Battle for the Bay Begins at Home
by Victoria Parsons

Eric Livingston calls it "pointless personal pollution." "We've got to get it across to people that their everyday activities affect water quality," says the director of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Watershed Management Bureau.

Driving the point home is a challenge. So is convincing people that the biggest threat to Tampa Bay comes from nitrogen, not toxic contaminants. While the nutrient plays a vital part in a healthy bay, excess nitrogen fuels the growth of algae, limiting light penetration to seagrasses and restricting their growth. Seagrasses are the primary "indicator species" for Tampa Bay, because they're sensitive to changes in water quality and they provide critical habitat for many estuarine species, including fish, crabs and shrimp.

Nitrogen is everywhere - in fertilizers, auto emissions and even dog feces. Unless we all pitch in and do our part, cleaning it up will be incredibly expensive. So expensive, in fact, that Livingston will only say that there are billions of dollars budgeted in stormwater master plans across the state - and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Drainage drives the train

When stormwater tops the agenda for state and local governments, they're dealing with two separate issues. The first priority is flood control because "drainage drives the train - people don't care if it's clean or dirty if it's in their living room," Livingston says.

Only recently has water quality become an issue, and regulations that enforce restrictions have yet to be implemented.

The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System - or NPDES - requires local governments to obtain state permits for their stormwater discharges that reduce pollutants to the "maximum extent practicable," Livingston notes, but it's a "paper program with no teeth, no minimum criteria and no way to enforce post development."

More recently, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations call for the state to restrict pollution by setting total maximum daily loads - or TMDLs - as the maximum amount of contaminant a waterbody can receive and still meet specific water quality standards, depending on how the water is used.

The DEP has identified more than 100 waterbodies or sections of waterbodies in the Tampa Bay region considered to be "impaired" by specific contaminants, including nutrients, bacteria, or heavy metals such as mercury and lead. Once a TMDL is finalized, those who will be impacted have two years to create action plans that address the issue, then two more years to come up with implementation plans for cleaning up the water that may span up to 25 years.

"We're taking this one step at a time," Livingston said. "People need to remember it took us 100 years to make this mess and we can't expect it to go away overnight."

The hunt for new technologies

Even as the federal government prepares to establish TMDLs, state and local governments are still scrambling for treatment options. Two of the most promising technologies are being used in several locations across the region, but nothing beats Mother Nature for removing stormwater contaminants.

In a natural setting, rain falls on land where it can slowly percolate through to the aquifer, and the overflow moves across vegetated swales to creeks, where it may be captured in wetland areas or natural ponds. Development typically destroys that natural filtration system, and without plants to absorb nutrients, they are flushed into aquatic environments.

The Southwest Florida Water Management District's Surface Water Improvement and Management (SWIM) program focuses on restoring lands adjacent to critical segments of Tampa Bay, rebuilding the natural systems that scrub stormwater of impurities. Restorations in areas like Cockroach Bay, the Hillsborough River and Alligator Creek in Clearwater and in the McKay Bay watershed have been very effective in reducing pollutants in Tampa Bay, notes Mark Hammond, director of SWFWMD's Resource Management Division.

In areas where land is not available, particularly urban areas such as south Tampa and coastal Pinellas, restoration isn't a viable option. When those communities were built, drainage was the only concern, and stormwater was moved offsite as quickly as possible -often flowing directly into Tampa Bay, or the rivers and creeks that lead to it.

Temple Terrace is a case in point. Until recently, most of its stormwater flowed directly into the Hillsborough River, sweeping trash and pollutants from yards and commercial districts into the river that provides drinking water for the City of Tampa. Using grants from SWIM and the DEP, the city installed two CDS (continuous deflective separation) units to capture and treat stormwater from its commercial district as well as a residential neighborhood.

Developed and patented by an Australian company, the CDS units are giant underground vortexes. As the water swirls through the system, trash is trapped in screens, sediments sink to the bottom of a sump and special sponges absorb oil. Ongoing maintenance -including vacuuming out the sump and floating trash -is required to keep the unit operating at maximum efficiency.

"This used to be a big horrible ditch that ran straight to the river," says Joe Motta, city engineer. Now, a CDS unit captures trash and clean stormwater flows into a 2.5-acre pond surrounded by a small park with benches and decorative lighting. While CDS systems are very effective at removing floating trash and sediment (which often is attached to toxic substances), they're not designed to capture nutrients. Native plants that lined the pond to absorb nutrients have died, probably as a result of last summer's heavy rains, but will be replaced, Motta said.

When land is at a premium

Another high-tech option gaining favor around the bay calls for treating stormwater with alum, which latches onto nutrients and heavy metals, causing them to settle to the bottom of a sump or pond. Stormwater treated with alum in other parts of the state consistently shows phosphorus reductions of 90%, 50 to 70% reductions in nitrogen, 50 to 90% reductions of heavy metals and 99% reductions of fecal coliform.

"Reducing nutrients is the key to restoring Lake Seminole," notes Kelli Levy, the county's program manager for water resources. "We'll treat the water chemically - probably with alum - in streams before it gets to the lake, then let the alum floc settle out in a sump."

The county expects to build three to five systems near Lake Seminole, at a cost of about $3 million, plus $30,000 per year in operating expenses, not including staffing.

Total Nitrogen Loadings to Tampa Bay
(1995-1998 average)

Source: Tampa Bay Estuary Program

 While treating stormwater with alum is expensive, it's more feasible than buying land to retrofit older neighborhoods with stormwater treatment ponds.For example, an action plan for cleaning up Allen's Creek calls for buying two adjacent houses and building a stormwater pond. "It's just not feasible to find two houses side by side for sale at the same time, then tear them down to build a pond," she says.

Education and enforcement also are vital. Storm drains in major watersheds are marked, warning residents that they flow directly to the bay, lakes or creeks. "If we catch someone dumping, we can and probably will go to enforcement," Levy said. Many city and county employees have completed a special class on stormwater and know what to watch for near construction zones and in neighborhoods - plus who to call to enforce stormwater dumping regulations.

Programs such as Florida Yards & Neighborhoods, which stress Florida-friendly landscaping techniques, also play a major role in the county's watershed plans and Pinellas has started a pilot Adopt-A-Pond program to help educate more residents.

Still, meeting tough new TMDL standards is going to be a challenge in the state's most densely populated county. Levy said. "Somehow, some way, we'll meet these new standards but it's going to take a combination of structural and non-structural changes."

Data is slim

And there isn't enough peer-reviewed research data on stormwater for managers to clearly identify the most promising options, according to Dan Smith, a University of South Florida engineering professor with more than 20 years experience in stormwater issues. Most regulations focus on BMPs - or best management practices - that don't necessarily monitor what happens to nitrogen. "We need more quantitative data to really put a number on what's happening when we build stormwater treatment systems," he said.

Hillsborough County is working with USF and hopes to create an stormwater research classroom on a 5.6-acre tract of land the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) purchased after it was flooded innumerable times. An EPA grant funded the construction of a series of stormwater ponds that can be connected or diverted to track the effect of various activities, including various filter media. "We're taking some of the technology created to treat wastewater and moving it to stormwater," Smith says.

But unless some unforeseen technology is proven to work, the key to cleaning up Tampa Bay will be taking advantage of every opportunity for stormwater treatment, from Florida-friendly landscapes in backyards to swales in shopping center parking lots and from high-tech retrofits to basic maintenance of stormwater ponds.

Next up, low-impact development

Low-impact development - or LID - is likely to become a more important alternative as local regulations recognize its advantages, notes Betty Rushton, an environmental scientist specializing in stormwater for SWFWMD. Using rain gardens on homesites connected by vegetated swales, minimizing impervious surfaces and protecting natural vegetation increases opportunities for water to soak in before it runs off.

The parking lot at the Florida Aquarium in Tampa is an example of low-impact development. It utilizes cost-effective techniques to minimize runoff and reduce pollutants in nearby Hillsborough Bay. Ongoing research indicates that the LID practices achieved between 60 to 90% reduction in runoff volume with significantly lower levels of key contaminants.

While scientists recognize the advantages of LID, regulators are a step behind, Rushton notes. "It can be done, but it's not an easy process, and developers know that. Innovation costs money if they have to wait for an unusual permit to go through the system. It's easier and less expensive for them to follow the checklist and know they'll get the permit they need in two weeks."

Within Florida,
Livingston credits the
Tampa Bay Estuary Program
and its
Nitrogen Management Consortium
as a "shining example of
how a region took the ball
and ran with it."

Still in the lead

Even though bay managers are concerned about meeting stringent new TMDLs, Florida leads the nation in stormwater treatment, Livingston said. It was the first - and is still one of only eight - states to mandate stormwater treatment in new developments. Florida also has more local governments with stormwater utilities than any other state, and has built more retrofit projects to deal with runoff from older neighborhoods.

Within Florida, Livingston credits the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and its Nitrogen Management Consortium as a "shining example of how a region took the ball and ran with it."

The consortium of voluntary partners, which includes electric utility, industry and agricultural representatives along with local governments and regulatory agencies, has gained national acclaim for its efforts to reduce nitrogen loadings to the bay, above and beyond their individual permit requirements. In fact, the process has been so effective that it satisfies the state requirement for establishing a TMDL for the bay - achieving through consensus what otherwise would require additional command-and-control regulation.

The consortium has consistently met its goal of reducing an additional 17 tons of nitrogen per year-set to allow seagrass to return to 12,000 acres of bay bottom.

"They figured out a goal and the science behind how to reach that goal, which wasn't an easy thing to do - then brought all the stakeholders onboard for an implementation plan, maintained the effort and are tracking activities to show just how effective they have been," said Livingston.