HOLMES BEACH – As members of the city’s Clean Water Ad-Hoc Committee seek solutions to water quality issues already plaguing the area, Mayor Judy Titsworth wants them to shift focus to their overall goal – prevention.
Committee members met recently to get water testing results, review feedback from city commissioners and hear from Suncoast Waterkeeper Chair Rusty Chinnis, The Sun’s outdoors columnist.
During the meeting, Titsworth stepped up to the podium to talk about different devices that could be used to remediate algae problems around Anna Maria Island. She said that none of the devices she’s seen so far are really impressive in their capabilities. She also added that while using a device to churn the water and push lyngbya algae mats out of canals and into the bay would help improve the quality of life for residents, it doesn’t solve the problem, which is preventing the algae blooms in the first place.
“It’s a Band-Aid,” she said of the devices. “The big goal is prevention.”
Members of the committee agreed, but some said they’d like to look into the possibility of using skimmers to remove the algae mats from the top of the water. The problem with those, Titsworth said, is that once captured, the algae needs to be disposed of. She said that some of the skimmers would break up algae, which would also cause it to sink, decomposing on the bottom of waterways and creating excess nitrogen, which causes waterways to deteriorate.
“We have to fix the water,” committee member Scott Ricci said. “If we fix the water, the algae goes away.”
Chinnis told the committee that local waterways have lost approximately 15 years’ worth of seagrass in just three years, illustrating the issue of deteriorating water quality. He encouraged committee members to do everything possible to get in front of politicians to demand change and work to prevent problems rather than focus on dealing with the aftermath.
Chinnis said that he doesn’t think using equipment to push algae blooms around or to skim them off the top of the water will help. With such large algae mats forming, along with fish kills and red tide algae, he said that even with skimming some off the top, too much material will still sink and decompose, leading to higher nitrogen levels that encourage more lyngbya and red tide blooms.
Steve Swan gave committee members the results of a water quality test conducted in the 59th Street canal in Holmes Beach. He said that not only is the nitrogen level in the sample very high at over 12 milliliters per liter, but the algae level also is extremely high. The test to see how much oxygen is in the water showed that the area’s waterways are very stressed, with oxygen levels depleted, Swan said.
Committee members agreed to put more of their $30,000 budget toward water sampling, testing drinking water and algae remediation efforts. They also plan to provide freelance employee support to the city, if needed, to manage a website giving tips and advice to the public on how to change actions to prevent excess nutrients and algae in area waterways.
