COLUMNS: VAN HUBBARD

Fixing water quality now, still cheaper than reviving dead estuaries

How do we tackle water quality?

Just like an elephant. One bite at a time. Many things contribute to these problems. It took years of abuse to get there, and it will require billions of dollars, and serious effort, to gain water quality resurrection. 

We have put money and growth ahead of the infrastructure required to mitigate it. We added people by the thousands and their massive waste faster than we can treat it. We are dumping minimally treated waste into our waters, acting surprised that we have problems with water quality! Human waste, prescription drugs, exhaust emissions, chemicals and more are murdering our waters. This is not sustainable.

Reviving our water is complex, difficult and expensive. Local waters are considered impaired. I need to communicate effectively just how serious these problems are. The only thing more expensive than healing our water is trying to reclaim it after we kill it. Just look at the Chesapeake Bay or hundreds of other examples. The last figures I remember were over $3 billion and 35 years, attempting to reclaim parts of it. Please remember that these are attempts to restore waters; it’s never as good as God made it.

I played in the Chesapeake Bay as a child. In the 1950s, both of my grandparents had summer homes at the rivers flowing into the bay. We caught fish and crabs, ate oysters and clams; we fed our families fresh, healthy seafood. This was almost 70 years ago. 

It’s extremely difficult to throw hundreds of millions of tax dollars at problems many don’t understand. Most are so unaware that they don’t even care. We need to educate our public if we want them to be involved. We must show them the problems, then offer vetted solutions explaining the costs vs. the losses. 

Our local property values and economies are dependent on water-related businesses, boating, fishing, swimming, beach activities, tourism and waterfront restaurants. 

We have developed the lands that naturally filter runoff. Agriculture, ranch lands, woods and wetlands have in the past captured and filtered it. We have little manufacturing. Construction fuels the rest of our economy, except for government jobs. 

I believe we are at a critical tipping point. I’ve actively fished from Venice to Pine Island Sound and inside to Upper Charlotte Harbor for the last 44 years. My travels are more restricted at present, but I have a network of guides that keep me up to date. I’m willing to show key people how bad Lemon Bay and Gasparilla Sound are right now. I talked with a long-time tarpon guide who is actively engaged in fishery management, sharing his concerns about our waters. 

We have depleted sea grass, since 2017 especially. Sea grasses and oysters/clams filter nutrients from our water. They are critical to our fishing because they provide necessary habitats and nurseries for fish and sea life. Shrimp, crabs, shellfish, juvenile gamefish and more all spend part of their lives here.

This is a statewide problem, especially in populated areas. It’s scary that millions of gallons of polluted wastewater were dumped during the hurricanes and by accidents. Animals and fish are starving to death and are stressed due to a lack of sea grass to provide habitat and food.  

This is extremely complicated and requires massive money. Understanding the causes, vetting solutions and time to address long term problems are needed. Septic systems in areas with high water tables can’t function properly. Often, wastewater treatment fails repeatedly and is grossly inadequate. Every time we have significant rain events or floods, wastewater systems fail and dump millions of gallons of inadequately treated sewage into local estuaries and waterways. Millions of gallons of human waste are dumped by accident, mostly north of us. 

Many groups choose to make “sugar” and “agriculture” the bad guys. They require an enemy to raise funding. Everyone contributes to our problems.

In our time of cost cutting by governments, where do we come up with the hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars required to address our problems? Impact fees can help pay for the extra costs of infrastructure.

I am sure that the costs of prevention are much less than the expense of restoration would be.