Stop the study, fix the problem

Plans are afoot to begin studying ways to increase water flow in may of the Florida Keys canals, particularly those where water degradation is either worst or best, the first to improve the bad, the second to enhance the good.

This won’t be the first study done of what it would take to enhance water quality in the Keys’ hundreds of miles of residential canals, but it is the first time that funding has been defined that might result in actual work.

Initial plans call for canals where water quality is worst to be identified and the methods needed for water quality recovery to be outlined.

Initial priority will also be given to residential canals where wastewater treatment systems are already in place to enhance the gains supposedly made by the installation of those collection and treatment systems.

Both of those criteria will leave out a good many canals in the Lower Keys that are part of the proposed Cudjoe Regional Wastewater System. First, none of those canals along the 15-linear mile stretch of the Keys that will eventually be encompassed by the Cudjoe Regional system would be under consideration for the enhancement projects because any good done by the installation of a central collection system would be non-existent because the system is non-existent.

Second, many of the communities inside the boundaries of the proposed Cudjoe Regional have spent time and effort, and is some cases dollars, improving water flow and thus water quality on their own in the last two decades, some to the extent that canal water quality is already superior to many areas on central wastewater systems.

The initial planning also suggests that project funds be used in communities where active involvement already exists or can be cultivated.

The residential canals at Sugarloaf Shores, Summerland Key and Breezeswept Beach already have better-than-average water quality because of enhancement projects done at the urging of local residents, or simply because the original developments were done in a conscientious fashion.

That doesn’t mean, however, that Lower Keys canals couldn’t benefit as much or more from canal renovations as others that fit the limited criteria list.

The primary problems in canal water-quality degradation over the years have been the build up of silt, increasing oxygen-robbing sea life communities, and the original depth of the canals, many several feet lower than the receiver waters, limiting natural flushing and the canal health that comes with that.

Further out, plans are to find more money to dredge the oxygen-depleted silt from the canal bottoms and then backfill the canals to a depth closer to the depth of the receiver waters so natural tidal flushing can occur.

Those are great ideas, and not exactly new ones. A study done nearly a decade ago revealed where the issues are the greatest, and also outlined what work needs to be done to rehabilitate most of the canals.

It has been gathering dust on a shelf somewhere since then, like so many other studies done in the last 30 years with the greatest of intentions and a total lack of follow through.

With the huge amounts of money that have been spent, and that still must be spent to install central wastewater systems in the Keys, originally for the express purpose of improving our near-shore water quality, we shouldn’t waste time or money on another study.

Let’s get busy and do what we should have done 20 years ago.

There is money to be had, in the county budget, to match state and federal funds in grants if they can be obtained.

Monroe County currently carries from four to six months in reserve funds in nearly all of its accounts. Last year, county officials returned about $6 million to reserves to make up for the drunken-Sailor spending of five or six years ago. This year, that total dropped to some $2 million returned to reserves, adding to the cushion.

A cushion is a great idea in a county where the next big expense is a storm away, but there are limits on how “feel good” a bank account is, particularly when that account is made up of taxpayer dollars.

By using no more tax dollars than are collected right now, the county could allocate more than $1 million each year to canal enhancement work, either to match state and federal grant dollars or singly, and begin to make a huge dent in the issue in less than a decade.

We’ve studied enough. We’ve planned enough.

It’s time to get down to business and take near-shore water quality seriously.

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