About 30 people put their heads together after peering into Safety Harbor, some nostalgically, and realizing that it could be healthier.
By AARON SHAROCKMAN
Published October 11, 2003
[Times photo: Jim Damaske]
Murky water in Old Tampa Bay laps against the shoreline along Philippe Park in Safety Harbor. About 30 water officials met to talk Thursday about the state of upper part of Old Tampa Bay at a committee meeting of the Agency on Bay Management.
Oldsmar Vice Mayor Don Bohr can remember oyster fisherman wading along the northern end of Old Tampa Bay in Safety Harbor. Mayor Jerry Beverland recalls big blue crabs, white sandy beaches and clear water, straight to the harbor floor.
Now most of the fish have left, the sandy beaches are all gone, and no one's looking for oysters.
Instead, local officials are searching for answers, and hoping for some help.
Bohr, Beverland and council member Jim Ronecker, along with City Manager Bruce Haddock and public works director John Mulvihill listened Thursday as county and state water experts discussed what's wrong with the upper portion of Old Tampa Bay, and more important, how to fix it.
But every answer led to more questions, and after a while, it was clear, work reclaiming an old waterway has just started.
"We can't jump to conclusions on what's the source of the problem or how to remedy it," said Anthony Janicki, president of Janicki Environmental Inc., a St. Petersburg environmental consulting firm. "We need more data. We need more study."
Janicki was one of about 30 water officials who met to talk about the state of the upper part of Old Tampa Bay at a committee meeting of the Agency on Bay Management. There, the prognosis for Safety Harbor ranged from "not unusual" to "a little concerning."
Since 1950, there have been significant increases in nitrogen and sediment in Safety Harbor, Janicki said. Phosphate has also increased, but not as quickly.
The news isn't good. All three are pollutants that keep fish away and make the water murky.
But given the residential and industrial growth of the area, Janicki said it could be a lot worse.
In the 1950s, 380 tons of suspended solids flowed into the bay every year. Now, that number has been projected at 1,400 tons a year, more than tripling the amount of particles in the water.
The amount of nitrogen in the water, which causes algae growth and disrupts other estuary life, also has tripled in the past 50 years, Janicki said. But again, that's fairly common, he said.
"Shoreline habitats have certainly changed due to the urbanization in the region," Janicki said. "What the other factors are, we don't know."
Instead of rainwater seeping into the ground surrounding the harbor, it flows across the concrete and asphalt of developed areas to retention ponds or directly to the harbor. On the way, it can pick up pollutants.
Seagrass is a good barometer of water quality. The more seagrass, generally the healthier the water is, said Dave Tomasko, who works with the Southwest Florida Water Management District, a state agency that protects regional water resources.
Tomasko said there is "no doubt" Tampa Bay is healthier than it was 20 years ago, as evidenced by significant seagrass growth.
But seagrass growth in Safety Harbor has remained nearly fixed over the past 20 years and is currently slightly lower than 1990 levels, Tomasko said. Trends across much of the rest of the bay are reversed.
But "the fact that we're not deteriorating is pretty good," Tomasko said. He also said there have been traditionally low levels of seagrass in Safety Harbor, much lower than Mobbly Bay just east, for instance.
Beverland said he was concerned that a canal connecting Lake Tarpon and Safety Harbor that discharges 3- to 20-billion gallons of fresh water into the estuary each year might be contaminating the water.
The Lake Tarpon Outfall Canal was opened in 1972 to ease flooding for residents in and around Lake Tarpon during heavy rains. When the lake's water level at the north end of the canal rises above 3.2 feet, floodgates open and drain the lake to under 3 feet.
The runoff moves south down a manmade canal that empties in Safety Harbor. Beverland said that ever since that canal opened, the water quality near the canal's mouth has suffered.
"It's nothing but muck now. Muck," Beverland said. "I know that outfall serves a purpose, but in my opinion, that outfall canal has destroyed parts of Safety Harbor.
"We have no fish, but we have all of the muck in the world."
Janicki, Tomasko and others said the canal is not the only culprit. It may, in fact, be playing only a small factor in the current state of Safety Harbor. Much more likely, they say, is the massive development in the past 50 years surrounding that part of the bay as well as the 52-square-mile watershed the harbor serves.
Either way, Pinellas County environmental planners are working on a way to store up to 500-million gallons of runoff water each year in underground wells known as aquifer storage and recovery wells. The effort to curb county water shortages could cut the freshwater flow into Safety Harbor by 17 percent.
The county has started seeking permits to build the first well, 250 feet below John Chestnut Sr. Park, to hold 90-million gallons of water. That project, which needs approval from Pinellas County commissioners, is at least three years from use and could cost $1.8-million.
The county is considering building two to four additional aquifer storage wells in the area, said Andy Squires, with the county department of environmental management.
It's just one part of a huge puzzle that water management officials are starting to try to piece together.
"A lot of us just found out, and I'm included, that we have a diverse set of information that has never been put together before," said George Henderson, chairman of the Agency on Bay Management's natural resources/environmental impact review committee. "Once we pull all of this data together, and grab some more information, I think we'll be able to come up with a pretty thorough plan of attack."
