THE FLORIDA BAY CONTROVERSY

Put the Issue to Rest:

The majority of scientists agree that Florida Bay is not affected by phosphorus and/or nitrogen from farm water runoff leaving the agricultural area south of Lake Okeechobee.

Some people hypothesize that nitrogen flowing into Florida Bay from the Everglades is killing the bay as well as coral reefs farther to the south in the Florida Keys.

Some say sewage and nutrients created by man and flowing from the Keys into the ocean are to blame.

Damage to coral caused by overfishing and divers, global warming, disease, coral bleaching and coastal development might be factors in the wrecking of the reef, as well.

Scientists are just beginning to understand what is causing biological changes in this underwater wonderland, but there's no consensus yet.

Yet, there is general agreement on a few things. In particular, most scientists give little credence to theories that water enriched with nitrogen flowing from sugar cane fields in the Everglades Agricultural Area is causing changes to ocean water that is killing the reefs or affecting the health of Florida Bay. Aside from the fact that EAA water does not reach Florida Bay, it's unlikely that water dumped into Florida Bay from other sources reaches the reefs, which sit more than 100 miles away.

"Scientifically, you have to separate them. They are geographically separate and have different currents," said David Rudnick, an environmental scientist with the South Florida Water Management District. "The Florida Bay water has a very restricted flow. The water in the reef tract is highly flushed by the ocean.

Florida Bay is an estuary. Historically, summer rains and freshwater flows from Everglades marshes diluted the saltwater creating ideal conditions for juvenile fish, shrimp, crocodiles and lobster. According to the Everglades National Park service, water management practices today sometimes restrict the amount of fresh water making it to the Bay. With less freshwater, the Bay has, at times, become too salty, stressing many of the Bay's plants and animals.

The Everglades marsh is very efficient at removing most nutrients from the water. Water drained off agricultural land into the canal system is high in some nutrients. Within the first few hundred yards, the plants in the marsh then filter most of the nutrients from the water. A half mile into the marsh the nutrient levels are normal for an Everglades prairie. This means nutrients from agriculture runoff do not make it to Florida Bay.

In 1996, 50 scientists discussed what effect, if any, nutrients in Florida Bay waters can have on the reef. An independent panel of marine scientists familiar with the problems in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay and San Francisco Bay reviewed the information presented. They found no unnatural source of nutrients coming from the mainland and saw no indication that current management strategies were adding additional nutrients to Florida Bay.

Others Also Agree:

George Barley, founder of Save Our Everglades and late husband of Mary Barley, SOE's current leader, testified before the Florida Senate in 1994:

"I don't think there is any evidence that phosphorus from the sugar farms is reaching Florida Bay. The Bay is not dying from an influx of pollutants." 

Florida Bay News Everglades National Park -Summer 1996:

"An independent panel of scientists found no indication that current water management strategies are adding additional nutrients to Florida Bay."

Dick Pettigrew, Chairman, Governor's Commission for a Sustainable South Florida Testimony before the House Select Committee on Water Policy Tuesday, October 31, 1995, Tallahassee:

"There's a lot of false information out in the public. We need to put it to rest and we need to get everybody to come and reason together and face facts. The truth is the stormwater runoff from the EAA affects areas immediately downstream - 40-50 thousand acres of the 2 million we're talking about. It's a problem...It has to be dealt with... But it's not destroying Florida Bay. That's not the problem impacting Florida Bay. The nutrients don't get down that far. They create cattails much closer to the EAA. So it's false - I hear this all the time in radio and TV advertisements: Those sugar cane people are destroying Florida Bay. That's not true. That's just not true. And if we're going to have a rational debate about the restoration, we have to put the facts on and quit distorting the situation."

Dick Ring, Superintendent of Everglades National Park. Statement before the SFWMD Governing Board, September 18, 1995:

"...We have only ever had one scientist who suggested that nutrients coming into Florida Bay are any kind of a contributor to the nutrient cycling problems that are down there. We have not seen - the scientific community that we work with - has not found any significant substantiation to that. I do agree that there are pesticide questions that have come up, but it is not nutrients. I do agree that there are nutrient issues that may be coming from septic and wastewater out of the Keys that there is some documentary evidence on. But, certainly we've not seen any evidence related to agriculture nutrients, coming into Florida Bay that are contributing to the nutrient cycling problems of the algae blooms and the sea grass die off."

Mike Collins, statement before the SFWMD Governing Board September 18, 1995:

"If you discuss the Florida Bay portion that is within the Park, this is true. I do not recall ever having made any remarks attributing any upstream 150-miles influence to our problems.... I don't think anybody attributed that to agriculture or to any particular source."

Dr. Ron Jones, (FIU) Expert Witness for the U.S. Justice Department. Statement to the Eminent Scientists Panel August 17, 1993:

"I don't believe that phosphorous problem is coming into Florida Bay...there's [also] absolutely no evidence or indication in any of the data that I have that there's an input of agricultural nitrogen into Florida Bay."

Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (1993) 36, 295-314, Dr. Ron Jones, James W. Forqurean, and Joseph C. Zieman:

"At the present time, there is no evidence that anthropogenic nutrients (including nitrogen), especially P, are entering Florida Bay from the agricultural and municipal areas to the north."

Dick Ring, Superintendent of Everglades National Park. Statement before the SFWMD Governing Board, June 1993:

"We don't have any evidence to indicate that there are nutrients coming from the agricultural areas north of the conservation areas down through Shark Slough and into Florida Bay."

Bob Johnson, Chief Hydrologist, Everglades National Park. Testimony before the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, August, 1993:

"...essentially from Krome Avenue west over to the central part of the Rocky Glades was the area that historically fed water to the Taylor Slough. It's not part of the historical Everglades, the upstream system. It's not connected to the central Everglades that come off of Lake Okeechobee. It's a separate system that derives its runoff from rainfall down, here so there's not a whole lot you can do to connect it up to the rest of the system."

Dr. Thomas Bancroff - National Audubon Society Everglades System Restoration Office - Florida Coastal Management Program Publication:

"All available scientific evidence suggest that an overall decrease in the amount of freshwater reaching Florida Bay has contributed substantially to the ecological changes."

Coastal Current (Florida coastal Management Program).  The article detailed the extent and danger of onsite sewage disposal systems in the Keys. The publication states in an article titled "Toilets in Paradise" that, according to the 1992 EPA report:

"there are 24,000 septic tanks and 5,000 unpermitted cesspits in the Florida Keys. Nearshore waters in the Keys are especially vulnerable to nutrient enrichment due to the highly permeable soils, high water table and the proximity of development to coastal waters." In fact, the publication states that "over one million households in the coastal counties of Florida use septic systems or cesspools."