HELP STOP RED TIDE & Harmful Algae Blooms
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Questions, comments or further information please contact: Cathy Harrelson, Chair – Coastal Task Force Phil Compton, Field Organizer, Sierra Club Florida Regional Office 727-824-8813 , ext. 303 or 813-841-3601-cell Email:Phil.compton@sierraclub.org Meet me at Florida Climate Crossroads: |
Stakeholder Meeting for Clearwater Harbor St. Joseph Sound Project
Report courtesy of Robin Baldwin
Coastal Supporters:
I attended the Clearwater Harbor/St. Joseph Sound, Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) Working Group meeting tonight at Dunedin Community Center. Bonnie Ayler from Sierra Club also attended.
Here you can read the plan for the CCMP:
http://www.pinellas.wateratlas.usf.edu/news/committees.asp?GROUPID=10050&ACTIVE=1
The following is a description of the meeting from their site:
"Pinellas County and the Cities of Tarpon Springs, Dunedin, Clearwater, and Largo are holding a meeting to discuss the development of the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (CCMP) for Clearwater Harbor and St. Joseph Sound. The CCMP will serve as a blueprint to guide future decisions and actions concerning a wide range of environmental protection issues for example water quality, habitat, fish and wildlife, and non-native species. The CCMP will be based on a scientific characterization of Clearwater Harbor and St. Joseph Sound and will be developed by a broad-based coalition of stakeholders."
Representatives from Janicki Environmental, Inc spoke at the meeting.
The project is now beginning and will take 2 - 2.5 years.
It is patterned after other CCMP plans in the area.
St. Joseph Sound is in better condition environmentaly than Clearwater Sound, and the plan for both water bodies will be to improve conditions and protect what we have.
Reference was made to the editorial by Earthjustics in Sunday's St. Pete Times, regarding water quality issues, algae bloom, fertilizer, etc.
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/article1050030.ece
The CCMP Working Group expressed support for, and the importance of, the Fertilizer Ordinance.
The existence of the CCMP makes this area eligible for federal funding.
Baseline work has been done in examining sediment samples. Examination of sea life will range from phytoplankton to mamals.
They will use existing information, not new. They are gathering and consolidating much data from many independant studies, both recent and older. For example, data from old masters theses regarding these areas will be reviewed, for comparison with current data.
Attendees were enouraged to talk with the Working Group members, so we we able to talk to some of the members about coastal issues.
That's all I have. If CCMP has any future meetings, I recommend that Sierra Club members in the area try to attend.
Robin Baldwin
Clearwater
The following is courtesy of Phil Compton
Below is a shot from the press conference that Sierra Club help in Clearwater with Earthjustice at Bayview Park. It was where the 2 groups together announced that USEPA would be setting numeric nutrient standards for all FL waterways in the next year for freshwater, 2 years for coastal waters.
This subject is big news right now, by the way. In case you didn’t see the editorial page of the 11-10-09 St. Pete Times, there was over ½ a page devoted to 2 opposing op-eds on the subject by David Guest, director of Earthjustice, and Charles Bronson, Dept. of Agriculture & Consumer Services. Here are the links:
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/florida-already-has-a-science-based-plan-on-pollutants/1050019
http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/hold-polluters-accountable-for-what-they-do-to-florida-waters/1050030
Caption:
Left to right, Suncoast members Kathy Douglas, Cyndi Fernandez and Sally Harkness listen as Sierra Red Tide Team Coordinator Cris Costello answers a question posed by WUSF-FM reporter Steve Newborn at Aug. 21st press conference at Bayview Park in Clearwater.
Sierra Club & Earthjustice announced that USEPA would be setting numeric nutrient standards for all FL waterways in the next year for all inland waters & in 2 years for coastal waters.
Pinellas County BOCC will move forward to address the county’s terrible nutrient pollution problem at its December 1st meeting as it begins to consider an effective fertilizer management ordinance. This meeting is 9:30 am in commission chambers in Clearwater.
All Sierra Club members are urged to attend the Commission’s following meeting, Jan. 5th, and bring their friends and neighbors, to support adoption of this sensible approach to achieving cleaner waterways. Same time, same place: 9:30 am,Clearwater.
Phil Compton, Regional Representative, Sierra Club Florida Regional Office
111 2nd Ave. NE, Ste. 1001, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
727-824-8813, ext. 303 813-841-3601: cell
Meet me at Florida Climate Crossroads:
http://action.sierraclub.org/site/PageServer?pagename=GRP_FLA_CC&autologin=true
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As of 11-5-09
Note: the date for the hearing of the Pinellas County fertilizer ordinance is not yet set but will come up very soon!
Please watch this space or email cathy_bam@earthlink.net for news of the upcoming fertilizer ordinance hearing. Pinellas county is in the crosshairs of this issue, which has national importance for our waterways. Your help will be needed…again.
Cathy Harrelson
Here is what is happening or what has happened!
10/28/09
Sierra staff remarks on BOCC hearing on fertilizer
Thanks to everyone who came out yesterday to help counter the massive turnout by landscapers. I thought Dave Kandz of St. Pete Audubon was especially effective with his remarks that concluded by flipping around a photo of a bag of fertilizer with a shot of a roseate spoonbill, making the commission laugh as they got his point that “less of this (fertilizer) means more of these (Spoonbills).”
Here’s the link to Craig Pittman’s story in the Times, which I can’t find in print in my Tampa version – hope it’s in yours in St .Pete: http://www.tampabay.com/news/environment/pinellas-commissioners-favor-summertime-fertilizer-ban/1047286#
Commissioners needing calls now to move this forward are Ken Welch and Nancy Bostock, who are concerned about an impact on landscape businesses. There hasn’t been any such impact in Sarasota the past 2 years; they should be more concerned about the tens of millions the county will have to spend cleaning up nutrients & algae if we don’t ask people to do their part through education and exercising personal responsibility as the sensible alternative to needlessly higher taxes. Neil Brickfield and Calvin Harris also need calls as they appear to be possible swing votes if Bostock & Welch oppose. John Morroni and Karen Seel deserve thanks for their positive remarks, and Calvin Harris as chair finally did move things along to a positive conclusion.
But it was Susan Latvala who really deserves your thanks as she emerged as our champion, putting her foot down when Bostock and Welch proposed Pinellas exempt landscapers from a rainy season ban on applying nitrogen and phosphorus. Landscapers only, according to some number pulled from somewhere, apply 30% of all fertilizer. I say pulled as that number is just someone’s wild guess. Still, 30% is a lot, and Latvala made the point that you’d be allowed to pollute if you could afford to hire a pro, and she made it clear repeatedly that it was NOT OK to allow such an exemption, as the industry recently got in Orange Co.
This should come back up to the commission in November in the form of an ordinance. If we are going to win against the industry’s ability to pack the room as they did early Tuesday morning, we’re going to need to get everyone we know from all our organizations to go up to Clearwater, and to get our friends in N. Pinellas who live closer to also show up. Most attendees on the side of a strong ordinance were from St. Pete. If we do, Pinellas gets cleaner water and reduces the risk of Red Tide. If we don’t, we could lose, and along with Pinellas all of Tampa Bay, as Manatee & Hillsborough will follow this county’s lead.
When will that be? The next BOCC meeting is next Tuesday 11/3 @ 9:30; the next public hearing Tuesday 11/17 @ 6:30. We’ll keep you posted on when this will move forward, but it will be soon, as it was clear most commissioners were impatient with staff’s delay due to their fears of the influence of the now discredited as industry-funded IFAS turf scientists.
Phil Compton, Field Organizer, Sierra Club Florida Regional Office
The general number for the county commission is: (727) 464-3377 , although most individual commissioners’ phone numbers are listed below.
The county commissioners are:
Neil Brickfield, nbrickfield@pinellascounty...org
Calvin Harris, 727-464-3360 , charris@pinellascounty.org
Nancy Bostock, (727) 464-3363 , nbostock@pinellascounty.org
Susan Latvala, (727) 464-3276 , slatvala@pinellascounty.org
Karen Seel, (727) 464-3278 , kseel@pinellascounty.org
John Morroni, jmorroni@pinellascounty.org
Ken Welch, (727) 464-3614 , ktwelch@pinellascounty.org
The county administrator is Robert LaSala, the general number is (727) 464-3485 .
Again, please contact me or Phil Compton for further info.
Thanks,
Cathy Harrelson, Chair – Coastal Task Force
Office 727-374-6312
Cell 727-415-8805
Email cathy_bam@earthlink.net
Phil Compton, Field Organizer, Sierra Club Florida Regional Office
111 2nd Ave. NE, Ste. 1001, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
727-824-8813 , ext. 303 813-841-3601 : cell
Email Phil.compton@sierraclub.org
WHAT FOLLOWS BELOW IS SOME OF THE HISTORY....
On Oct 1, the ESF Environmental Science Forum] meeting yielded positive results. See message below from Phil Compton.
By a 9-2 vote yesterday the Pinellas County Environmental Science Forum (ESF) voted to approve the subcommittee recommendation to remove an exception to a proposed rainy season nitrogen ban in the county’s draft fertilizer management ordinance. This correction of what would have been a fatal flaw in the county’s ordinance had been inserted by county staff in order to appease UF IFAS (Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences), which opposes any rainy season limitation on application of nitrogen and phosphorus. Red Tide and other harmful algae blooms are fed by nitrogen in runoff when nitrogen & phosphorus are applied during the rainy season (just ended) of June – September. This basic approach has already been adopted by 13 counties and cities on the Gulf Coast, and has worked effectively the past 2 years to reduce the risk of Red Tide by limiting nitrogen the runoff that feeds coastal algae blooms that devastate our fisheries and water quality.
SAVE THE DATE: The ordinance, with the ESF recommendation, will be the subject of a County Commission workshop Tuesday October 27th, 9:30 am, at the County Courthouse, 310 Court St. in downtown Clearwater. Your attendance and participation is needed to help move this vital measure along to final passage by the BOCC. You can be sure that IFAS and the landscapers will be there to try to make sure they are allowed to continue over-applying fertilizer in the rainy season, despite all evidence of the harm done to our local coastal and inland water quality.
MORE ON ESF: The “olive branch” that county staff had included in Pinellas had also been proposed by St. Petersburg staff, but rejected by City Council there when St. Petersburg passed the state’s strongest ordinance March 19th. It would have allowed a one time application of nitrogen on lawns during the rainy season, in spite of the likelihood that it would result in nitrogen running off into nearby waters and the Gulf, if a turf tissue test showed nitrogen deficiency. As many landscapers have testified in public workshops that they can identify nitrogen deficiencies visually in the field, a belief held by many homeowners, this exception could result in a weakened public message: do not apply nitrogen, unless you think you need to! No Florida county or city has included such a contradictory clause in its fertilizer management ordinance.
Key to yesterday’s vote was staff’s disclosure that their “olive branch” would not appease the turf scientists at IFAS, and that IFAS now opposes the rainy season ban and any such ordinance. This is due to their unwarranted fear that turf grass quality may suffer when deprived of direct application of quick release nitrogen during the rainy season, despite the fact that turf would continue to receive nitrogen from several sources: rain deposition of atmospheric nitrogen, breakdown of lawn clippings reapplied to turf, continued slow release of nitrogen from 180 day certified fertilizer applied prior to the rainy season, and nitrogen in reclaimed water. The latter, when available, is sufficient alone to provide all or most of the nitrogen turf ever needs.
As this effort to attain consensus was clearly doomed, due to IFAS’ blind insistence that nitrogen does not run off into waterways during downpours, ESF members were free to base their vote on a scientific basis, rather than attempt to achieve a political compromise of scientific principles.
The rainy season ban, without an “olive branch” exception to a rainy season ban, is supported in Pinellas County by over 80 local businesses and community organizations.
Phil Compton, Field Organizer, Sierra Club Florida Regional Office
111 2nd Ave. NE, Ste. 1001, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
727-824-8813, ext. 303 813-841-3601: cell
Meet me at Florida Climate Crossroads:
http://action.sierraclub.org/site/PageServer?pagename=GRP_FLA_CC&autologin=true