Water quality tops discussion at GPICA meeting
Calusa Waterkeeper Emeritus John Cassani was invited to give a presentation on the Basin Management Plan at the January meeting of the Greater Pine Island Civic Association.
Cassani began by saying it has been his experience that Pine Islanders are typically more informed on issues pertaining to water quality than anyone. There are two BMAPS available in Lee County, he said. One is called the Everglades Westcoast and the other is the Caloosahatchee BMAP, both addressing low dissolved oxygen and nutrients as a causative agent.
“(Caloosahatchee BMAP) started out as the Estuary-Caloosahatchee Estuary BMAP and in 2019 — it was pretty much consensus to include the rest of the impaired water bodies in the fresh water river — that would be upstream of the Franklin Lock, so they now call it the Caloosahatchee Watershed BMAP … it includes all the impairments all the way up to the lake,” Cassani said.
When a water body does not meet state water quality standards and no longer supports its designated uses, the Clean Water Act requires the states to restore those waters, he said. The Caloosahatchee Estuary was verified impaired with Chlorophyll A, he said. The TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) which sets the restoration targets, was adopted by the state in 2009.
The BMAP process measures success based on presumptions about projects that will reduce the pollutant load in question, Cassani said.
“If a local government like Cape Coral does a project to improve water quality in the context of total nitrogen, then the state has a magic formula for saying, ‘Well then we’re gonna give you so many pounds of total nitrogen load reduction credits.’ That’s where it begins to fall apart,” Cassani said.
When success is measured mostly by load reduction credits from projects, he said, the net change is going unchecked, such as the increase in nitrogen over time, as a result of things such as urbanization, additional agriculture and landscape change. In most cases, the amount of total nitrogen is going up. According to Cassani, the state sets the bar low enough that something pretty serious would have to happen for the state to pay attention.
“The DEP just came out with a press release that said, ‘We’ve achieved 80 percent of our load reduction credit’ — how’s that possible? It just flies in the face of their own data,” Cassani said.
In the recent Chiquita Lock hearing, Cassani said, the only way the DEP could have issued the permit for the lock removal was to do compensatory mitigation that exceeded 58,000 pounds of nitrogen per year. In order to meet the compensatory mitigation, Cassani said, the city of Cape Coral would have to come up with projects equaling 58,000 pounds. They came up with enough to equal approximately 20,000 pounds, he said, adding that the majority came from the previously earned BMAP credits.
“If you look at the scope and intent of the water quality trading rule — this is an actual rule in Florida — it’s supposed to be bringing credits to the BMAP-projects that help the BMAP go forward. In this case, they subtracted what they consider excess BMAP credits for total nitrogen and applied it to this permit application to remove the Chiquita Lock permanently,” Cassani said.
To watch this meeting in its entirety, please visit the GPICA Facebook page, or to read the minutes, visit GPICA.org.
GPICA Board of election nominations may still be made at next month’s meeting, Feb. 6, however, nominations made will not be on the ballot.
N GPICA Board Elections — nominations made by GPICA nominating committee; members may also make nominations from the floor or via email to info@GPICA.org. Those nominated must be members in good standing (current in your dues) for six months prior to nomination.
The next GPICA meeting will be held at Pine Island United Methodist Church
5701 Pine Island Road, NW, Bokeelia and livestream starting at 6:30 p.m. on Feb. 6. The main speaker will be Robert Ballard of the Calusa Land Trust.
To reach PAULETTE LeBLANC / pleblanc@breezenewspapers.com, please email