On Sept. 30, protections for America's coasts will expire, allowing oil companies to begin drilling for oil off beaches that have been protected for generations. To keep our protected coasts free of oil rigs and oil spills, Congress must act to extend the ban on new offshore oil drilling.Please consider taking action on this important topic.
More info, and assistance in writing to your representative, is available on the ENVIRONMENT AMERICA site. Please do what you can.
Yesterday television station WPLG ran a story about the National Resources Defense Council annual beaches water quality report, which they call "Testing the Waters 2008 Florida". (The report covers testing done in 2007.) The full NRDC report is available as a 35 page PDF file, here. Most of the report is made up of tables of beach testing data.
The Monroe County section of the report that lists how often each beach is tested and how many times it excedes standards is mostly blank (i.e., there is no testing). Of the 45 Monroe beaches listed, only 17 are tested (once per week). Of those 17, ten show less than 5% "excedence" (percent of time where tests showed excess bacteria). And only THREE showed excedence over 10%:
3. Coco Plum Beach (Marathon) - 12%
2. South Beach (Key West) - 18%
1. Higgs Beach (Key West) - 24%
Higgs Beach was ranked the worst in all of South Florida. The WPLG report calls it "the most dangerous beach in South Florida".
South and Higgs beaches, along with Smathers beach, lead the Monroe County section of the count of Beach Advisory days, with MONTHS of advisories. Only four other beaches (Simonton, Veterans, Sombrero, Pennekamp) had any advisories at all, and only of 1 or 2 weeks.
The WPLG video report (which mainly covers Miami-Dade county) is here: click
Please join our friends at Reef Relief in their efforts to organize an opposition to the disastrous plans by the current administration to undo our past protections. Click the picture above (or this link) for details.
The Event was held May 14, 2008 at NOAA’s Eco-Discovery Center
Over 100 Last Stand members and concerned citizens packed the auditorium of NOAA's Eco-Discovery Center in Key West Wednesday evening, May 14, for a public program on near-shore water quality in the Florida Keys.
The panel assembled for the program by Last Stand consisted of Monroe County Health Department’s Bobbi Sleighter, Reef Relief’s Mike McCleary, Scott Donahue of NOAA’s Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary, Assistant Key West City Manager David Fernandez, and Paul J. Mitchell, a professional engineer and long-time Key West resident.
Forum moderator and Last Stand board member Amy Lachat Lynch, after introducing the panel, gave each panelist a topic which they had been given earlier on which to comment.
Bobbi Sleighter, asked to describe Monroe County’s water quality monitoring program, told the audience there are seventeen locations in the Keys regularly monitored, five of them in Key West. Samples are taken on Tuesday of each week, and tested for concentrations of fecal coliform and enterococcus bacteria, the primary bugs found in sewage. Testing has been going on for eight years. Although Key West’s sewage system, overhauled over several years, has resulted in fewer “hits” (i.e. test results showing unsafe contamination levels) than 8 years ago, unsafe levels are observed fairly regularly at Higgs Beach and South Beach in Key West. These “hits” are more frequent following heavy rain events, a significant fact.
Paul Mitchell was asked to describe how general water conditions have changed over the several decades he’s been in the Keys. Mitchell said that in terms of clarity and general quality, deterioration has been “profound and dramatic”, especially in enclosed bodies of water such as Garrison Bight, Key West Bight, and Safe Harbor on Stock Island. He said that dredging and closing off of these bodies had a lot to do with the worsening conditions, which have taken place gradually over a long time. He noted that he has not immersed himself in Garrison Bight since 2004, and isn't likely ever to again.
Scott Donahue was asked to summarize water quality regulations that exist in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. He gave a brief history of regulations beginning in the early 1970s restricting discharge of oil and toxic chemicals from ships, and up to the present with the “2010 rule”, EPA’s edict that the Florida Keys must stop discharging sewage into Keys waters by 2010. He noted that within the Keys Marine Sanctuary, prohibitions are more stringent in No Discharge zones.
David Fernandez was asked to comment on Key West’s sewage and stormwater treatment systems. Fernandez noted that at one point in 1999, every beach in Key West was closed due to sewage contamination. The city of Key West then embarked on a seven-year capital program to upgrade its sewage system, and that the program was completed in three years. Ocean outfalls of treated effluent, previously outfalls of raw sewage, were replaced with deep injection wells.
He noted that Key West’s wastewater plant meets stringent Advanced Wastewater Treatment standards, exceeding minimum requirements. The city spent $67 million on its upgrade, and citizens and businesses spent $22 million upgrading laterals and plumbing on private property. Fernandez noted that Key West’s system has won awards for its advanced treatment.
He acknowledged that stormwater collection and treatment is still a huge problem… that during heavy rains, millions of gallons per day flow into the ocean through outfalls as well as into injection wells, and that stormwater contains numerous contaminants, including fecal matter, petroleum products, all kinds of nasty things. The city is working on its stormwater system and still has a long ways to go.
Mike McCleary of Reef Relief was asked to comment on No Discharge Zones and Reef Relief’s take on what can be done to reduce near-shore water pollution. McCleary noted that the reef is dying, partly due to global warming, and partly due to what we are putting into the water, both from land, and from the numerous boats and ships that ply our waters. He noted that Monroe County has the state’s largest number of registered boats. No Discharge Zones were extended in 2002 to include all state waters within the National Marine Sanctuary, but that the jury is still out on their effectiveness.
He also said that cruise ships discharge up to 30,000 gallons of waste (treated and untreated) per ship per day, but that they’re prohibited from doing so within 3 miles outside of state waters. He said that No Discharge Zones need to be expanded to include federal waters, which extend farther offshore. Some discussion of cruise ship discharges ensued, with Key West Ports Director Ray Archer commenting that cruise ships in general voluntarily refrain from discharging waste within 12 miles of shore. Discussion included the possibility of requiring cruise ships to pump out into a city facility to avoid ocean dumping, but Fernandez noted that such pumpouts would far exceed the capacity of Key West ’s waste treatment facility and would require storage capacity that does not exist.
Following the panelists’ comments on the above topics, the audience directed questions to the panelists. Among other things, people wanted to know:
From the thoughtful questions posed by the assembled citizens, it was obvious that the residents here are very concerned about water quality, and demand that local policymakers become even more concerned than they are. It is clear that if places like Monterrey, California can enact and enforce standards more stringent than minimum federal standards, there is significant local support for our local and state governments’ doing so.
