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Studies within the County focus on biosolids related to Blue Cypress Lake, and not on implications to the Lagoon. The nutrient cycling, particularly of nitrogen, make it difficult to have a complete understanding of how biosolids impact groundwater, which may also provide a source for eutrophication of the Lagoon. While this moratorium addresses Class B biosolids, Class A and Class AA have been exempted from regulations due to their fertilizer status. Once classified as fertilizer, Class AA biosolids are no longer accurately tracked by any regulatory agency, nor restricted for use on only permitted lands, therefore there is a large gap in knowledge about the impact Class AA biosolids are having on the environment as a whole. As a point of clarification, there are no Class A biosolids producers within the State since the level of additional processing to turn that into Class AA is minimal, and the removal of restrictions on placement of Class AA makes the additional steps worthwhile for many producers. Class AA biosolids can also be found in fertilizers sold at local home goods stores. The state created a technical advisory committee for biosolids in order to address some of the state- wide issues with nutrient pollution. Their goals were to modify the permitting process to minimize impacts to waterbodies, increase frequency of inspections, develop site specific groundwater monitoring protocols, conduct more field research, and promote pilot projects that address alternative uses to biosolids. The state created a draft rule, which the County weighed -in heavily throughout the process. Revisions to the draft rule have been made, but a final ruling has not been established as of present. Pilot projects are currently being investigated on the feasibility of using biosolids to produce electricity, reuse water, and phosphate ash among other things. Utility Departments have expressed concerns about the cost and reliability of such innovative technologies since they are currently not shown to scale up to the sizes' needed to address the volumes of biosolids being generated. It is important to encourage studies on alternative ways to use biosolids, since biosolid tonnage is continually produced and landfills do not have unlimited storage capacities. 4. Ecosystem Functions and Habitat Use (Part 1) The Environmental Protection Agency classifies the Lagoon as one of 28 estuaries in the nation designated as an "Estuary of National Significance," which sets the foundation to create a place -based program to protect and restore the water quality and ecological integrity of that estuary. Studies have shown that the Lagoon is used at some point throughout their life cycles by approximately 4,000 unique organisms, making it a biologically diverse ecosystem. Some utilize the Lagoon for their entire life while others for only a portion; both of which are equally important to our estuary. This update will focus on seagrasses, filter feeders, and finfish within the County's portion of the Lagoon. Seagrass mapping has and continues to occur throughout the Lagoon. SJRWMD maps seagrass every 2 to 3 years, starting in 1986, along with coverage from 1943. This data, when compared over time, allows us to understand the trends in local seagrass populations and distribution. Based on this data from SJRWMD, seagrass beds within the County appear to be doing better when compared to seagrasses as a whole for the Lagoon. Within the Northern Indian River Lagoon seagrass map data, where the County falls, seagrass loss was observed from 2009-2011, decreased in 2012, increased between 2013-2015, and again decreased in 2016 and in 2017. Estimates of mean percent coverage within the footprint of seagrass beds have decreased since 2001. From 2011 to present, the loss of coverage appears to be related to decreases in light transmissivity filtering through the water column possibly due to prolonged algae 95