Florida Institute of Technology scientist John Windsor raised eyebrows a week ago when he said the 5 million cubic yards of mayonnaise-like muck along the northern Indian River Lagoon is enough to build a 5-foot wall along all six lanes of Interstate 95, stretching the entire 70 miles of Brevard County.
"That's a lot of muck," Windsor said. "We ought to do something with it. We did it ... Let's stop it from getting in."
Let me repeat: "... We did it ... Let's stop it from getting in."
I believe that's a new high-water mark in positive thinking about Florida water pollution, especially on the Space and Treasure coasts -- owning up to a lot of what ails the Indian River Lagoon and committing to an action plan to heal it.
That's exactly what happened earlier this month as the two regions' leagues of cities staged the first-ever Indian River Lagoon summit. I would have written about it sooner had the tragic events in Orlando not overtaken everything else.
By all accounts, the summit was pretty much a perfect day -- finger-pointing- and grandstanding-free. Just an exchange of ideas to restore the health of the sick lagoon, ideas to pursue within the next year. Florida Today covered the meeting, and the story was a joy to read.
These are some of the ideas the summit produced, according to the paper:
- A blanket federal permit for dredging muck from the lagoon, to speed up projects;
- Maintain a five-year muck-dredging plan;
- Enforce the June 1 to Sept. 30 ban on fertilizer use;
- Increase street sweeping;
- Add more oysters and other filter feeders, as well as shoreline vegetation to buffer pollution.
"This is an historic moment," Duane De Freese, executive director of the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, told the 100-or-so government representatives. He called what lies ahead "a war with multiple campaigns."
There is no quick fix, he said, because there isn't just one source of pollution or one remedy to cure all.
Sen. Thad Altman, R-Rockledge and Rep. Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, who attended the summit, both sat in on a breakout session on muck dredging.
"I'm a believer in local government," Altman told Florida Today. He said he wants future state money for muck dredging to continue to go to local governments and to be driven by scientists.
Altman proposed putting more pressure on the federal government to speed up U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' muck-dredging permits. "We all need to get together and come down on the feds," he said.
Mayfield took a longer view. "This is the whole lagoon. To me, it's like a master plan, like a roadway project."
How will we know when the job is done?
De Freese said he'll consider the lagoon recovered when oysters, clams and other commercial fisheries are viable in the region.
"I think if we do this from the grassroots up, we get there," he said.
I wasn't able to attend that meeting, but I think I really missed something. A lot of positive energy there.
Maybe one of these days I'll be reading about local governments in Martin and St. Lucie counties dealing with the sick St. Lucie estuary in the same positive terms. "Buy the land, move the water south" is virtually all they've got. They could do more.
(Most of the information about the lagoon summit came from the USA Today story.)
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
