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Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
LAKE WORTH — Dozens of residents, divers and environmentalists packed city hall Monday afternoon waiting to hear proof that a pristine reef will not be harmed by the reverse osmosis concentrate the city plans to dump nearby.
But presentations from the city and state Department of Environmental Protection officials did little to quell their fears that nutrients will harm Horseshoe Reef, the area's premiere diving locale.
  Video: See
underwater footage of the reefs, hear Ed Tichenor of Reef
RescueMap: Pipe and reef
Photos by John J. Lopinot / The Post A nurse shark swims over a coral head on the Horseshoe Reef off Lake Worth.
Ed Tichenor, Director of Palm Beach County Reef Rescue, uses a tape to measure a giant brain coral growing on the Horseshoe Reef off Lake Worth. Tichenor and Terry St. Jean (out of picture) found the coral to be about 4 feet in diameter, making it one of the oldest living creatures in Palm Beach County.
Ed Tichenor, Director of Palm Beach County Reef Rescue, surveys an outfall pipe that extends from Lake Worth Beach out to beyond the deep reef in about 92 feet of water.
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See more photos
"The reason you see a room full of people here is because we don't trust you," Lake Worth resident Raphael Clemente said Monday.
The DEP called the public meeting to address numerous concerns over a draft permit, which, if approved, will allow the city to discharge up to 4 million gallons of reverse osmosis concentrate about a mile offshore through a 30-inch, 92-foot-deep pipe that was once used to discharge sewage.
Those attending the meeting said they didn't feel the research conducted for the permit could guarantee that Horseshoe Reef, which is home to a 4-foot brain coral and thousands of fish, would not be damaged.
Drew Martin, a former city commission candidate and executive member of the Sierra Club, suggested the city dump the concentrate into the Intracoastal Waterway and build mangroves in the area, which thrive on nutrients.
Some questioned whether the city should be responsible for monitoring its own system and others suggested building the outfall pipe farther away from the reef.
No one who attended Monday's meeting questioned the need for an alternate water source for Lake Worth, which faces the threat of saltwater intrusion on its coastal well fields.
World-renowned coral reef expert Thomas Goreau said he's watch the degradation of Jamaican reefs from algae blooms for years. He believes the same thing will happen in Lake Worth if the reverse osmosis concentrate is dumped near the reef.
"The slime isn't just killing the corals," he said. "It's killing everything."
Canadian marine ecologist Michael Risk came to Lake Worth to discuss his research during the past year with the coral reef ecosystems in the Florida Keys. He said over the years the nutrient-caused algae blooms have reduced the coral coverage in the Keys from 60 percent to 4 percent. He is certain Lake Worth will have the same fate.
"What you should do here is pretty obvious to me," he said.
But three local experts the city hired explained that the reverse osmosis concentrate is not sewage and shouldn't be compared to wastewater discharges.
Paul McGinnes, who runs a local engineering consulting firm, held up a clear glass bottle of the reverse osmosis concentrate and compared it to a mixture of salt water and rain water.
"I think there has been a great deal of confusion over this," McGinnes said.
The city's experts also refuted research from marine ecologist Brian Lapointe, who has spent years studying Florida's coral reef ecosystem at Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution in Fort Pierce and established a threshold to determine how much nutrients, such as ammonia, nitrogen and phosphorus are needed to cause harmful algae blooms.
These experts said the dispersion models show the buoyant concentrate should quickly float to the top of the water, which means it will not come close to the reef. The models also show the concentrate will be diluted to an innocuous level just feet outside the outfall pipe.
The city has spent years meeting the DEP criteria for the permit and Utility Director Samy Faried believes the old outfall pipe is the most cost effective solution for the reverse osmosis system, which uses high pressure to push the brackish water from the Floridan Aquifer through a membrane to filter out salts and impurities. While deep well injection is another discharge alternative, the city said it will cost about $9 million more than using the outfall pipe.
DEP officials listened to hours of public comment Monday and will continue to accept written concerns until Friday, said Linda Brien, DEP water facilities administrator. After reviewing all the concerns, they soon will make a decision on whether or not to approve Lake Worth's draft permit.
City Commissioners Cara Jennings, Dave Vespo and Jo-Ann Golden attended Monday's meeting to hear the public's concerns.
Golden said she too has concerns about the reverse osmosis discharge and was glad the meeting had such a high turnout of concerned citizens.
"We have to really look at this carefully, because there could be the possibility of a federal lawsuit," she said. "We want to do what is right for the environment."
Attorney Barry Silver who is also the co-chair of Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition, told the DEP and city officials that he planned to file a lawsuit if the permit is issued.
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Comments
By orah
Jun 19, 2007 11:41 PM | Link to this
ORAH- bout time someone called him out, how about it wastewater guru ? Who do you work for and just what are your credentials BIG MOUTH ?
By Who R U ?
Jun 19, 2007 11:28 PM | Link to this
Dear Wastewaterguru- I have been following this carefully, and I think you sure are a cocky, verbal individual on this subject, so I am calling you out...
Just who is it that you work for, (I am betting some one who stands to lose some money if this project doesn't go forward as the city wants), and just what are your credentials that let you state with such authority that the masses of people responding to this isssue are ignorant laymen ? Are you a Scuba Diver ? Hmmm? Because if you don't have up close, first hand visual expierence with the impacts to our reefs I say you are the ignorant one, with an adavanced degree in B.S. to add to your evident self proclaimed water expertise.
And Yes, I stand high and proud atop my soapbox, spouting my concerned and intelligent opinion,(and admittedly I am less than 100% informed- and isn't that the problem here, a lack of information and research all around), beacause my humble podium stands in the middle of my organicaly maintained and xeriscaped yard, just outside the door to my energy effcient improved home with the once a day flushed toilets ! So with out your cheap insults, i invite you to answer...
By Lawrence Korn
Jun 19, 2007 3:48 PM | Link to this
This is in response to the Article dated 06/19/07 for the permit to allow the City of Lake Worth to discharge itıs RO reject water using an old sewer discharge pipe. Everyone with any science back ground knows that the solution to pollution is definitely not dilution. This seems to be the assumption that the nutrients left in reverse osmosis (RO) reject water will not be harmful to the environment.
Having experience in the environmental field for almost 30 years in S. Florida I have see discharges of trichloroethylene into the Indian River, chemicals from Solitron Electronic Devices into our aquifers, and literally hundreds of issues which have come up after the fact which we could not do anything about. Now we have an issue where we will permit Lake Worth to actually pollute legally. I am appalled at this information in todayıs newspaper.
We all know that our reefs serve many purposes including BARRIER beach protection, nurseries for aquatic organisms, complex food chains for our commercial and recreational fishing, and probably some answers to cures for cancer we have not discovered yet. Now we are going to go on a hunch that this discharge will not affect the reefs. I say stop. Please stop.
It is bad enough that we cannot prove that the underwater vents far off shore contain contaminants from our deep well injection of secondary treated wastewater. It is not enough that we cannot do anything about the runoff from homes, agriculture and industry into our coastal waterways which definitely reach the reefs off shore. I believe that the cumulative affect from all these poisons are causing detrimental consequences to our coastal reef communities.
Donıt we need to go in the opposite direction? Try and fix these issues one at a time? Why donıt we discharge these contaminants on land? Are they too concentrated? Is dilution the solution? I donıt think so. Is using a wetland for the discharge feasible, they do it with wastewater?
I am an environmental science teacher who tries to convey a positive outlook for our students and environmental stewards of the future. We try and convey a positive future where we are making progress for a cleaner water and air. This will only lead the way for other municipalities to discharge their reject water in the future while we are trying to mitigate issues from the past. I say dismantle the pipe and stop discharging any effluents in the future for it is bad enough the discharges we have that we cannot do anything about.
"We want to do what is right for the environment." Jo-Ann Golden said. (localnewsPBpost6/19/07)
So lets leave the environment alone. It has enough issues to worry about.
Lawrence Korn
By Think
Jun 19, 2007 1:28 PM | Link to this
$6 per month...that's all the average water user in Lake Worth will save by having the waste water pumped out near Horseshoe Reef as opposed to other methods like deep well injection. This is from Lake Worth's public utilities manager himself.
That's laughable! $6 per month per user and the City of Lake Worth is willing to contribute to the destruction of the last remaining live coral reef along this stretch of coastline.
Lake Worth's identity and cultural history are based upon it's proximity to the coast, fishing, diving, and "beach lifestyle." The City must think long term toward sustainable solutions and base such important decisions on how they will affect future generations - not just dollars and cents.
By LakeWorthGhost
Jun 19, 2007 11:06 AM | Link to this
Wes Blackman has great info on his blog about this and the beach! Wes is the former chairman of the LW P&Z anonymous.528e79991a@anonymousspeech.com
By LakeWorthGhost
Jun 19, 2007 11:05 AM | Link to this
Wes Blackman has great info on his blog about this and the beach! Wes is the former chairman of the LW P&Z anonymous.528e79991a@anonymousspeech.com
By Your Mother
Jun 19, 2007 9:00 AM | Link to this
At the public meeting FDEP wastewater permit writer Tim Powell asked for more public comment on this issue. He wants to hear from you. He requested your personal emails be sent directly to him and not from the Reef Rescue preformatted email sender.
You can send your personal comment to Tim Powell at:
Tim.Powell@dep.state.fl.us
By Jeff Clemens and the Chamber are in da house
Jun 19, 2007 8:05 AM | Link to this
All you people who voted Vespo,Lowe, Jeff Clemens and the new Lake Worth mafia, are you happpy now? Seriously. Beach parking wiped out, Starbucks on the beach, unbridled development. Ah back to the days of Romano.
At least Marc Drautz would have stopped this crap. These guys got elected saying Marc has done nothing. He was too busy stopping all this crap to do anything.
By Tom Pearce
Jun 19, 2007 8:00 AM | Link to this
As someone who worked for an organization (www.kftc.org Kentuckians For THe Commonwealth) that used the clean water act to stop the dumping of rubble left from the process of Mountaintop Removal in Kentucky (The dirtiest coal mining method known), into our streams and rivers?
After Bush came in it was just that. An Act. A federal judge stopped the practice. Bush appointed a new judge and had it thrown out.
As popular as lil Bush and his Bro arre in Florida I can tell you first hand that clean water means nothing ot this state or the federal govermnet. They just made it harder for wetlands to qualify as protected. Been to Wyoming or Montana lately? Where our pristine parks and national forests are being stripped and fas wells are going up every five feet? You used to look out on a Wyoming night and see stars. Now you see Methane exhaust burning all over the plain. How beautifil Bush has been for us. They are also allowing oil derricks closer and closer to Florida's coast line. FPL wants to build you "CLEAN COAL" energy. Clean my ***.
By WB
Jun 19, 2007 7:40 AM | Link to this
If the evironmentalists think that this is such a grave issue, let them fork up the 9 million for deep well injection or whatever the cost to extend the discharge line farther out towards the Gulf Stream.
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