SEWALL’S POINT – The Town Commission here voted unanimously Sept. 17 to begin quarterly water quality tests of the Indian River Lagoon in response to resident complaints back in the early spring about untreated water discharges by two separate contractors.
Commissioners initially got an irate earful April 14 about the discharges occurring on March 23 and April 4 after Commissioner Frank Tidikis reported them in his email blast that basically turned the heat up on the Board. Two different residents, Jack Watkins and Ken Strict, demanded answers and water quality testing the spring night. Town Manager Robert Daniels assured the frustrated homeowners that he would come back with plans for a testing program at the next meeting. By April 28, he’d received an offer from Florida Oceanographic volunteer Jason Bultman to seek water testing quotes and gotten a commitment from one of the aforementioned contractors to begin and conduct regular sediment testing for the duration of that project. The first samples tested found nothing alarming.
“I know it’s been several months,” Daniels said during the latest meeting. “It took a while with Jason’s help to weed through the different organizations and so forth. I have the estimate and the recommendation from Ecological Associates Inc., [which] actually does the analysis for the testing. Quarterly testing is recommended, and the cost for [four] water and sediment analyses is $3,534.”
Work crews are currently constructing a new stormwater treatment area where the April incident occurred during an automatic dewatering of the site for underground pipe replacement. It was that dirty smelly water some residents saw heading to the Lagoon that sent them into a panic. Bultman admitted that verifying what was in the offensive water that day would be hard to analyze six months later.
“We really didn’t know what happened until later when I was asked to help with water testing,” he said. “Here we are months later. As far as that discharge and the concerns with what might have occurred, that ship has kind of sailed on the water perspective. I’m representing the river at this point. If there’s something residual that’s still there, let’s test it and get a baseline.”
That prompted a clarification question from Commissioner Frank Fender.
“This agenda item was a follow-up of the concerns we had from some residents,” he said. “Is it your position that we have not tested?”
Daniels tackled that inquiry.
“We’ve done the turbidity testing, and that’s what Department of Environmental Protection required,” he said. “I did inspect the log the contractor kept of their tests and the results. Our inspectors had also had done testing. This is different because this deals with the sediment and what’s there now, and we know for years there’s been a lot of runoff into the waterway.”
Bultman believes the foul smell in the spring discharge noticed by residents was caused by the same nutrients found by consultant examining the water near a new South Sewall’s Point STA.
“The gentleman who conducted the study told me he’s testing for nitrogen, phosphorous, both pre- and post-treatment,” he recalled. “That’s really the mission for the whole project. So, let’s do it for the whole peninsula to confirm that the [treatment] model is designed correctly.”
Commissioner Fender believes residents are still wondering if the water is safe enough for their children to play several months after those discharges.
“If you tested it today, it would be hard to connect the dots to that particular event,” Fender said. “But there seems to be value in understanding the ecological damage being done around our peninsula.”
Vice-Mayor Kajia Mayfield pointed out the lack of a baseline water sample and now hopes Ecological Associates can do pre- and post-sampling around the peninsula’s new STAs.
“I look at this as more of a positive outcome of an unfortunate incident as opposed to any kind of significant rectifying of the situation because so much time has passed,” she said. “I like the idea of seeing the results of our projects. I think that’s a way to communicate to our residents the good work we’re doing.”
After further discussion and an explanation by Town Engineer Joe Capra that the smelly discharge was the result of built-up sludge coming out of the old pipes during dewatering, he affirmed that would not happen in the construction of the next STA.
“In Phase 2B, we’re going to clean those pipes out beforehand,” he said. “I don’t think there was an illicit discharge like most people thought. I looked at the outfall that morning, and there was plenty of fish right there feeding at that same location. I’m not sure we had a significant problem from the water coming out of that pipe.”
The Town Commission then voted unanimously to begin the testing in four different locations to be determined by the town manager.