Waste Water Treatment

Since the 1970s, clean water laws, improved sewer systems and environmental restoration have produced a 50 percent reduction in nitrogen pollution in, for example, Tampa Bay, allowing the water to clear and seagrass beds to return by the thousands of acres.

But the bay – Florida's largest estuary – still needs significant yearly nitrogen reduction just to maintain the status quo. Every spill adds to chronic pollution that washes in from over–fertilized lawns, agricultural runoff and phosphate mining discharges in a watershed that reaches eastward into Polk County. Big spikes in nitrogen and phosphorus – nutrients found in sewage and phosphate–based fertilizers – can feed algae blooms that muddy the water, kill fish and block sunlight seagrass needs to grow.

Recent (2011) newspaper reports indicate increased incidence of nitrogen releases from sewage spills. Three spills in just four months have reportedly released 75 million gallons of raw sewage into Tampa Bay. A single spill during the same period is reported to have released 1.6 million gallons of raw sewage into a Bradenton river where high levels of fecal coliform and enterococci have persisted for many days afterward.

Rigorous reporting standards are in place to record all spills of more than 1,000 gallons and research is in hand ascertain details of spills that have occurred in Citrus County.

To see a case study on the issues involved in replacing Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems (OWTS) with sewer systems, click here. For correspondence concerning the Current Issues involving Kings Bay/Crystal River click here.

NOTE

A sewer system connection that enabled recovery of water for use as Reclaimed Water that reduced the need for aquifer pumping would serve to conserve fresh water supplies. In so doing reducing nitrogen levels in spring discharges to better balance the reduced flow rates would help restore degraded water quality in Crystal River/Kings Bay and the other coastal river systems. See News Item dated 14 August, 2011 as printed in the Citrus County Chronicle that day.

References

• Jones, GW, and Upchurch, S.B. et al , July 1994, "Origin of Nutrients in Groundwater Discharging from the Kings Bay Springs".
• Otis, Richard J., PhD, PE, DEE, "Estimates of Nitrogen Loadings to Groundwater from Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems in the Wekiva Study Area", June, 2007.
• Onsite Wastewater Treatment Systems Manual, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.