Farm Runoff – Page 9 – Clean Water Warrior

Florida Keys? No Immunity From Nutrient Runoff

It is more than a guilty pleasure. I am an addict for watching the terrific Netflix Original Series “Bloodline.” So much so, that I just had to explore how, or if, nutrient runoff is having an impact on the Florida Keys’ beautiful and environmentally fragile area.

What I found is typical and, at least for me in this case, disheartening.

Despite the myriad abusers of the only continental coral reef in the United States, a reef that is third in size only to those that exist off the coasts of Australia and Belize, its number one threat remains nutrient runoff.

This passage from Reef Relief Founders is particularly unsettling:

Corals require clean, nutrient-free waters to thrive. A healthy coral reef has from 30-40% live coral coverage. However, in the Florida Keys, coral coverage is now reduced to an alarming 3%. Coral spawning has been reduced due to lack of healthy coral colonies and clean water.

The over-abundance of nutrients in the ocean is the single biggest threat to Florida’s coral reefs. Nutrients is a scientific term for organic and inorganic materials that can include phosphates, and/or nitrates, usually from untreated and partially treated sewage, fertilizers and other pollutants. They promote algal blooms which rob the water of oxygen and compete with corals for habitat. Every year, 700 tons of nutrients are discharged into Keys waters from agricultural run-off from the Everglades. Another 33 tons of land-based sources of pollution are discharged from the landbase in the Keys, primarily from inadequately treated sewage and stormwater. Harmful algal blooms can result in eutrophication, when oxygen levels become so low that fish and other marinelife cannot survive.

With a nutrient discharge of 700 tons, Everglades agricultural runoff dwarfs the relatively meager 33 tons coming from land-based communities in the Keys.

As ever, however there is encouraging news. This time coming from a three-year Oregon State University study. The results? Reduce pollution, particularly nutrient runoff — which is relatively easy to accomplish, the study says, through improved sanitation and best farming practices — and the Florida Keys reefs make a dramatic comeback.

In as little as one year.

Buffers – Just Plain Make Sense

I looked online today to identify what are the 10 most polluted waterways in the United States, and I came away from this search with a surprising insight. The pollution list (provided by Mother Jones) wasn’t for my purposes that valuable. It is almost entirely large waterways, like the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and some regional (though still large) rivers like the Rock River which flows between WI and IL.

Of much greater importance, in my mind, are proven methods (as noted in TakePart ) to reduce the farm runoff that ultimately flows into these rivers and – critically – smaller ones. Which then empty into inland lakes, large and small alike, as well as the global treasure that is the Great Lakes.

Often, a big part of a fix includes land buffers between crops and waterways.

Excellent Buffer Space Between Crops & Waterway

Even golf courses which, according to this 2001 article by Jean McCay for Audubon International, may contribute modestly to excess nitrogen and phosphorus in waterways, can by having buffers effectively capture and retain much of what they do possess.

In addition to nutrient capture, the buffers often foster a rebirth in native vegetation, such as milkweed, which support at-risk species like Monarch Butterflies.

County Algae Bloom Issues Everywhere. Solutions, Too.

Out of curiosity, mostly, I decided to start searching on counties by-state, to see which were contending with algae bloom issues in lakes. After several searches, I found that none were free of problems. All cited a combination of industrial, residential, and agricultural runoff as the contributors to the problem.

No surprise there.

But, alas, there are always solutions. Case in point: Lake Delavan in the southwest corner of Walworth County, WI.

Dredging, fish killing to remove Carp, large-scale landscaping, tributary protection, private and public funding, a network of committed area residents and municipalities sworn to maintain responsible land-use practices, and “watch dog” measures to help ensure compliance, have been applied over three decades to restore to life a lake that was once considered an area blight.

True, countless hours of effort, planning, and millions of dollars have been invested in the restoration. It has been a huge undertaking, to say the least.

But what a return.

It is estimated that over 800 jobs are created annually as a result of the cleanup. Property values on and around the lake have risen a remarkable $99 million, and the local economic contribution is projected at $77 million.

Clean water is an asset that cannot be diminished by any measure, in any place. Of this, Lake Delavan is surely an example.

Tainter Lake, WI Algae Blooms Identified In National Info Resources

Sitting in Port Washington, WI, overlooking the port which empties into a beautiful blue Lake Michigan, the suggestion of an appearance of algae blooms gains little interest. Lake Michigan is deep and cold. Port Washington provides an adequate sewage system, and the relatively small amount of nearby farms only contributes what appears to be a manageable level of damaging nutrients.

Not so with 1600-acre, 37-foot deep, Tainter Lake, north of college town Menomonee, WI.

In an outstanding report by the National Wildlife Foundation (NWF), Tainter’s plight is well-documented. And is held up as an example of what, increasingly, is becoming a not-so-unusual occurrence across not just the Great Lakes Regi

on and the area’s inland lakes, but throughout the USA.

The NWF identifies three issues that must be addressed, to better combat America’s algae bloom crisis:

1. No federal agency currently tracks lake closures or health warnings nationally.
2. Few economic studies have assessed the national cost of freshwater HABs.
3. Not all states monitor or report the presence of algae-related toxins in freshwaters.

ToxicAlgaeNews, a superb online publication provided by non-profit publisher Resource Media, has stepped up to help cover bloom outbreaks by-state.

So far, the improved research and tracking has not helped Tainter Lake. But with progress being made, perhaps the time will come.