in the way we live/are/being. WE NEED TO STOP USING PETROLEUM AND PETROLEUM BASED PRODUCTS AND GET BACK TO NATURE. That doesn’t mean that plastics don’t have their place, but let’s keep it to pacemakers and very limited uses. This is a very radical idea for most, but is the crux of most if not all of our environmental problems. This has been technologically possible for many years, but not implemented because the change would be very costly to the big manufacturers.
WE NEED TO BECOME A PREVENTATIVE, NOT CURATIVE SOCIETY. As Carl Hiassen would say, isn’t Advanced Wastewater Treatment a “no brainer.” How we could even contemplate anything less is beyond reason. It is a perfect example of preventative vs. curative. Why not do it right the first time and not have to sink more money, time and damage minimizing later.
We need to make these much needed changes profitable because KI NG CASH CAPITAL rules this world. The changes need to be enforced from the top down, but mandated from the bottom up. We need to tell our government and politicians that we want radical change. Tax incentives can be offered for change and compliance and vice versa penalties for noncompliance.
One thing is certain, anything is possible. I believe that we can still at least halt the environmental damage we our doing to our world. Our near shore water decline is a symptom of everything to come if change in thinking, consuming, living/being is not mandated. We need action, action, action, not passive conversations of what the causes are. Certainly no one can truly believe that the birds alone are elevating the nitrogen levels in the Tortugas!!!!!!!!!HA! HA!HA!
I’m looking forward to an active and productive
Presidency with Reef Relief. Please do not hesitate to call me with any
suggestions or comments.
Sincerely,
Marci L Rose, Esq.
President of Reef Relief
KEY WEST VOTES YES ON AWT: The voters of Key West vote in
support of issuance of a bond for up to $23 million dollars for a
Sewer System Revenue Bonds that will make possible implementation
of a comprehensive wastewater solution that includes AWT or Advanced
Wastewater Treatment. (See related cover story and accompany article
on Grassroots Workshop.) The vote was on November 2, 1999, and 2322
Key West voters made it happen! This is good news!
Keys Beach Closures Spur AWT Victory!
T he inevitable became our worst nightmare as water quality tests at Keys beaches revealed unacceptable levels of fecal coliform bacteria in public swimming areas. With the exception of Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, all Key West beaches including Simonton Street, South Beach, Higgs Beach, Smathers Beach, and Cow Key Channel were closed in June. The Health Department then decided to re-open them but posted Health Warnings telling swimmers that water in this area may be contaminated. Then even Fort Taylor tested 300 colonies of enteroccocci per 100 milliliters, far above allowable federal limits of 104 colonies per 100 milliliters. By July, the story had spread nationwide, with CNN running stories featuring the Health Warning, creating a public relations nightmare for this tourist town.
But the bad news and the crisis it created helped build support that convinced city commissioners to bite the bullet and adopt a plan for sewage improvements that will result in treatment of the City’s sewage to Advanced Wastewater Standards, or AWT, so that harmful nutrients are removed from the effluent. “This is something we have been urging the city to do for many years; congratulations to Mayor Sheila Mullins and all the commissioners for taking this bold step forward that will solve our water woes,” notes Ex-ecutive Director DeeVon Quirolo. Reef Relief launched a major effort to support the city commissioners in their vote on this issue, complete with stickers that read AWT Now. An educational effort en-listed community support for achieving advanced wastewater treatment. Local members were urged to contact their city commissioners.
The source of the problem is a combination of (1) leaky city sewer lines that have degenerated to the point that raw sewage mixes with tidal flows of salt water and runs into nearshore waters with every tide and rain event and, (2) background loading from the cumulative impact of the daily discharge of 9 1/2 million gallons of treated wastewater from the sewer outfall into nearshore waters off Fort Taylor. 40% of the sewage being treated through Key West’s central sewage system is salt water. The entire lens under the city is now contaminated. A massive five year plan to retrofit the system is under-way, but none too soon. A plan to begin the work six years ago was defeated because it involved a sewer rate increase. The 1992 draft management plan for the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary noted that the then-5.25 million gallons of secondarily treated effluent going out the nearshore outfall contained elevated salt water.
The alert spread to county wide beaches by August and remained in effect through September. The continued existence of illegal cesspits and leaky septic tanks are a likely culprit. Testing the waters is a new concept in the Keys. The Natural Resources Defense Council recently released the 9 th annual Testing the Waters 1999 A Guide to Water Quality at Vacation Beaches. As in year’s past, they found that water pollution continues to degrade the quality and health of many of our nation’s ocean, bay and Great Lakes beaches. However, many more beaches have initiated beach water monitoring programs and that is now the case in the Keys.
The solution, of course, is to upgrade sewage treatment throughout the Florida Keys. The Key West effort will speed up the 5-year sewer line retrofit to a 2-year schedule, replace the sewer outfall with a state mandated deep injection well, and increase the level of treatment to AWT. It will be financed with a sewer rate increase, a bond debt, and use of a $7 million windfall from the federal agency, FEMA – funds earmarked for hurricane damage on the basis that the hurricane’s high waters created raw sewage overflow problems for Key West.
Despite our joy at achieving the AWT goal, there is no quick fix to the beach closures; it is a problem that continued unabated for several years and our beaches may not be swimmable for a while. At least we can tell the press that we are doing everything possible.
