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.
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