INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — County Commissioners last week got another reminder about the need to do more to protect the Indian River Lagoon when they were presented with a petition signed by 60,000 people in Indian River County, across the state of Florida, around the country and in many nations throughout the world asking them to pass a fertilizer regulation ordinance to reduce the flow of deadly chemicals into the estuary.
“The Indian River Lagoon has the greatest variety of wildlife of any body of water in the country,” says Rob Moir, the renowned environmentalist who presented the neatly-bound 750-page “Petition to Protect Dolphins from Lawn Nitrogen Pollution” to the commission.
Moir, Executive Director of The Ocean River Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was a leader in efforts to clean up Boston Harbor and Salem Sound and has successfully leveraged the federal courts to stop overfishing in Atlantic waters.
He says the Lagoon is a unique environmental treasure of national and international importance that is seriously endangered by poisonous fertilizer runoff that contributes to seagrass loss and dolphin kills.
“Nitrogen pollution has become a problem in Indian River Lagoon due to expanding fertilizer use,” states the petition cover letter penned by Moir. “During the summer of 2008, 43 dolphins died in the Indian River Lagoon and in 2009, 48 dolphins died. Research has revealed dolphin deaths are highest when chlorophyll and nitrogen levels are highest in the water.”
Conditions in the lagoon have worsened dramatically since 2009, with new dolphin diseases appearing and seagrass disappearing, but for some reason Commissioner Bob Solari and others on the Board spent 2012 digging in their heels and refusing to pass the type of common-sense fertilizer regulation that has proved effective in other Florida counties.
Signatures on Moir’s petition were gathered online and at tables set up at public events. Many people made written comments when they signed.
“We need [the bottlenose dolphins]. They are part of the ecosystem and valuable to that system,” wrote Sebastian resident Susan Steinbach.
Stuart resident Lynn Morgan wrote: “As a child I lived near the Indian River. I spent many days in those waters – sailing, fishing and swimming. While boating, dolphins used to play in our wake and were a joyful sight. This beautiful mammal is considered an ‘indicator species’ by biologists. If dolphins are unhealthy, this means the remaining ecosystem is in trouble. Please consider the fate of these animals, and the overall importance of controlling the quality of our waters in this special region.”
“The economy of every county along the Indian River lagoon is heavily dependent upon tourism revenues, and the lagoon is the goose that lays our golden eggs,” wrote Vero Beach resident Paul Kegaly. “If we are too greedy, shortsighted, selfish, or stupid to save this lagoon and the creatures like dolphins that draw so many tourists back to this area again and again, then we will simply be ensuring that the American dream can never come true for our own children and grandchildren. Putting reasonable restrictions on chemical use, especially lawn fertilizers and pesticides, and strictly enforcing lawn-watering limits in order to reduce unnecessary runoff, are simple common sense solutions that would cause very little inconvenience to homeowners.”
“I vacation in Florida and love to see the dolphins and the manatees and the other wildlife you have down there,” wrote Pat Pascual of Patterson, N.J., expressing a sentiment repeated over and over in petition comments by people from coast to coast. “You will not get as many people to visit Florida if you lose your wildlife.”
Scientists who study the lagoon agree with Moir and the petitioners that a fertilizer ordinance makes sense.
Dr. Richard Baker, University of Florida biology professor emeritus and president of the Pelican Island Audubon society, Edie Widder, founder of ORCA, the Ocean Research and Conservation Association, James Eagan, former executive director of the Marine Resources Council, Stephen McCulloch, founder of the Marine Mammal Research and Conservation Program at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, and a number of other experts went on record in 2012 strongly supporting a fertilizer ordinance – not as a cure-all, but as a significant step to improve water quality and dolphin health in the Lagoon.
“Fertilizer regulation is needed,” said Baker. “Regulation should require slow-release nitrogen, no phosphorous and no fertilizer applied during the rainy season.”
“Without question these fertilizer ordinances are good for lagoon health,” said McCulloch, who has conducted research on the lagoon since the 1990s and is probably the foremost expert on its dolphins. “It is commonsense.”
Support for regulation, which would cost the county nothing and impose no significant burden on homeowners or lawn-care professionals, was not limited to scientists and environmentalists.
“Fertilizer regulation is a great idea,” said Neil Lagin, who has been in the lawn care business in Indian River County since 2000. “It should have been done a long time ago.”
After ORCA mapped high levels of nitrogen pollution between the Vero Bridges, the city did what the county would not and passed a fertilizer ordinance.
“I think it is a very important ordinance to try and protect the lagoon,” said Vero Councilwoman Pilar Turner, who was mayor at the time.
“It is a good thing to implement these types of programs,” agreed Erik Olson, then the director of Indian River County Utilities and the man responsible for many of the county’s clean-water initiatives. “Mayor Turner is a very smart lady and I have a lot of respect for her. I think Vero Beach is heading in the right direction. I applaud their efforts.”
Solari continued to lead opposition to a county ordinance, saying fertilizer regulation would be ineffective and undermine human liberty.
When a group of middle school children researched the issue and asked the commission to pass an ordinance banning phosphorous fertilizer, Solari warned them against starting down the path to totalitarianism.
This year, after a series of environmental disasters that decimated seagrass in much of the lagoon, the commission seems to be focused on the need to protect and restore the estuary.
Commissioner Tim Zorc, who campaigned on the issue of lagoon health prior to his election in November, is putting together a March symposium he says is intended to look at all alternatives for solving the problems in the estuary, including reversing the flow of the relief canals to divert excess fresh water and pollution and opening a passage to the sea at Bethel creek to let in clean ocean water.
“Nothing is off the table,” Zorc said at the most recent county commission meeting.
“Hopefully there comes a time when the commissioners feel there are enough constituents and tourists who want the lagoon protected that they will take effective action,” says Moir.
