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SEE WHAT POLLUTION DOES TO OUR KEYS COASTAL WATERS!
Algae overgrowing seagrass from nutrient-overloading
in coastal waters off Marathon, May 2019.
Healthy seagrass meadow..
Our coastal marine ecosystems are near collapse. Adding more development units in the Keys means even more sewage, and more fertilizer, gas and oil in the stormwater runoff, all of which can cause the nutrient-overloading that endangers our nearshore waters.
Taxpayers spent a lot of money for sewer and stormwater upgrades. Didn’t it work?
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It worked for cleaning up bacteria from the septic tanks and cess pits which had caused a lot of the beach closures.
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But the shallow waters along our coastline – the nurseries for our fisheries – are still impaired and don’t meet state water quality standards.
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This nutrient-overloading can result in algal blooms.
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Algal blooms can be toxic and endanger human health. They can cause seagrass die off and coral death in the shallow waters that support our outdoor recreation, our fisheries, our tourism industry, our way of life.
Why is the water quality still so bad? Why is it getting worse?
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Well, some places in the Keys are doing better than others
in terms of addressing the problems. -
But none of the Keys coastal waters – part of the Florida Keys
National Marine Sanctuary (FKNMS)! – complies on an annual basis
with EPA water quality standards.[i]-
Only 22% annual average compliance with EPA Strategic Targets for
dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN). DIN is one of the EPA’s two major water quality
metrics for the Halo Zone (within 500 meters of shore). -
Only 58% annual average compliance with EPA Strategic Targets for total phosphorus (TP) – the second EPA major water quality metric for the Halo Zone waters. And that’s a steady 7-year deterioration from a high of 98% annual average compliance in 2011.
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Marathon has the worst coastal water quality of any major municipality in the Keys! And the trend analysis for the last seven years, the Table below, shows Marathon coastal waters getting even worse.
Keys Coastal Waters - Compliance with EPA's
water quality standards:
only 22% for DIN
58% for TP
Summary table of DIN and TP trends at six SHORE stations.
This analysis of the SHORE station samples of the Halo Zone from the FKNMS database appears to reveal violations of state water quality standards. FOLKs is transmitting the report to the state Department of Environmental Protection, requesting it to require Marathon to undertake studies to determine whether its shallow sewage wells are in fact contributing to water quality deterioration.
Time series trends analyzed by independent scientist Kathleen McKee from FKNMS database.
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Marathon’s five separate wastewater treatment plants dispose a total of about .8 million gallons a day (2017 numbers) of partially treated sewage effluent into 5 shallow sewage wells, all located within the 13-mile-long City of Marathon. All are disposing to about the same depth, about 90 feet, into porous limestone.
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“Recent studies have shown that nutrients from shallow sewage injection wells may be leaking into nearshore surface waters (Corbett et al. 1999; Shinn 1999a, 1999b; Paul et al. 1995, 1997; Reich et al. 2001; Briceño et al. 2015).” [1]
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Studies conducted by the County for the Cudjoe Regional shallow sewage wells showed sewage effluent rising to the surface waters shortly after disposal to the shallow wells. [2]
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A deep well is the only way to achieve 100% nutrient reduction from sewage effluent at the nearshore waters, the estuary for the rest of our fragile coastal waters, and the waters most impacted by humans. [3]
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So, Monroe County settled a citizen lawsuit by digging a deep well for Cudjoe Regional.
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Key West has a deep well. Islamorada uses Key Largo’s deep well.
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And to paraphrase the scientists’ concerns, what happens in Marathon doesn’t stay in Marathon; the pollution travels and affects the nearshore waters and the reef tracts throughout the Keys. [4]
Property values, our tourist industry, the health of all who use our nearshore waters are at risk. Our nearshore waters and our reefs are what make the Keys the Keys.
If you’d like to help us make a difference, convincing the Marathon City Council to dig a deep well would really improve water quality for EVERYONE in the Keys. Citizens convinced Monroe County to dig a deep well for the Lower Keys at Cudjoe Regional. Facts, and citizen pressure, matter!
Write all City Council Members at , and copy George Garrett, Planning Director at and Gus Rios, Department of Environmental Protection, Program Administrator, for DEP regulatory programs at .
Please read the source material for this paper in the FOLKs’ reference archive. Click here.
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[1] 2017 Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary Annual Report to the EPA.
[2] Design and Implementation of dye-tracer injection test, Cudjoe Key, Florida Keys, Final Report,’ 2014.
[3] 1995 Fla. ENV LEXIS 129; 95 ER FALR 14, p. 10.
[4] Ibid, at p. 56.