Assessment of Trends in Marathon Coastal Water Nutrient Concentrations and EPA 
Target Compliance within the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary

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Statistical analyses of official EPA data show "consistent time periods of increasing non-compliant nutrient concentrations." 
 

Steven M. Lombardo, M.Sc.

Comments by Licensed FL Geologist

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"These tests demonstrate that in the karst geology of the Florida Keys, shallow sewage well injection
is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge to surface waters." 
 

Donald M. Maynard, PG

Affadavit - Effect of Nutrient Addition on Marine Ecosystems of the FL Keys

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"..the plants and animals ... of the Keys – the seagrass and corals – are quickly killed and replaced by fast-growing, noxious seaweed if nutrient delivery is increased." 
 

James W. Fourqurean, Ph.D.

2018 Update to the Florida Keys Reasonable Assurance Document, EPA

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"Throughout the Keys, all of the areas within the Halo Zone waters (up to 500 meters offshore)... are impaired for nutrients...." “The Florida Keys are a linear collection of small watersheds which are hydrologically connected at the local level
by near shore waters.” 

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 Florida Department of Environmental Protection, 2018 

2017 Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Report

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"First we documented elevated nutrient concentrations (DIN, TN, TP, and SiO2) in waters close to shore along the Keys.

These changes, associated with land/human development, have become even more obvious by the addition of 10 stations
located very close to shore..." 

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Henry O. Briceño & Joseph N. Boyer

Southeast Environmental Research Center OE-148, Florida International University

Design and implementation of dye-tracer injection test,
Cudjoe Key, Florida Keys, Final Report, 2014

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"We conclude that ... injected freshwater at the current injection depth of 80’ to 120’... readily migrates ... to surface waters. These results are similar to those found by other researchers elsewhere in the Florida Keys." 
 

 Henry O. Briceño, Reinaldo Garcia, Piero Gardinali, Kevin Boswell, Alexandra Serna 

FKNMS - Benthic Habitat Monitoring Program

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"Long-term (1995-present) trends show changes in the region’s seagrasses consistent with decreasing water quality and increasing nutrient availability... our indicators of Sanctuary-wide status have rebounded, but these rebounds do not include data from very-near-shore sites." 

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Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Steering Committee, 2016

Excerpt - Black and Vetch Memo for Cudjoe Wastewater Treatment Plant

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"FDEP... stated that most shallow wells in the Florida Keys are only operational when the tide is receding.

FDEP cited several plants with shallow wells that do not work."

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 Black & Vetch Int'l Company Meeting Memorandum, 2008 

Bimodal Transport of a Waste Water Plume Injected into Saline Ground Water
of the Florida Keys

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Limestone in the Florida Keys is "extremely porous and permeable due to conduits and interconnected pore spaces
created by ancient coral growth and meteoric diagenesis." 

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Kevin Dillon, D. Reide Corbett, Jeffrey P. Chanton, William C. Burnett, Lee Kump

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Sewage pollution in Negril, Jamaica: effects on nutrition and ecology of coral reef macroalgae

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"Globally, escalating nutrient pollution and eutrophication have led to an increase in the frequency and intensity of harmful algal blooms. One mechanism causing HAB outbreaks is increasing nutrient concentrations and alteration of N:P ratios from increasing sewage pollution."

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 B.E. LaPointe, K. Thacker, C. Hanson, L. Getten 

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