The following was sent by Manasota-88 which has done much to fight the phosphate destruction in Mosaic’s region of Florida.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
jim.tatum@oursantaferiver.org
– A river is like a life: once taken,
it cannot be brought back © Jim Tatum
FOCUS ON WATER
Water is a finite resource that can no longer be treated as free, good to be exploited, and polluted at will and without penalty.
The effects of over pumping of groundwater resulting in declining water tables and saltwater intrusions and of pollution of our surface and groundwater, cannot be ignored.
Groundwater systems or other freshwater supplies are crucial to the use of our coast. Without an adequate supply of drinking water, people cannot continue to live in our coastal area. The demand for water by agriculture and industry, especially where there is competition for potable water, creates major conflicts. Shortages of potable water are also caused by saltwater intrusion from over pumping.
Surface impoundments such as Lake Manatee are particularly susceptible to water quality problems such as eutrophication. The vast quantities stored in our Floridan Aquifer are susceptible to pollution from highly mineralized or saline water if withdrawal rates exceed area recharge capabilities, which appears to be happening now along our coast.
The natural limitations of groundwater utilization and surface water storage when combined with the substantial population growth of our area present supply and demand problems to our water resource managers and the major municipal, industrial, and agricultural water users. To obtain more water, these users are looking at rivers, lakes, and wellfields, causing potential intensified conflicts between human water demands and the needs of natural systems. The latter is becoming more acute in our area.
In Sarasota County, existing water quality and quantity problems are of serious concern. Also, many of the existing public and private sources of groundwater supplies are subject to saltwater intrusions and are unable to meet federal standards for fluorides, iron, sulfates, total dissolved solids, and radium 226.
Conventional treatment, reverse osmosis, or electro dialysis, to correct these problems is expensive, energy intensive and often uses large amounts of water in the process.
The Myakka River is not a suitable source of water because of adverse impacts upon the natural systems. There is also a potential for contamination of the river by phosphate mining in the headwaters of the Myakka.
Manatee County is concerned that it may have insufficient quantities of freshwater. Because of phosphate mining and its demands upon our groundwater resources, it is doubtful enlarging the existing reservoir or constructing additional detainment structures from Lake Manatee is practical.
Other sites showing excellent potential of good quality groundwater are also affected by phosphate mining. In fact, all surface and groundwater systems in Manatee and Sarasota Counties flow from under areas under phosphate mining control.
To prevent the eventual loss of our existing water supplies, increase levels of control of the activities and their associated problems are essential because of three interdependent factors.
First, all lakes and reservoirs are subject to the natural aging process called eutrophication. Nutrients and sediments entering the reservoirs from human activities within the watersheds greatly accelerate this natural aging process. Secondly, reservoirs act as “sinks” for pollutants entering them – that is, many pollutants tend to he held or trapped in the sediments and vegetation of the reservoir and recycled within the reservoir systems. While each reservoir discharges during the rainy season, the discharge is not adequate to flush the accumulated pollutants out of the reservoir and downstream. Last, the reservoirs are used as drinking water supplies. The cost of water treatment and potential public health problems in the event of treatment plant breakdown are directly related to the quality of the raw water used.
Freshwater is a finite resource in relatively short supply; there are no easy answers to remedying local water quantity problems and finally, existing water quality problems can be controlled.
However, unless phosphate mining is stopped, the future prognosis for our surface and groundwater will be severely impacted from mining activities.
The water resource regime will be changed before mining even begins when all vegetation is stripped from an area. This will eliminate plant evapotranspiration intake of water from the soil and the release of water from all living plant tissues. Small climate changes will result which can significantly alter rainfall. Natural flow patterns and storage capacities will be demolished as will be natural recharge areas.
In addition to our ground and surface water being polluted from various mining operations, withdrawals from mining operations from the deep groundwater system will further divert water that normally seeps through the aquifer south and west through Sarasota County.
Every year there is a drawdown of our aquifer. During the rainy seasons it rebounds but never to quite the same level as the year before. New withdrawals may permit further saltwater intrusion into our groundwater.
Decreases in the level of our aquifer also increase water pumping costs for landowners in the phosphate mining regions.
Mining activities release radioactive materials into the groundwater. Both the projected drawdown in the aquifer and contaminants from mining operations including recharge wells may threaten the well water supplies of many Manatee County residents. The decline of water quality and quantity from mining is inevitable.
Based upon Southwest Florida’s dependence upon a potable water source and the severe consequences that would result from pollution caused by phosphate mining activities upstream, phosphate companies should be constrained from mining in potable watersheds.
Many politicians see no reason that phosphate mining can’t be uninhibited and mindless, as it has always been.
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