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Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast
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Commentary and Appeals
The opinions posted on this site are not necessarily those of the site managers or all of our sponsors. Eco-
voice can not verify the accuracy of facts asserted in commentaries but does not knowingly post articles which have serious errors. Opinions on environmental topics have a light blue back ground, those on political issues, light yellow. Appeals have a pink background.
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WATER RESOURCES ADVISORY COMMISSION
October 5, 2017 9:00 AM District Headquarters
1. Call to Order - James J. Moran, WRAC Chairman
2. Water Conditions Report - John P. Mitnik, Chief Engineer
3. WRAC Member Issues
4. SFWMD
Concept for Deep Injection Wells in the Northern Everglades - Robert Verrastro, Lead Hydrogeologist, Water Supply Bureau and Calvin Neidrauer, Chief Engineer, Hydrology & Hydraulics Bureau
5.
Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project Update - Matt Morrison, Office Chief, Federal Policy & Coordination
6. 2017
Lower West Coast Water Supply Plan Update - Mark Elsner, Bureau Chief, Water Supply
7. 2017
MFL Priority List and Schedule - Don Medellin, Principal Scientist, Coastal Ecosystem Section
8. Staff Reports
9. Public Comment
10. Adjourn
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Glades County sites deemed optimal for water storage
OKEECHOBEE - Why are all of the reservoir options under consideration for the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Plan in Glades County?
The evaluation of all of the options for citing reservoirs found in the area west of the Kissimmee River and north of the lake is the ideal area, according to Matt Morrison, South Florida Water Management District Federal Policy Chief, Everglades Policy & Coordination.
He said the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) projects already include water storage south, east and west, and always planned to include storage north of the lake.
During the LOWRP planning process they looked at the options for storage throughout the area north.
A critical component to water storage is access to water to store.
Mr. Morrison said some of the areas north of Lake Okeechobee they looked at had "flashes" of high volume water, but are dry for parts of the year.
The reservoirs making the cut for the four alternatives have access to water sources year round.
"We focused on areas where if we were to make that investment, the facilities will be used robustly," he explained.
"It doesn't make sense to spend billions of dollars to build infrastructure and not use it all the time," he said.
The four alternatives currently under consideration use one or more of three reservoir options in Glades County, which have been designated K-42, K-05 North and K-05 South.
"K-05 North and K-05 South perform more robustly than K-42," he said.
The idea is to pump water from the river into the reservoir during wet periods, and store the water in the reservoir until needed. In dry periods, the water would be released by gravity flow into wetlands which would flow back into the river and/or the lake.
"The K-05 North and South reservoirs provide the most opportunity. That's the driving factor," he said.
While land prices in rural Glades County are lower than elsewhere in the district, that was not a factor in the decision, said Mr. Morrison.
He said the computer modeling shows that the K-05 North and South reservoirs perform more robustly than the K-42 option.
While the federal project is not a water quality project, Mr. Morrison said the state is looking for opportunities to use the LOWRP projects to improve water quality. Running the water through wetlands before it goes into the lake will help remove excess nutrients from the water naturally.
At the July 27 LOWRP meeting, Glades County officials and property owners expressed concerns about economic impact, water quality and public safety.
"I understand the concerns," said Mr. Morrison.
He said there is a long way to go before the project construction will begin.
"It's probably many years out," he said.
The earliest it might be considered for federal funding is 2020, and that is only if the federal government has a Water Resources bill that year - in the past, Congress has gone as long as seven years without funding any water projects.
If the project is approved and funded, it will create jobs in Glades County both during construction and also for long term maintenance, he said.
In addition, the wetlands will create opportunities for public recreation for bird and wildlife viewing and fishing.
Improving the hydrology of the area and restoring historic wetlands should improve the numbers of birds, reptiles and fish in those areas, he said.
Once the final recommendation is approved, land acquisition timing will depend on funding.
SFWMD sometimes purchases land in advance of federal funding, especially in the case of a willing seller. In those cases, SFWMD usually leases the property back to the owner until it is needed for the project. If the original owner does not want to lease the land, the lease is put up for public bids.
Mr. Morrison said he realizes the uncertainty of the LOWRP plans is difficult for property owners.
"I suggest they continue living their lives and doing what they do," he said. "If they have plans to develop their property, that's their prerogative."
Even after the reservoir alternative is chosen, the plans might change a bit, he said. He said they will have to investigate the sites for hazards such as old dipping vats, which may have contaminated the soil, or areas where pesticides or herbicides were used. They will also have to take cultural sites such as Indian burial mounds into consideration.
"We will go through site optimization," he said, which will try to optimize both the location and the design of the reservoir or reservoirs.
In addition, they will consider infrastructure such as roads, bridges, railroad tracks and cell towers.
Initial plans call for above-ground reservoirs an average of 15-feet deep. He said they do not plan to do any excavation; the water will be stored above ground.
The safety of those living south of the reservoir or reservoirs will also be a consideration and factored into the designs, he said.
"All of that will be accounted for," he said.
He said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers takes public safety seriously, as evidenced by the billions of dollars being spent on the Herbert Hoover Dike work.
Mr. Morrison said other restoration and water quality projects are already planned or underway in other counties in the district.
"There are improvements in the upper basin," he said. For example, the Kissimmee River Restoration will restore 44 miles of the historic 103-mile winding river. Pushing water back into the old oxbows in sections of the river will cause the water to spread out into the thousands of acres of wetlands, restoring 40 square miles of floodplain. That project is currently projected to be completed in 2020.
Along with the river restoration, the lake regulation schedules for the Upper Kissimmee Chain of Lakes will be re-evaluated in order to hold more water in those lakes, Mr. Morrison said. That will also slow the flow of water down the river into Lake Okeechobee during the wet season.
The Lakeside Ranch STA in Martin County will capture water from the Taylor Creek/Nubbin Slough watershed and use wetlands to help remove phosphorus from the water before it is released into the lake. Mr. Morrison said the first phase of the Lakeside Ranch STA is operational.
The C-44 reservoir near the St. Lucie waterway and the C-43 reservoir near the Calooshatchee River will store water west and east of the lake, respectively.
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If
Sen. Rob Bradley
's latest bill succeeds, there could be much more money in the coffers of 'Florida Forever' going forward.
Bradley's
SB 370 would mandate a $100M minimum spend from Amendment One funds on the Florida Forever program.
"As a conservative, I believe in absolute fidelity to the Constitution," said Sen. Bradley.
"I am filing this bill because the Constitution demands, and the overwhelming majority of Floridians who voted for Amendment One in 2014 demand, that we protect the natural resources of our state," Bradley added.
Environmental groups have offered support already.
"Opening this legislative session with a proposal to provide at least $100 million to Florida Forever demonstrates Senator Bradley's environmental leadership," said
Aliki Moncrief, Executive Director of Florida Conservation Voters.
"Florida voters have made it clear they want more funding for parks, wildlife corridors, and environmentally important natural areas like wetlands. I hope that SB 370 is the first sign of the Senate's renewed commitment to continuing Florida's legacy of acquiring critical natural areas before they are lost forever," Moncrief added.....
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The economic benefits of development and the preservation of natural resources are continually being weighed against each other. In a state like Florida, this conversation is often a protracted - even heated - one because so much of the state's tourism industry is reliant on keeping its beaches, parks and hot springs as pristine as possible. [Source:
Construction Dive]
The economic benefits of development and the preservation of natural resources are continually being weighed against each other. In a state like Florida, this conversation is often a protracted - even heated - one because so much of the state's tourism industry is reliant on keeping its beaches, parks and hot springs as pristine as possible. The boon delivered by tourism also justifies questions about how new construction and expanding agricultural operations could put a dent in one of the state's biggest revenue streams.
More than 112 million tourists visited Florida last year, a 5.9% increase from 2015,
Florida Today reported. Those visitors spent $109 billion and generated 1.4 million jobs.
And some visitors are staying.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott
announced last month that the state had seen the number of private businesses increase by 16.5% since December 2010. While many of the net 75,449 businesses added since then are homegrown, the figure also includes those coming from out of state to set up shop. The growth in the number of businesses in the state is one contributor to its
strong population growth currently.
That's good news and bad news for the state. The good news is that all those new people will need places to live, shop, work, learn, relax and seek medical care, which means a boost for the state's construction industry and its workers. Local and state agencies also get to collect more property, sales and other taxes as a result.
The bad news is that the strain on the state's aquifer system - the subterranean limestone reservoirs that provide most of the water that Floridians use to drink, bathe and water their lawns - is starting to become evident.
Going to the source
Florida's aquifer is made up of
two primary systems. One is the nearly 100,000-square-mile Floridan aquifer, which encompasses the entire state of Florida and parts of Alabama, Georgia
, Mississippi and South Carolina. The
Biscayne aquifer sits atop the Floridan in South Florida and provides the area with fresh water. If the Biscayne aquifer ever ran completely dry, utility companies could dig deeper and hit the Floridan. However, according to attorney Spencer Crowley, a partner at the law firm
Akerman in Miami, that water would need to be treated through a method like reverse osmosis to become potable.
When too much water is pumped from the ground, the level of water that flows freely through the porous limestone is reduced, said Robert Knight, founder of the
Florida Springs Institute, in High Springs, FL. If that level falls too far, the pressure that maintains flow through the system and to the state's
hundreds of hot springs weakens.
The lack of flow to the springs can be devastating on both an environmental level and an economic level because so many tourists - and residents - come to the springs for recreational purposes. "Water flow is the lifeblood of the springs, so when you reduce their flow, they start getting sick," Knight said. More specifically, more algae forms, reducing water clarity and resulting in the stagnant, brackish water that repels both people and wildlife. If the spring goes dry, it can turn those vibrant natural resources into waterless holes in the ground.
For example, while not dry yet,
Silver Springs, in Ocala, FL, once flowed at a rate of 500 million gallons per day, but over pumping has reduced its output by 60%, Knight said.
That's not the worst-case scenario for reductions to the aquifer. Several of Floridia's major rivers, like the Hillsborough River in Tampa and the St. Johns, which runs through Jacksonville, are spring-fed. If those rivers were to stop flowing, it would be disastrous for the economies that depend on them, and it would also force wells deeper into the aquifer, resulting in them potentially withdrawing water at a rate faster than the aquifer can be replenished.
Finding a solution
So who's to blame? As it turns out, everyone who uses water is contributing to the problem. According to the High Springs Institute,
aquifer levels have fallen below what is necessary to maintain a healthy aquifer-spring system
. A 10- to 20-foot reduction in aquifer levels is enough to stop a spring from flowing, and some urban areas have already recorded 30- to 90-foot drops.According to the
United States Geological Survey,
groundwater in the Tampa-St. Petersburg area has been pumped to the point that saltwater has entered the supply, a series of sinkholes have formed and surface water has been depleted.
Determining whether the state is doing enough to conserve water includes looking at new development and how permits are issued.
When developers establish the water needs for a subdivision or other large project, they must contract with utility companies, Crowley said, which have water-use permits to withdraw the water. Those permits not only cover actual water use, but they also include conditions meant to mitigate environmental harm caused by the withdrawal of water. The permits can also include conditions requiring the development of alternative water supplies, increased efficiency measures and the reduction of water loss that might occur from leaks or unmetered supply.
What it doesn't cover is a charge for the water itself. Crowley said there is an argument to be made that a per-gallon charge levied on utility companies could provide the extra money for conservation efforts and help create efficiency in the water utility system. But those costs would also be passed on to consumers and businesses.
The future of water in Florida
There is a new wave of commitment on behalf of owners and contractors, according to Crowley, to make development and construction as sustainable as possible. That includes water management.
The effort to become LEED certified has had a big impact on the way developers approach natural resource management. He said one client developed a large collection system to divert rainwater into cisterns, which reserve the water for nonpotable uses. The move helped to keep stormwater out of the sewers, reduced the groundwater draw and earned the project LEED credits. For greenfield development, many developers are required to institute gray water systems that convert sewage into water for irrigation, Crowley said.
"What I like to think we're doing is that even though we're increasing the amount of people that are impacting the [aquifer] system, we're making that impact much more efficient," Crowley said. "Everyone's trying to make an effort."
Older developments that use septic systems instead of sanitary sewer connections, for example, pose a bigger threat to groundwater than new developments, which do not use those types of waste disposal systems anymore, he said. Retrofitting them can be a costly and time-consuming experience.
It will most likely take a strong economic message - like a drop in tourism dollars - to encourage lawmakers take another look at Florida's water-use laws and try to balance commercial interests with environmental ones.
However, much of Knight's frustration comes from what seems to him like an unwillingness on the state's part to crack down on those over-pumping or polluting the aquifer system. "They are exploiting what is free," he said, "and killing the goose that laid the golden egg."
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New research shows that increases in rainfall and extreme weather because of climate change will increase the amount of nitrogen polluting rivers and other waterways. The findings underscore the urgency of reforming agriculture to dramatically reduce the use of nitrogen fertilizers.
A new study in Science
projects that climate change will increase the amount of nitrogen ending up in U.S. rivers and other waterways by 19 percent on average over the remainder of the century - and much more in hard-hit areas, notably the Mississippi-Atchafalaya River Basin (up 24 percent) and the Northeast (up 28 percent). That's not counting likely increases in nitrogen inputs from more intensive agriculture, or from increased human population.
Instead, Stanford University researcher Eva Sinha and her co-authors simply took historical records of nitrogen runoff as a result of rainstorms over the past few decades, recorded by the U.S. Geological Survey. Then, assuming for the sake of argument that there will be no change in the amount of nitrogen being added to the environment, they calculated how much additional nitrogen would be leached out of farm fields and washed down rivers solely because of extreme weather events and increased total rainfall predicted in most climate change scenarios. The bottom line: "Anticipated changes in future precipitation patterns alone will lead to large and robust increases in watershed-scale nitrogen fluxes by the end of the century for the business-as-usual scenario."
Lakes and other freshwater bodies now routinely face toxic blue-green algae blooms that are fueled by nitrogen pollution.
But the business-as-usual scenario is of course already in trouble, even without climate change. Headlines have tended to fixate on the Gulf of Mexico "dead zone" produced by nitrogen flushed down the Mississippi River from the cornfields of the upper Midwest. (This year's "dead zone" is the largest ever, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced last week.) But the problem is already much broader than that, says senior author Anna M. Michalak, also of Stanford, citing a series of recent incidents caused by nitrogen pollution. Last summer, for instance, a 33-square-mile algae bloom caused Florida to declare a four-county state of emergency. Another closed the Dungeness crab fishery along half of the Washington State coast last year and affected other fisheries as far south as Mexico.
The combined effect of climate change and nitrogen pollution is also evident on inland waterways, according to Hans Paerl, an aquatic ecologist at the University of North Carolina's Institute of Marine Sciences. In the past, cleanup efforts on lakes and other freshwater bodies could achieve major improvements just by targeting phosphorous pollution, also from fertilizer. But now they routinely face toxic blue-green algae (or cyanobacteria) blooms, fueled by nitrogen pollution. That problem is being exacerbated, Paerl and his co-authors argued in a study last year, by warmer temperatures and increased rainfall associated with climate change. Efforts by water quality managers to protect the water supply may not work in the future, they wrote, because climate change introduces so many new uncertainties about hydrology,
Farmers are acutely aware of their leading role in this unfolding disaster. In Europe, they have managed to reduce nitrogen use substantially without any decrease in productivity over the past quarter century because of mandatory European Union limits. The United States has so far relied on a voluntary approach, with mixed results. But when the city of Des Moines, Iowa sued upstream farm counties two years ago for the cost of equipment to remove nitrogen runoff from its drinking water supply, many farmers heard alarm bells. (A federal court ultimately dismissed the lawsuit early this year.)
"I haven't seen a willingness to engage in a conservation program like this in my lifetime," says Nick Goeser, a soil scientist and director of the Soil Health Partnership. The issue resonates with farmers in part because applying nitrogen fertilizer accounts for up to half the cost of running a farm, and they would naturally prefer the expenditure to pay off in increased yield rather than have it wash away down the river. They recognize that nitrogen runoff is contaminating their own drinking water, says Goeser, and they have also noticed the effects of climate change on their crops.
The Soil Health Partnership, which combines agribusiness funding with technical advice from the Environmental Defense Fund and the Nature Conservancy, works to scale up three solutions to the nitrogen problem-use of off-season cover crops to reduce the runoff that inevitably occurs when fields remain bare through the winter, low- or no-till farming, and "advanced nutrient management," or what Goeser describes as "spoon-feeding" nitrogen in the precise amount and time that the plant needs it.
None of that is as simple as it may sound. For instance, use of cover crops "makes an incredible difference, with a 60-80 percent improvement in runoff," says Goeser. It's expensive, however, and could actually decrease corn or soybean yield the following year if the farmer does it wrong. It only starts to improve resilience to extreme weather events like flooding or drought, and thus yield, after three to five years. But in the Midwest, says Goeser, 60 percent of the acreage is operated on a one-year rental basis, meaning farmers have no incentive to invest in the long-term health of the land. Fewer than 5 percent of them plant cover crops.
Advanced nutrient management means switching from applying fertilizer in the fall to the spring, and not all at once in the spring, but in small doses throughout the season, with sensors indicating exactly how much nitrogen a specific section of field actually needs. But the 10-foot-high equipment to work with a growing crop is expensive.
The combined threat of climate change and nitrogen pollution could soon mandate far more dramatic changes in agriculture. Among the long-term solutions put forward by University of Victoria researchers in a companion piece to the new study in Science: Genetically-engineered cereals to fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, and laboratory cultured meat, to reduce the global herd from 1.5 billion head of cattle to a population of just 30,000 that will be used as stem-cell donors. Climate change means that it will be necessary, the co-authors note, to cut agricultural nitrogen use in the Mississippi River Valley not by 32 percent, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency now proposes, but by almost double that amount.
The challenge will be far greater in the developing world, particularly Asia. The Stanford-led research team identified three risk factors that make an area more vulnerable to the compounding effects of nitrogen pollution and climate change: heavy nitrogen inputs (mostly for agriculture), a high current rate of precipitation, and a large projected increase in precipitation because of climate change.
East, South, and Southeast Asia face the greatest peril, with India especially vulnerable "because it exhibits all three risk factors across more than two-thirds of its area ... and has one of the fastest-growing populations." People throughout the region "are heavily dependent on surface water supplies," the researchers note. But as climate change multiplies the rate of nitrogen runoff, they may increasingly find their water undrinkable.
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Lessons Learned from Irma
By Capt. Charlie Phillips
I find that in life there are quite often lessons to be learned if we can only open our eyes and see what is right in front of us. For this months "From the Crow's Nest" article, a lesson I learned during Hurricane Irma is my topic for the month.
Irma roared into SW Florida on Sunday the 11th of September 2017, wreaking havoc and changing lives along the way. Laura and I evacuated our place in Everglades City, and came to our more secure home in Labelle to ride out the storm. We lost power that Sunday morning about 8 a.m. From that point on we read books, talked with each other, and watched the storm from the porch when it was safe to do so.
This was about a 13-hour event for us, as the wind and weather built and built thru the day gradually putting more strain on houses and trees that maybe not have felt that force in decades, if ever.
In our yard, we had several large oaks of a few different varieties. We had laurel oaks, live oaks and some massive white oaks. These big trees were always special to me for the history they had seen and the shade they provided Laura and me. They were special because of the shelter and habitat they provided for all the owls, squirrels, and other animals.
It was these different trees facing the storm winds that I learned a big lesson to remember.
The first tree to go was the laurel oak, which I must say didn't surprise me. The laurel oak, has a tendency to look solid, and strong, but become hollow on the inside. Well that was exactly what happened here, and early in the day a strong gust came thru and broke the tree in half, exposing the hollow insides.
Only the live oak and the massive white oak remained. As the day went along, the live oak lost limb after limb and branch after branch. Scattering pieces of itself everywhere. The white oak, never moved, never budged just held its position in the winds. All day these two trees fought the weather their way. The white oak stood straight and strong and never budged. The live oak dropped limbs as it needed to.
About 6 p.m. we learned that our home in Labelle was going to get the right front eye wall winds. We were located about two miles from the eye, and we knew the weather was going to get intense as it passed. Laura and I buttoned up the doors and came inside to ride out the worst part and hoped for the best.
About 7 p.m. the eye passed just to the west of us and the weather got wicked, with severe winds roaring thru our area. We were so happy when, about 10 p.m., the eye was north of us. The storm died down very quickly, allowing us the opportunity to peek outside and see what we had left.
Walking outside I saw that the live oak by our bedroom window was still standing, though a little barer of limbs and leaves. It had survived the storm. Looking behind our kitchen window, I was stunned to find the massive white oak had uprooted and toppled over.
I instantly saw a lot of wisdom for myself and the Florida Guides Association as I stood there looking at those three trees that all faced Irma in different ways.
The laurel oak only appeared to be strong. In reality, it was just a hollow core with no substance, no real strength and it lost the fight first.
The mighty white oak never yielded, never swayed, it just stood strong and tried to face the winds head on, and it worked for a while. But eventually the strain was too much and the entire tree fell to the ground, leaving only a hole where it once stood.
The humble live oak lived to face another day. This tree is not the biggest, not the prettiest of what we had, but it survived by dropping limbs as it needed to. A strong core and solid root system kept the tree right where it wanted to be during everything Irma could throw at it.
Could not the Florida Guides Association, and really all of us in our personal lives, learn a lesson from the way these trees fought Irma and her winds? I most certainly think so. For me it's a great testament that being a hollow organization of no substance is not a path we can ever go down. Nor is being a professional organization that appears so very strong and so very tall and powerful, but never yields, never changes and never compromises. If that's a direction we go, then eventually the winds will come that are more powerful than us, and we will fall.
I believe that just like the live oak, we must be strong. We must stand proud and tall, but we must never be too proud to compromise, to bend and sway when we need to, so that we can live to see the next day. It's not always easy to do or even see, but if we open our eyes, and ensure we are always aware of the storms we face, we can guarantee the Florida Guides Association is here for many years to come.
I hope all of you fared well in Hurricane Irma, and though you may be facing challenges you come out of this stronger and more reliant than ever. This storm, like all the others before, and the ones that will follow, is the price we pay for living in paradise.
If we can be of service, let us know. The Florida Guides Association is always here to help and support. See y'all next month.
Capt. Charlie Phillips
Capt. Phillips is member of the board of directors of the Snook and Gamefish Foundation, an
Eco-Voice sponsor
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The watchdog over electricity rates for most Floridians has been captured by the utility industry and the result is costing consumers, according to a new report released Monday by the independent research organization Integrity Florida.
The report analyzed dozens of decisions made by the Florida Public Service Commission in recent years and concluded that there is an "inordinate focus on what additional money a (utility) company wants, at the expense of attention to what the public interest needs."
The report details what it calls "egregious voting and unfair ratemaking," a selection process that allows the utility industry to heavily influence legislators and the governor - who appoint the regulators - through campaign cash and lobbyists, and a revolving door between the Florida Legislature, the PSC and the utility industry.
"Make no mistake, what we're talking about today is corruption.
It's legal corruption," said Ben Wilcox, director of Integrity Florida at a news conference Monday. "It's institutional corruption, but it's corruption nonetheless."
Absent change, the group writes, the five-member board will continue to make "decisions that are often not in the best economic interest of Florida's families and businesses."
"Investor-owned utilities regulated by the PSC have an extraordinary degree of influence on the Governor and the legislature and they have used that influence to pursue favorable decisions by the PSC, at the expense of the public," said Ben Wilcox, Research Director for Integrity Florida. "This report shows that the Public Service Commission has been "captured" by the very industries it is supposed to regulate."
The PSC has the dual responsibility of balancing the needs of monopoly utilities and their investors with the needs of consumers. The commission must set rates that are fair, just and reasonable for consumers, but utility investors must also be allowed to earn a reasonable return on their investment. When evaluating recent rate decisions researchers noticed some troubling trends.
"Many contested rate hike requests by utilities are resolved through settlements. However, utilities seem to be gaming the settlement process," said Alan Stonecipher, Integrity Florida researcher. "The companies enter negotiations in rate cases much like a used car dealer who marks up the initial asking price knowing that they will eventually agree to a lower amount."
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Just off a winding back road on a barrier island in Biscayne Bay, engineers and scientists are on a mission to flush to the center of the earth.
Using a custom, lime-green drill rig, they have bored a first-of-its kind industrial well into the ground 10 feet at a time and plunged to a depth of 10,000 feet. They are digging into prehistoric rock formations, deeper than any municipal government has before in search of a better solution for a $5.2 billion problem:
The Atlantic Ocean is no longer a suitable receptacle for sewage. (moderator note: never was)
Due to changes in state law, Miami-Dade's water and sewer department has nine years to stop pumping most of the 300 million gallons
of treated waste generated each day miles out into the ocean through outfall pipes. Much of that waste water, called effluent, has to be highly cleansed and re-purposed. But in a county with more than 2 million users, officials say the only way to fully comply with the new law without breaking the bank is to dispose of up to hundreds of millions of gallons of treated waste by shooting it into a cavernous, confined saltwater zone down below South Florida's drinking supply.
The decades-old practice is steeped in science, but polarizing. It also requires expensive cleansing, in part because effluent from existing wells in south Miami-Dade and elsewhere has escaped containment and seeped upward in the past.
But with lessons learned, geologists are exploring the murky world beneath the county's oldest sewage treatment facility on Virginia Key in search of a safer, cheaper method of sewage disposal. They believe if they can inject effluent farther away from South Florida's aquifers and deep into the bowels of the earth, they can dramatically lower the cost of doing business.
IF WE CAN FIND PERMEABLE ZONES DOWN THERE THAT WE CAN INJECT INTO, IT'S SEPARATED FROM ANY KIND OF ENVIRONMENT BY THOUSANDS OF FEET
Virginia Walsh, Miami-Dade senior professional geologist
"If we can find permeable zones down there that we can inject into, it's separated from any kind of environment by thousands of feet," said Virginia Walsh, Miami-Dade's senior professional geologist and leading expert on injection wells. "We're looking for safer alternatives."
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| http___www.youngquistbrothers.com_divisions_e-rig_ |
The drilling started with a hole large enough to hold a Hummer H3, and narrowed down diameter through 3,000 feet . Eventually, that's where the well will open up and begin pumping up to 20 million gallons of effluent and other treated waste each day into Southeast Florida's unique "Boulder Zone," where it is expected to mix with underground seawater and, after hundreds of years, filter out into the Florida Straits.
$5.2 BILLION COST OF MIAMI-DADE'S PLAN TO ADDRESS NEW FLORIDA LAWS
But instead of stopping there, Youngquist Brothers kept drilling a smaller pilot hole down another 7,000 feet into earth that last saw the sun 90 million years ago. It's down in these depths, where heat from the earth's core warms a salty soup with a salinity like the Dead Sea to 130 degrees fahrenheit, that scientists are recording video and taking and testing rock and water samples in the hopes of finding a deeper, safer sewage receptacle.
Deep caverns have been documented in Florida's geology. Ideally, geologists hope to find another porous subterranean zone capped and effectively sealed by a dense rock called anhydrate. If they succeed, county engineers will factor the information into the design of other planned injection wells. Today, the county has
21 injection wells in north and south Dade. By 2025, they expect to more than double that amount at a cost of $635 million, including a second injection well of standard depth to be drilled next to the 10,000-foot well on Virginia Key.
"These are just the first two wells" on Virginia Key, said Gerrit Bulman, a senior project manager for CH2M, which is coordinating the county's plans to end ocean outfall dumping. "We'll probably have nine here by 2025."
Walsh, who focused her doctorate thesis on injection wells, says research clearly shows pumping waste into the earth to filter slowly deep into the ocean over centuries is "far, far safer" and environmentally friendly than dumping sewage into the ocean in a concentrated area. But some are still wary of injection wells, which under different classifications can also be used to dispose of industrial waste or for fracking. Florida is the only state that allows Class I municipal injection wells for effluent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
THE 10,000-FOOT WELL IS EXCITING AND DIFFERENT. PEOPLE SHOULD BE AWARE OF WHAT'S GOING ON
Don McNeill, geologist
In Miami-Dade, memories of
municipal wells in South Dade leaking ammonia into the brackish Upper Floridan aquifer are still fresh. Those leaks didn't contaminate any drinking water supplies, but they did push the county into a legal settlement with the
federal government, and force the state to change laws regulating Class I injection wells to require a high - and expensive - level of treatment for injected effluent.
Harold Wanless, a geology professor at the University of Miami, said he hopes the county finds deeper, safer pockets of earth for the massive pool of sewage created every day in South Florida. But he doubts it will. And even if it does, Wanless is among the skeptics who believe the county is better off spending the money to reuse all its waste water, and there's a chance that today's science governing the use of injection wells may still prove flawed in the future.
"It's 100 million gallons a day or more," he said. "That's not a dribble."
When the south Dade wells leaked, University of Miami geologist Don McNeill studied the problem as a hired expert for the Sierra Club and found that contractors had built injection wells too shallow. But McNeill, who has been out to the county's deep injection well site and gone over some of the research, says injection wells are sound when designed and built correctly. He believes the county's aim to find a better reservoir for human waste - which has to go somewhere - is a sensible idea.
"The 10,000-foot well is exciting and different. People should be aware of what's going on," he said. "But I think they're taking the right approach, collecting data and doing an exploratory approach to find the safest place."
Drilling of the two injection wells currently planned at Virginia Key should be completed by the end of the year. And
the county's two first injection wells at the site are expected to open by 2018, when another law kicks in requiring a dramatic cut to the amount of sewage-related nutrients pumped into the ocean. Additional wells are planned in the south, north and at a new facility in west Dade.
Meanwhile, the deep well research will continue. Walsh says new information gleaned from the Virginia Key dig will be incorporated into new injection wells as they're designed. And when the research is over, the deep pilot hole will be back-filled with cement up to around 3,500 feet before the standard injection well is opened for use.
Depending on what they find, the county could save millions, and the millions living in Miami-Dade could put some extra distance between themselves and the millions of gallons of waste they produce every day.
"We're truly making history here," said Walsh. "This whole project is cutting edge."
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We all know that nuclear energy plays a significant role in driving the American economy forward and provides immense environmental benefits throughout the country.
But how does nuclear energy actually work? It's a tough question, and nuclear energy can seem complicated and even intimidating.
That's why throughout August we will be focusing on explaining the actual processes behind nuclear energy creation and how it really works in everyday life. We will be showing you things like how the different parts of a nuclear plant work together and how the plants generate reliable, carbon-free electricity.
At the end of July, Nuclear Matters joined Women in Nuclear at their annual conference, helping promote their "I'm a Nuclear Pro" social media campaign. Women from all over the country shared photos sharing their passions for nuclear energy. You can keep up to date with the campaign by following
#ImaNuclearPro and
#MoreThanaPrettyFace on Twitter.
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Miami-Dade County's sole source for drinking water is ground water from wells. The wells feed the Hialeah and John E. Preston, and Alexander Orr regional water treatment plants and the South Dade Water Supply System, which is comprised of five smaller water treatment plants that serve residents south of SW 264th Street in the unincorporated areas of the County.
Today we are faced with a dilemma that has been brewing for some time - a limit to our water supply. The very nature of our water supply requires that each of us become diligent in the protection and conservation of this most important resource.
It may seem odd that South Florida would have to worry about "not enough" water. After all, we get about five feet of rain during any given year! Some places in the country would take a decade to see that much water. Summertime in South Florida means rain - lots of it. So how is it possible that we could run out of water?
We live in a land of extremes - flash floods can dump over a foot of rain in a single day while droughts can last for years. The first step in understanding our water supply is to learn about the water cycle.
Water managers keep a close eye on canal levels and the flow of fresh water through South Florida. The South Florida Water Management District is responsible for making sure there's enough water to feed the needs of a rapidly growing urban community, agricultural needs, and the water needs of the Everglades. They are also responsible for making sure there isn't too much water. Too much storm water in South Florida can cause floods, drown crops, and even damage the health of our environment.
Biscayne Aquifer
The Biscayne Aquifer is located just below land surface in South Florida. It is made out of porous rock with tiny cracks and holes. Rain water then seeps in and fills these tiny cracks and holes.
This water is often referred to as groundwater or the water table, and provides virtually all of the water that is used by South Florida residents, visitors and businesses. This water is generally clean due to the effects of natural filtration.
The water is actually flowing like an underground river at a very slow rate. It travels in an east-southeasterly direction at a rate of only about two feet per day. However, where there are very large openings or man-made canals the flow rate can increase substantially. Because this drinking water supply is so close to the surface (barely a few feet down in most places), it is especially prone to contamination.
This is why efforts are made to protect the groundwater. Miami-Dade County, in cooperation with other local, state and federal agencies, works to safeguard the supply source for drinking water. This may result in environmental regulations for businesses in the South Florida area being more stringent than other areas of the country, but it is necessary to protect the health of everyone dependent on clean water.
Being proactive can also prevent expensive water treatment processes at our water treatment plants
Water suppliers use a variety of treatment processes to remove contaminants from drinking water. The most commonly used processes include filtration, flocculation and sedimentation, softening, and disinfection. Additional treatments include ion exchange and adsorption. A typical water treatment plant would have only the combination of processes needed to treat the contaminants in the source water used by the facility. If you want to know what types of treatments are used for your water supply, contact your local water supplier or public works department.
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The Water Cycle
The water on Earth is continuously circulating between the air or atmosphere, the land and the sea. The ways in which water moves around, above, on and within the Earth is the hydrologic or water cycle.
The sun is the energy source for the water cycle, causing water to evaporate from lakes, rivers and oceans, as well as from land surfaces and vegetation. When water evaporates, it changes to a gas (water vapor) and rises in the air. When the water vapor rises and meets cold air, it condenses, forming water droplets, or what we see as clouds or fog. This process is called condensation. Water droplets combine into water drops and return to the Earth as precipitation in the form of rain, sleet, hail or snow.
Some rain is absorbed by vegetation or evaporates before it reaches the ground. Some evaporates after it reaches the surface. Some soaks into the ground into the Biscayne Aquifer and is taken up by the roots of plants and then released back into the air through the leaves of the plants in a process called transpiration. The combination of evaporation and transpiration is referred to as evapotranspiration. Some rain percolates into underground units of water-bearing rock called water table aquifers. The remainder becomes surface or stormwater runoff that flows over the ground to wetlands, lakes, ponds, rivers and oceans.
A water molecule's trip from the atmosphere and back may be very long or very short. It may stay in the atmosphere for only a few days or it may remain deeply buried in cavities in the earth or frozen in polar ice caps for thousands of years.
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Water Flouridation
The Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department's three regional water plants fluoridate the water during the treatment process. Fluoride is a compound that contains fluorine, one of the most plentiful elements on earth. It occurs naturally in water supplies.
According to the American Association of Pediatric Dentistry, "using small amounts of fluoride on a routine basis can help prevent tooth decay." Both the American Dental Association and the American Association of Pediatric Dentistry recommend that fluoride be added to community water supplies in areas where fluoride does not occur naturally. Fluoridation is also endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which considers "community water fluoridation as one of 10 great public health achievements of the 20th century."
Whereas fluoridated drinking water provides only about one-third to one-half the amount of fluoride that an individual should be getting on a daily basis, it is a benefit that cuts across socio-economic dividers, offering everyone equal health benefits.
The American Dental Association supports community water fluoridation as the single most effective public health measure to prevent tooth decay: "Water Fluoridation is a powerful strategy to reduce disparities in tooth decay among different populations and is more cost-effective than other forms of fluoride treatments or applications."
Facts about flouridation in tap water:
- Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral found in both surface water and groundwater.
- Since 1958, the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department has adjusted the existing natural fluoride level of 0.2 parts per million in the water to the optimal range for dental health of 0.7 parts per million.
- Fluoride helps teeth resist decay by strengthening the protective layer of tooth enamel and can reverse newly formed cavities.
- Community water fluoridation is supported by most major national and international health service organizations. Supporters include the American Dental Association, American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Fluoridation does not change the taste, odor or appearance of your water.
- No evidence exists that fluoridated water at the levels prescribed for human consumption is harmful to animals or pets.
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Water Treatment
Approximately 330 million gallons per day (mgd) are withdrawn from the Biscayne Aquifer through wells extending an average of 80 feet below the ground surface to meet the needs of the community.
As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally occurring minerals and can pick up substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity. In order to ensure that tap water is safe to drink, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates the contaminants in water provided by public water systems.
The Hialeah and Preston Plants serve residents who live north of Flagler Street up to the Miami-Dade/Broward line. The Alexander Orr Plant serves residents south of Flagler Street to S.W. 248 Street. These three regional water plants supply treated water to a common distribution system.
Highly trained microbiologists, chemists and water treatment specialists conduct or supervise more than 100,000 analyses of water samples each year. Water quality samples are collected throughout the county and tested regularly. Samples include untreated and treated water taken at our facilities, sample sites throughout the service areas and at customers' homes. These tests are overseen by various regulatory agencies on a federal, state and local level.
The South Dade Water Supply System is comprised of five smaller water treatment plants that serve residents south of S.W. 248 Street in the unincorporated areas of the County. These five plants pump treated water into a common distribution system, which is separate from the main system.
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Alternative Water Supply
During the 2005 State Legislative Session a bill creating the Water Protection and Sustainability Program, or SB444, was enacted, providing state funding for Alternative Water Supply Projects that are identified in the Water Management Districts' Regional Water Supply Plans.
Alternative Water Supply Projects are defined as:
- saltwater & brackish water
- surface water captured predominately during wet-weather flows
- sources made available through the addition of new storage capacity reclaimed water stormwater (for use by a consumptive use permittee) any other source designated as nontraditional in a regional water supply plan
Water Reuse
Water reuse plays an important role in water resource, wastewater, and ecosystem management in Florida. It reduces demands on valuable surface and ground water, sources used for drinking water. Reclaimed water also reduces discharges to surface waters, recharges groundwater, and postpones costly investment for development of new water sources and supplies. Water reuse has allowed some communities to continue to grow where the availability of historically used freshwater sources has become extremely limited.
Water reuse involves taking domestic wastewater, giving it a high degree of treatment, and using the resulting high-quality reclaimed water for a new, beneficial purpose. The resulting water is called reclaimed water. Extensive treatment and disinfection ensure that public health and environmental quality are protected. Reclaimed water can be used for many purposes including:
- Irrigation of golf courses, parks, residential properties, highway medians, and other landscaped areas.
- Urban uses such as toilet flushing, car washing, dust control, and aesthetic purposes (i.e. decorative lakes, ponds, and fountains)
- Agricultural uses such as irrigation of edible food crops such as, citrus, corn, and soybeans; other crops such as, pasture lands, grasslands, and other feed and fodder crops; and irrigation at nurseries
- Wetlands creation, restoration and enhancement
- Recharging ground water with the use of rapid infiltration basins (percolation ponds), absorption fields, and direct injection to ground waters
- Augmentation of surface waters that are used for drinking water supplies
- Industrial uses including plant wash down, processing water, and cooling water purposes
Continuous monitoring of the reclaimed water is required and ensures excellent water quality for protection of the public and the environment. The Florida Department of Health has stated a reuse facility designed, constructed, and operated in accordance with applicable rules poses no threat to public health. The use of reclaimed water has increased significantly throughout the nation, state, and district for all types of uses.
Aquifer Storage Recovery (ASR)
Aquifer Storage Recovery (ASR) is defined as the storage of freshwater in an aquifer by injecting water through the wells during wet periods for subsequent retrieval from these same wells during dry periods. The freshwater forms a bubble of injected water within the aquifer around the ASR well, and it can be retrieved when needed to meet seasonal, long-term, emergency or other demands. During the past ten years, ASR technology has evolved from merely a concept to a proven, cost-effective and environmentally desirable water management tool.
Reverse Osmosis (RO)
Reverse osmosis is a process used to purify concentrated solutions of dissolved minerals and salts. Reverse osmosis involves forcing water through a semipermeable membrane under high pressure, leaving the dissolved salts and other solutes behind on the surface of the membrane.
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Bruce Ritchie reports for Politico Florida
- "State Sen. Rob Bradley, newly appointed as chairman of his chamber's environmental policy committee, says he wants the panel to focus on the state's beleaguered land conservation program. Voters in 2014 approved a water and land conservation spending measure that environmentalists said should have restored the Florida Forever land-buying program. But the Legislature is facing lawsuits over alleged misspending, and it disappointed environmentalists this year by providing only $10 million for agricultural conservation easements and nothing for land-buying... Bradley said, 'We need to do better this year.' He said he wants members of the Senate Committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation that he now chairs to understand how money has been spent in the past under Florida Forever and how more money could be spent in the future. Similarly in the House, state Rep. Matt Caldwell,... chairman of the House Government Accountability Committee, said he's trying to decide whether to reintroduce a bill for the 2018 session that would reallocate and boost Florida Forever funding... 'My big goal would be to have a realistic number [of dollars] we can dedicate and make sure the priorities of how we are spending that money matches up with the priorities we have today,' Caldwell said."
Manley Fuller writes for the Tampa Bay Times
- "Our elected legislators are coming back to Tallahassee this month to begin deliberating the public's business... One question all citizens should be asking our lawmakers right now: Will [you] once again blatantly ignore Florida voters by failing to appropriate adequate funds for state conservation land-buying? Florida voters are divided on many things, but on this we are clearly united. Just look at the numbers: Voters approved adding the Florida Water and Land Conservation Amendment (Amendment 1) to our state Constitution in 2014 by a landslide - it got a whopping 75 percent majority, more than any other ballot initiative or candidate. Its title was clear: "Water and Land Conservation - Dedicates funds to acquire and restore Florida conservation and recreation lands.'... [W]e need to demand that our elected officials fund conservation land-buying in the 2018 legislative session."
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As the devastation wrought by this year's hurricanes continues to be felt in the Caribbean and the Gulf states, a recent study finds that coastal wetlands have the capacity to substantially mitigate property damage due to flooding and storms, saving taxpayers millions of dollars annually in averted losses.
The study, jointly conducted by researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz and scientists from private insurance, conservation and engineering groups, assessed the value of the ecosystem services provided by wetlands to mitigate flood damage in the northeastern United States caused by hurricane Sandy in 2012. Through the use of advanced computer modeling of storm surge flooding and a vast database of properties damaged, the researchers estimated that $625 million worth of property damage was averted due to the presence of coastal wetlands from Maine to North Carolina, with a 22% average reduction of damages for each of the 707 zip-code areas assessed in the study.
Their findings established a clear positive correlation between the presence of wetlands and the value of nearby properties, as well as between wetland area and averted losses due to flooding. This was true even in heavily urbanized coastal areas that had lost most of its wetlands, such as New York, where wetlands cover only 2% of the land yet still saved the state $140 million.
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Eco-voice is a non-partisan, independent, volunteer-run organization, which endeavors to communicate multiple positions on important environmental issues effecting south Florida. The opinions posted on this site are not necessarily those of the site managers or all of our sponsors. Posts are not reviewed for accuracy, spelling or grammar. Comments on postings can be made on our Facebook page or sent to the moderator,
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