Surfrider Foundation USA - Palm Beach County Chapter

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3-3-03

Surfrider Foundation Palm Beach County Florida Chapter

Position Statement on Harmful Underground Injection Wells in Florida

We ask all groups and individuals to endorse this statement ASAP by forwarding an email to hui@surfriderpbc.org. A link to your organization's web site can also be included, at your request.

During the past few decades numerous wells have been drilled throughout Florida for the purpose of injecting various fluids into the aquifer, including partially treated sewage. Some of these wells are intended to store water for recovery when less water is available. Many other injection wells here in Florida are used to inject partially treated sewage and industrial wastewater. We believe aquifer injections for disposal purposes and ASR present real threats to Florida's natural ecosystems.

Our preliminary estimates show that approximately 300 deep injection wells and 900 shallow injection wells (60 feet deep) along Florida's coastlines are used to inject partially treated sewage. The total injectate volume for those wells is approximately one billion gallons per day. Recent findings by the scientific community support our concerns that contaminated fluids injected into the aquifer are entering Florida's near shore coastal waters and surface waters (see references and related items below). The negative impacts of these aquifer-injections can include the following:

1. unpermitted discharge of contaminated fluids into the ocean from injection wells;
2. disruption of normal growth patterns of marine algae and larval invertebrates, and the resultant harmful impacts to humans;
3. damage to wetlands by disruption of normal wet and dry periods;
4. incorrect assumptions by federal and state agencies, assuming Florida's karst geology confines injected water;
5. destruction of habitat, including forests, wetlands and coral reef ecosystems; as well as the sickness and death of native species such as fish, sea turtles and ocean mammals;
6. inadequate monitoring of existing injection wells to determine compliance with federal and state laws;
7. permanent damage to Florida's aquifer system (e.g., dissolving and fracturing the limestone) and thereby accelerating discharge of harmful liquids into Florida's coastal waters;
8. significant damage to Florida's economy as a result of direct impacts to marine industries (e.g., diving, fishing and tourism).

Therefore, we believe that the State of Florida and the Federal Government must halt the funding, permitting, and construction of all new aquifer-injection wells, and deny any requests to increase injections into existing wells, and initiate aquifer-remediation activities to protect Florida's coastal environment, other surface waters and humans from contaminants already injected.

We welcome the support of this Position Statement by other groups and individuals. Groups and individuals can 'sign on' as supporting our Position Statement by contacting Tom Warnke at: hui@surfriderpbc.org.

The Surfrider Foundation is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to the protection and enjoyment of the world's oceans, waves and beaches for all people, through conservation, activism, research and education. Represented by over 37,000 members and 60 local chapters in the US, the Surfrider Foundation also has affiliations in Australia, Japan, France, and Brazil.

References and related items:

The following excerpts from a recent USGS publication support our concerns about aquifer injections, including ASR:

"Factors that could affect recovery of fresh-water varied widely between sites. The thickness of the open storage zone at all sites ranged from 45 to 452 feet. For sites with the storage zone in the Upper Floridan aquifer, transmissivity based on tests of the storage zones ranged from 800 to 108,000 feet squared per day, leakance values indicated that confinement is not good in some areas, and the chloride concentration of ambient water ranged from 500 to 11,000 milligrams per liter."

"The structural setting at a site could also be important because of the potential for up-dip migration of a recharged freshwater bubble due to density contrast or loss of overlying confinement due to deformation."

(Ronald S. Reese. 2002. Inventory and Review of Aquifer Storage and Recovery in Southern Florida. Water-Resources Investigations Report 02-4036 U.S. Geological Survey.)

Additional peer-reviewed scientific publications that support our concerns about aquifer injections (including ASR) include:

Bacchus. 2002. The 'ostrich' component of the multiple stressor model: Undermining Florida. pp. 669-740 in: J. W. Porter and K. G. Porter (eds.) Everglades, Florida Bay, and Coral Reefs of the Florida Keys: An Ecosystem Sourcebook. CRC Press.

Lapointe and Barile. 2001. Discrimination of Nitrogen Sources To Harmful Macroalgal Blooms On Coral Reefs Off Southeast Florida.

Bacchus. 2001. Knowledge of groundwater responses - A critical factor in saving Florida's threatened and endangered species. Part I: Marine ecological disturbances.

Bacchus. 2000. Predicting nearshore environmental impacts from onshore anthropogenic perturbations of ground water in the southeastern Coastal Plain, USA. pp. 609-614 in: Interactive Hydrology: Proceedings of the 3rd International Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium of the Institution of Engineers, Australia, 20-23 November 2000 Perth, Western Australia.

See also: Tom Warnke. 2/25/03. Now, proof: Sewage sent out of sight haunts state.

Sally Swartz. 2/19/03. The Palm Beach Post, Serial killers track Florida's reefs.

Serial killers track Florida's reefs

By Sally Swartz Editorial Writer

Palm Beach Post http://www.pbpost.com

Wednesday, February 19, 2003

Every time Brian Lapointe dives the reefs off Palm Beach County, he finds more of the thick, green seaweed. The algae cover the reefs and the ocean floor, killing coral, weighting down sea fans until they snap, obliterating habitat for lobster and reef fish. On a dive at North Colonel Ledge near Juno Beach a few weeks ago, he found seaweed blanketing the reef and 70 percent to 80 percent of the ocean bottom.

"It looks like a golf course," Mr. Lapointe said, "and that's supposed to be our good site."

Mr. Lapointe has been the Paul Revere of Florida reefs, first warning that nutrients in runoff from farms and cities were damaging this Florida treasure. Later, he linked the spread of seaweed across the reefs and ocean floor to sewage and farm runoff. Eventually, he warns, the obnoxious algae also is going to chase away millions of tourists who enjoy diving, snorkeling and fishing near the reefs.

Mr. Lapointe, a marine ecologist at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce, has been watching the seaweed spread north and south since he first identified it off West Palm Beach in May 2001, and he believes it can spread as much as 30 miles per year. He believes he has proved his theory: Nutrient-laden wastewater pumped underground is seeping up through cracks in the ocean floor onto the reefs, feeding the algae growth boom. His studies linked nitrogen isotopes found in sewage and farm runoff to the algae growth. They also examined the role of wastewater from sewage outfalls, farm and city runoff in reef degradation.

The scientist has examined similar conditions in Caribbean nations, as well as countries that border the Mediterranean. All have near-shore reefs affected by sewage or other nutrient-rich runoff. The seaweed, which Mr. Lapointe compares with the invasive land plant kudzu, is appearing on reefs around the world.

Over the past two years, Gov. Bush killed state grants that would have continued Mr. Lapointe's studies. But Mr. Lapointe recently received $279,000 from the federal Environmental Protection Agency for a two-year study to determine seasonal growth patterns, learn how fast the seaweed is spreading and track sources of the nutrients that feed it.

This study also will look at whether the nutrients in sewage change the seaweed to the point where fish and sea slugs won't eat it. Scientists in France, Italy and Spain, Mr. Lapointe said, at one time considered importing sea slugs from the Indian River Lagoon -- the inland waterway that stretches from Daytona Beach to Jupiter -- that were known to eat seaweed on the lagoon bottom that is similar to seaweed covering the Mediterranean Sea floor.

Such interesting and hopeful possibilities are bright spots in an otherwise grim scenario. While various agencies have studied reef degradation in the Keys for at least 13 years, little has been done to stop it. A new sewage treatment plant near Key West has helped, but if wastewater injected underground is welling up near reefs, as Mr. Lapointe's research suggests, such injections must stop. Soon.

"Reefs have undergone a catastrophic loss of coral," Mr. Lapointe said. He cited the Looe Key reefs, a national marine sanctuary that since the 1990s has suffered from pulses of sewage ammonia from farms and human sources. The ammonia causes algae blooms and coral diseases. Some Keys reefs, he said, have as little as 5 percent coral left.

He also is seeking a state grant to track and map the seaweed spreading so rapidly off Palm Beach County and in the Keys. "That's what we haven't done yet," he said. "We need to see where it is today and predict where it might go next."

I was lucky enough to explore the Looe Key reef and others off Key West years ago, long before the seaweed invasion began. We worried about boat anchors breaking up coral, and even then dive boats were careful to tie up to established buoys. The reefs still were magical in their beauty, teeming with parrotfish, sergeant majors and other colorful, small tropicals. Like so much from the old Florida that has disappeared, those snorkeling expeditions live still in the vivid technicolor of my mind's eye. I want the next generation of ocean-lovers to see what I saw.

Mr. Lapointe's warnings about seaweed taking over reefs in Florida's Keys and off Palm Beach County have proved distressingly accurate. His research is aimed at finding solutions. The reefs' condition shows that he has a tight deadline.

sally_swartz@pbpost.com