Tag Archives: mystery

The Mystery of the “A-1 Reservoir,” SLR/IRL

Road Trip Series:

What is the A-1 Reservoir?

My recent Glades tour with former Pahokee mayor, JP Sasser, lasted seven hours, and one of the most unexpected things I got to see was Storm Water Treatment Area 3-4. I have read about the STAs, flown over the STAs, and have had many discussions with engineer, Dr Gary Goforth, who is an “Architect of the STAs,” but nothing prepared me for what I felt when I unexpectedly saw an STA from the ground, or the other mystery I’d learn about that day.

So just about when my tour of the Glades was over, JP looked at me and ask: “Do you want to see the where the big reservoir was supposed to be?”

“Yes!” I exclaimed.” The reservoir? Hmmm. I’d heard stories of “the reservoir” but I really didn’t get it. Why didn’t it get finished? And what is it today? And then of course river advocates like me are supporting Senate President Joe Negron’s reservoir. What’s the deal with all these reservoirs? So confusing…

JP stopped the car, his blue eyes dancing: “We’ll have to drive south….”

“Please!” I begged, knowing I may never have this opportunity again.

So JP turned the steering wheel 180 degrees in the middle of all the sugar fields and headed south of Belle Glade on Highway #27– driving right along the historic North New River Canal that I did know something about.

We drove, and we drove, and we drove…through sugar field after sugar field. And then, there it was, to my right, what appeared to be blowing reeds surrounded by shallow sparkling waters, silver and white, reflecting clouds in a blue sky. Birds flew by. It was beautiful. Miles long. My eyes welled up, and I thought about how amazing it was to see water in this place…”It’s like…..the Everglades….”

We drove until we got to the SFWMD’s STA 3-4 entrance gate and I asked JP to pull over so I could get a picture. I was unsure…So to JP, a Glades local, this area has to with “the reservoir,” but here we are at an STA? As I was pondering, we drove further into Broward County and JP pointed out many new-looking pump stations to send water south. I couldn’t stop wondering about “the reservoir.”

When I got home I did some research.

I believe, in short, this is the story. Please chime in if you know more.

After lawsuit/s due to long-standing polluted EAA water impacting southern lands, and after “acts of the Legislature,” in the 1990s a “Settlement Agreement,” was obtained. Thus the state of Florida had to construct 32,000 acres of storm water treatment areas (STAs) in the EAA (Everglades Agricultural Area) to clean water leaving the EAA and going into Water Conservation Areas and Everglades National Park.

By 2000 the first of six had been constructed, and by 2004 the first water ran through. Thus the building of the STAs is associated with the law suits. At the same time, Congress was working legislatively on CERP, the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. It was approved by Congress in 2000. But it was moving too slowly, so in 2006, Florida’s state legislature approved LOER (Lake Okeechobee and Estuary Recovery Plan) and under Jeb Bush chose 8 projects of CERP to “accelerate.”

One of the “Acceler 8” projects was the A-1 Reservoir. This reservoir was to be located basically right above STA 3-4 and it had three water components, one for agricultural use; one for the environment; and one for people.

Well time moves on and we are now post Jeb Bush, and into Charlie Crist’ governorship who in 2008 announced that the SFWMD would be negotiating with United States Sugar Corporation (USSC) to acquire as much as 187,000 acres of their land for Everglades Restoration! Lots of internal fighting. Environmentalist are excited about historic land acquisition, but many others are irritated that Everglades Restoration (CERP/Acceler 8) will be halted in order to purchase lands. Other sugar companies in the EAA are impacted as they share mills with USSC. US Sugar surprised everyone with this announcement. Not very nice! Some people in the ag industry are furious. Politics. Lawsuits. But such an opportunity!!! The Great Recession hits. The A-1 Reservoir and its 3 components are halted in order to possibly purchase the USSC lands.

Even more lawsuits ensue including one from the Miccosukkee who want the reservoir completed as their lands are being depleted. Time is of the Essence.

The recession gets worse…the USSC land deal falls apart. Fewer lands are purchased. In 2010 Tea Party and “Jobs” Governor Rick Scott comes to power and negotiates with the Federal Government over of a law suit that included creating Numeric Nutrient Criteria for Phosphorus coming out of the EAA. “10 parts per billion” becomes the number. Some feel he sold out, others think it’s good.

In any case….the SFWMD now implements what the District had been planning as things were falling apart and money got tight, not a 3 part deep reservoir but rather a shallow Flow Equalization Basin, or FEB, in the A-1 reservoir lands above STA 3-4.

Thus the “Restoration Strategies,” law suit brought to the table by Rick Scott and State Legislature funded the A-1 Reservoir FEB and has more to come. What is important to note is that the A-1 FEB and the STAs were created to clean EAA sugar/agricultural runoff, due to lawsuits, not to hold, clean, and convey overflow Lake Okeechobee water that is destroying the estuaries…This is different.

And that’s why we environmentalist are talking about “a reservoir” today…a reservoir that would help the estuaries…because we don’t have one.

On the way home, JP and I talked.

He is concerned that Negron’s 60,000 land purchase for a deep water reservoir could take so much land out of sugar production that one of the EAA’s four mills would not have enough cane to process, close, and put people out work. Pahokee cannot afford this…

“This stinks,” I thought to myself. “Do we have to choose?” Why can’t people in the Glades and the Environment flourish? Everything is so confusing around here. This too should not be a mystery…

screenshot 3.jpg — 2012 SFWMD presentation slide, Matt Morrison

Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QKW91i-yu8

Video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-mEk_mc2wo

FullSizeRender 2.jpg — I noticed after writing this post that I did not report uses of reservoirs correctly thus I am adding this slide on 12-16-16, one day later. This slide shows what the reservoir compartments were proposed for in this 2012 SFWMD presentation slide by Matt Morrison. I had included “people/water supply” and this was incorrect. The entire presentation is linked below title EAA Storage Reservoirs, 2012. JTL

Timeline of Everglades Restoration DEP: http://www.dep.state.fl.us/evergladesforever/about/timeline.htm

EAA Storage Reservoirs SFWMD Matt Morrison 2012: http://evergladesrestoration.gov/content/cepp/meetings/012512/Recap_EAA_Reservoirs.pdf

A1 Reservoir history: https://www.sfwmd.gov/sites/default/files/documents/jtf_a1_feb.pdf

A1:http://xportal.sfwmd.gov/paa_dad/docs/F31147/PL9%20EAA%20A1%20Flow%20Equalization%20and%20Planning%20-%20T%20Morgan.pdf

Acceler8 :http://141.232.10.32/news/news_item_accerer8.aspx

Restoration Strategies:http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Everglades-Water-Quality-Fact-sheet.pdf

CERP:https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/cerp.htm

2013’s “Unusual Mortality Event,” now a 2014 Morbillivirus Outbreak, the Ailing Dolphins of the Indian River Lagoon

Bottle nosed dolphin photograph. (Photo courtesy of Oxstyletech, public photos.) — Bottle nosed dolphin photograph. Prior to 2013, HBOI reported there to be between 800-1000 bottle nosed dolphin in the IRL. (Photo courtesy of Oxstyletech, public photos.)

By now, just about everyone has heard that the beloved dolphins of the Indian River Lagoon are struggling with health issues exacerbated by poor water quality and compromised immune systems.

I wrote a blog on August 14, 2014 dealing with these issues. Today’s blog goes one step further as since one week, yet another sickness is being reported. It’s called “morbillivirus,” a deadly virus related to human measles and canine distemper in dogs.

At this point, it has only been reported in the northern central lagoon, mostly in the Brevard/Volusia areas.

Florida Today’s report on morbillivirus /IRL 8-29-14: (http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/environment/2014/08/29/virus-deadly-dolphin-hits-lagoon/14826577/)

WESH: 9-2-14 report on morbillivirus IRL (http://m.wesh.com/news/scientists-baby-dolphin-likely-killed-by-virus-in-indian-river-lagoon/27843604)

Just to set the record straight, as all of this becomes very confusing, in 2012 and 2013, at the height of the northern central Indian River Lagoon’s crash and 60% of their seagrass die off, NOAA, a federal agency, declared two marine mammal UMEs or “Unusual Mortality Events,” for the area of the northern central lagoon.

The first was for manatees that were dying by the hundreds and the second was for IRL bottle nosed dolphins that were also dying at an alarming rate. In both instances the state and federal agencies declare the deaths a “mystery,” even though every second grader can figure out if 60% or more of your food source habitat has suddenly vanished and the waters of your home are toxic with an unpresidented “super bloom” and brown tide of often toxic algae, it just may kill you….

To pull back from my rant, so yes, in 2013, NOAA declared a UME for IRL bottle nosed dolphins in the IRL.

NOAA UME for 2013 bottle nosed dolphins:(http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/health/mmume/floridadolphins2013.html)

Sadly and ironically, almost simultaneously though slightly earlier, NOAA had declared another UME for the bottle nosed dolphins in the Atlantic Ocean along the eastern United States. This time thought, the agency knew that the mortality event was due to morbillivirus, sickness related to measles and canine distemper in dogs. (http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/27/health/noaa-dolphin-deaths/index.html) Many hundreds of ocean dolphins have died and therefore if an Atlantic bottle nosed dolphin beaches along the Atlantic Coast (Treasure Coast included) by law it must be euthanized so as not to spread the disease to other dolphins. Specifically here, dolphins of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon.

The two species are related but genetically distinct. Most IRL dolphins are thought to remain in the lagoon…

Unfortunately, about a week ago, as the first two links in this blog show, it was reported that the morbillivirus is now killing dolphins in the northern central lagoon. According to WESH 15 dolphins were found dead in August, 8 of those were determined to be caused by morbillivirus. As one would expect, the disease is killing dolphin calves.

I am no scientist but I am very interested in bottle nosed dolphins as I was a volunteer at Harbor Branch in the marine mammal department and one of my best friends, Nicole Mader works for the Dolphin Ecology Project and photo IDs all of the dolphins in the St Lucie River/Southern IRL.

I also have had the opportunity to meet and correspond with Dr Gregory Bossert who now works at the Georgia Aquarium and is one of the foremost scientist on documented sickness in the Indian River Lagoon.

Morbillivirus has hit the lagoon and Atlantic bottle nosed dolphins before. Dr Bossert when he worked at Harbor Branch, wrote a paper along with others studying the disease from 2003-2007 in Charleston, South Carolina and the IRL.

According to the paper:

“Between 1987 and 1988 an epizootic of morbillivirus infection characterized by widespread mortality occurred in bottle nosed dolphins along the eastern coast of the US. An estimated 2500 deaths occurred. Stranded dolphins were found along the cost adjacent to the IRL and inlets connecting the ocean to the estuary. In retrospect serological testing of archived samples indicates that morbillivius infections had been present in the IRL since at least 1982.”

The paper goes on to read:

“The most important finding in the study was the detection of antibodies against DMV and PMV in dolphins from the IRL in absence of an epizootic and typical morbillivirus associate pathologic lesions.”

Hopefully this means that some of the IRL dolphins may have an anti-body to help them fight this next wave of morbillivirus along the eastern coast that has now entered the Indian River Lagoon.

__________________________________________________

Florida Today article, The IRL, What went Wrong?(http://www.floridatoday.com/story/news/local/environment/lagoon/2014/05/03/indian-river-lagoon-went-wrong/8672245/)

4th Generation Monarch Butterflies, the River Warriors, and the Indian River Lagoon

Fourth generation monarch butterflies are made for the long haul. — Fourth generation monarch butterflies emerge from their chrysalises uniquely made for the long-haul…(Photos by Ed Lippisch)

When the pressure and destruction of last summer’s releases from Lake Okeechobee and the local canals overcame my world, I decided I needed to do something to keep a positive attitude; I started a butterfly garden in my yard.

It has been an amazing experience learning about the “hosts” plants that imediately bring a specific butterfly to the garden; the nectar plants the butterflies can “eat;” the eggs and “Transformer- like,” funny, caterpillars that emerge to consume the host plants; the chrysalises that hang like Christmas bulbs everywhere; and finally the spectacular emerging butterflies.

So far, I have mostly had zebra long-wing, various swallowtails, dagger-winged, gulf fritillary, and monarchs. Each has their own cool story, but the monarch has something special as far as “inspiration” goes, and I liken it to the Indian River Movement, or the “River Warriors” as its been coined.

No one can explain the following, as God has made the world a mystery, but the fourth generation of monarch butterflies is genetically programmed, unlike the rest of its family heritage, for the “long haul,” to make the migration.

For me this is like the Indian River Movement, the “River Warriors.”

Yes, we are the fourth generation of Martin County’s pioneer residents trying to save the river. The area’s first generation started as early as the beginning of the 1900s.

In case you are unfamiliar, let me explain.

According to scientists, the first three generations of monarch butterflies live around 4-6 weeks flying, breeding and eating, but the 4th generation of monarch butterflies are different. They live 6-8 months and are the only generation to participate in the long haul “migration,” as seen on the map above.

We, the River Movement of 2013, are the river movement’s 4th generation. The “long-haul” generation. We will take the Indian River Lagoon further than most, closer to the finish line.

In conclusion, life is a mystery, and much is not completely understood…

But what is understood, is that we, the River Movement of 2013, are a generation that is different!

LINKS

Monarch migration maps: (https://www.google.com/search?q=monarch+migration+map&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ZYdGU-MsxpvZBYrBgKgP&ved=0CCoQsAQ&biw=1897&bih=803)

Monarch butterflies, 4th generation difference: (http://www.monarch-butterfly.com/monarch-butterflies-facts.html)