As long as Gov. Rick Scott does not line-item veto the appropriation, $10 million will be forthcoming to remove environmentally damaging muck in the central Indian River Lagoon, with dredging that could have a revolutionary effect on the estuary’s damaged ecology getting underway later this year.
The muck, which has been described as black mayonnaise because of its consistency, is made up mainly of water, fine particles of soil or clay and rotting organic material. It damages lagoon ecology by releasing nutrients that feed destructive algae blooms and by clouding the water when stirred up by storms, cutting off light seagrass needs for photosynthesis and survival.
“The lagoon could recover almost overnight if you get a clean sand bottom again, with shrimp and crabs and oysters coming back along with seagrass and game fish,” said Indian River County’s Florida Inland Navigation District Commissioner Paul Dritenbas
The harmful effects of muck came into focus in December when John Trefry, a professor of marine and environmental chemistry at Florida Institute of Technology, appeared before the Senate Committee on Environmental Preservation and Conservation at the invitation of Senator Thad Altman.
A world-renowned expert on sedimentation, Trefry told the committee there has been an “incredible expansion of muck” since he came to the area in the 1980s, due to fertilizer runoff and other causes.
“It is like a cancer that has been spreading,” he said. “There are now between five and seven million cubic yards of muck along the Brevard and Indian River County stretch of the lagoon. That is enough to cover 1,000 football fields a yard high.”
Trefry said besides clouding the water column and continually releasing nutrients that feed algae blooms, muck accumulates toxins and contains bacteria that deplete oxygen levels in the lagoon. It smothers all life forms other than bacteria. “Wherever the muck is, all habitable life is gone,” he said.
FIT will handle the science end of the dredging, helping determine the areas where muck removal is likely to do the most good in a short timeframe and documenting dredging outcomes.
“From conversations I have had with senators, it is clear they want to see evidence this is an effective way to help the lagoon, so we are picking sites where permitting will allow us to dredge in 2014 and 2015,” Trefry said.
According to Altman, it will take at least $100 million over five or more years to get rid of most of the muck, and Trefry wants to be able to show legislators proof of a recovering ecosystem during the next legislative session so that funding will continue.
The science team will be led by John Windsor, chairman of the Marine and Environmental Systems program at Florida Tech. If he, Trefry and other FIT scientists can go back to Tallahassee next year and show that seagrass has grown back and oysters and shrimp are flourishing in areas where muck has been removed, the legislature will likely pay for more dredging.
“We have had a number of meetings with Brevard County; they have permits already in place for some locations [to expedite dredging],” Trefry said. “We are determined to do good science on this. We all believe it will be very beneficial to the lagoon, but we need to be able to prove it.”
The legislature also approved $2 million for 25 Kilroy water monitoring devices. That money, if not vetoed by Scott, will go to Ocean Research and Conservation Association in Fort Pierce. ORCA chief scientist Edie Widder and her colleagues created the Kilroys to monitor lagoon pollution in real time and transmit data to the internet so conservation organizations and the public can respond rapidly to problems in the estuary.
ORCA has 14 Kilroys in the lagoon and area canals now. The new Kilroys will be installed near the outfalls of major relief canals in from Brevard to Martin County.
Money for muck removal and Kilroy installation came as part of a package of clean water funding championed by Sen. Joe Negron, chairman of a senate select committee on pollution in the lagoon and Lake Okeechobee, in the wake of unprecedented marine mammal deaths and widespread seagrass loss.
Governor Scott has until Saturday to either sign the budget containing money to help the lagoon or strip those funds out.
