Posted on June 14, 2016
By Jim Waymer, florida today
Pressure the feds to speed up muck-dredging permits. Consider using local property taxes for dredging. Pursue incentives and state money to hook homes on septic tanks to sewer systems. And enforce rainy-season fertilizer bans and rules regarding erosion control and pollution discharges.
Those were among the ideas that Indian River Lagoon region government officials proposed to pursue within the next year.
“We didn’t want this to just be rhetoric,” Stephany Eley, chairwoman of the Space Coast League of Cities Environmental Committee, said to about 100 government officials Saturday at the Florida Institute of Technology.
The Space Coast and Treasure Coast leagues of cities held their first-ever Indian River Lagoon summit at FIT to drill down on near-term strategies to clean up the lagoon.
In April, the two leagues of cities both unanimously approved an “Indian River Lagoon Regional Compact” to work on approaches to restore the lagoon. There are 50 cities and towns in the five-county lagoon region, including 16 in Brevard. So far, all 16 cities in Brevard and 13 cities from Treasure Coast have signed onto the compact.
Almost two-thirds of Brevard County’s 562,000 residents live in cities or towns, versus the unincorporated area. Other lagoon-side counties sport similar proportions of city dwellers imposing a majority of the impacts to the estuary.
The goal of the forum was to set the focus of a one-year action plan for the compact partners.
Among the approaches government officials discussed included:
- A blanket federal permit for dredging muck from the lagoon, to speed up projects;
- Maintain a five-year muck dredging plan;
- Enforce the June 1 to Sept. 30 ban on fertilizer use;
- Increase street sweeping;
- Add more oysters and other filter feeders, as well as shoreline vegetation to buffer pollution.
“This is a historic moment,” said Duane De Freese, executive director of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program.
Cities need a clean-up template, with actions targeted at the most cost-effective ways to counter the worst pollution sources, officials said.
“You need to look at these categories of footprints and (nitrogen and phosphorus) loads,” De Freese said. “It’s a war with multiple campaigns.”
Brevard County staffers plan to present its lagoon-cleanup plan to county commissioners July 12.
FIT scientist John Windsor said the 5 million cubic yards of mayonnaise-like muck along the northern lagoon is enough to build a 5-foot wall along all six lanes of Interstate 95, stretching the entire 70 miles of Brevard County. “That’s a lot of muck,” Windsor said. “We ought to do something with it. We did it … Let’s stop it from getting in.”
Cities and counties need to pool education resources, said Marine Resources Council Executive Director Leesa Souto. She likened any future successful campaign to clean up the lagoon to social marketing campaigns that reduced teen smoking. “For us to do it, we’re going to have to share. We don’t have millions of dollars to do this,” Souto said. “We need to be much more strategic.”
Several government officials called for stricter enforcement of summer bans on fertilizing and more cooperation with state government to secure money to switch homes from septic tanks to sewer systems.
“We need to start working with our legislators to seek funding,” Palm Bay City Councilman Tres Holton said during a breakout session.
Sen. Thad Altman and Rep. Debbie Mayfield, who attended Saturday’s summit, both sat in on a breakout session about muck dredging.
“I’m a believer in local government,” Altman said, adding that he wants future state money for muck dredging to continue to go to local governments and to be driven by scientists.
Altman proposed putting more pressure on the federal government to speed up U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permits for muck dredging. “We all need to get together and come down on the feds,” he said.
Mayfield suggested a holistic approach.
“This is the whole lagoon,” Mayfield said. “To me, it’s like a master plan, like a roadway project.”
De Freese said he’ll consider the lagoon recovered when oysters, clams and other commercial fisheries are once again viable in the region.
“I think if we do this from the grassroots up, we get there,” De Freese said in closing.
Learn about the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program: http://www.irlcouncil.com/
Source: Florida Today
