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Center lands on beach pollution list

A 2004 report revealed unsafe levels of fecal bacteria in the waters near the facility.

By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET and REBECCA CATALANELLO
Published August 16, 2005

PORT RICHEY - The Energy and Marine Center was supposed to be the perfect outdoor classroom, a place where school children could wade through knee-deep coastal waters, look at marsh snails and fiddler crabs, and catch young fish with seine nets - all in the name of science.

Within the past few years, however, the facility has become a textbook example of something else: Pasco County's polluted coastline.

Based on chronic reports of high bacteria counts last year, the facility has earned the No. 7 spot among Florida's Top 15 Polluted Beaches. The list was compiled by the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that issues annual reports on U.S. beach pollution.

The group found that 23 percent of the water samples collected from the Energy and Marine Center last year contained unsafe levels of fecal bacteria.

The water was off-limits for six months last year under advisories issued by the Pasco County Health Department, which conducts the bacteria testing.

"It's just disappointing when we get that notice, because there are so many wonderful things they could be doing and learning out there," said Kim Davis, science supervisor for the Pasco County School District, which runs the facility.

The advisories have become so common that the district changed its field trip format for the center last year. Elementary students no longer are allowed to spend any time in the water, Davis said.

High school students were allowed in the water during about 10 days last year.

But that was only if an advisory wasn't in effect, Davis said.

The marine center sits on 10 acres of saltwater wetlands featuring scrubby hammock communities and leafy mangroves. During the past 31 years, hundreds of thousands of children have visited the marine center on field trips.

Closed temporarily during the 2003-04 school year due to budgetary concerns, the center reopened on a limited basis in August 2004. But plans are in order this year to again serve as a field trip site for all the elementary schools in the county, Davis said.

Although they can't go in the water, Davis said, the kids still can look at tanks of native fish, explore the mangrove and fiddler crab populations, and handle oysters that the marine center teacher retrieves from the Gulf of Mexico.

The cause of the pollution is anyone's guess. In general, fecal bacteria comes from lawn fertilizers, leaky septic systems or animal waste. But the health department officials say their tests are simply designed to detect the bacteria, not pinpoint the source.

"We don't have an answer of why the counts go up and down," said Greg Crumpton, environmental supervisor for the Pasco County Health Department.

He doubts the problem is septic systems. There aren't any within a mile of the center, Crumpton said.

But Mother Nature might shoulder some of the blame. The nearby Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park is home to scores of birds. It's possible their droppings are contributing to the contamination, Crumpton said.

And like most Pasco beaches, the Energy and Marine Center sits on shallow, semienclosed waters.

"When the waters are that shallow and you don't get the flow or the circulation ... I would assume that may play a role in it," health department director Dr. Marc Yacht said.

Another Pasco beach, Oelsner Park Beach, made the list of Florida's Top 15 Polluted Beaches. It tied for the No. 15 spot with St. George Island in Franklin County and Cedar Key in Levy County.

The Natural Resources Defense Council found that 16 percent of the water samples from Oelsner Park Beach last year had unsafe levels of fecal bacteria. Water advisories prompted parks officials to close the beach for 20 weeks last year.

The bacteria rarely are life-threatening but can cause diarrhea or vomiting, particularly in children, the elderly and people with impaired immune systems.

[Last modified August 16, 2005, 01:29:18]