11/15/2016 (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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SPOONBILL MARSH FACT SHEET The following points are facts supported by scientific evidence. What is clear is that the County and its officers have invested so heavily in the marsh system and have lied to the public about its effectiveness. We do not attempt to address potential problems with Osprey Marsh or Egret Marsh, but we do know that these have reporting issues as well. The bottom line is that Spoonbill Marsh, which is in reality a liquid toxic waste dump, is not operating as designed or permitted. When properly investigated by an independentagency, this should be grounds for legal action to stop illegal discharges of toxic and untreated wastewater. County Commission chairman Bob Solari has aggressively defended the marsh system and is currently basing his re-election campaign on the benefits to the county these marshes provide. Clearly this is disinformation at best. Salient points: • Spoonbill Marsh is not properly functioning and not being properly maintained by the county, specifically as to how it collects and reports data. • On the record, based on the official self-reported and unaudited DMR figures from January, 2015 to June, 2016, Spoonbill takes in on average 2.99 million gallons per day of toxic brine and water from the Indian River Lagoon. The number can vary somewhat according to weather and other factors. • Approximately 0.5 to 1.0 million gallons run out of Spoonbill a day. IRC claims that an average of 2.28 million gallons is pumped out but their figures are contradicted by site visits by experts. The county doesn't have a system in place to meter the outfall, as required by the permit, so they go by their own best estimate. • Given this disparity, approximately 2.0 to 2.5 million gallons of effluent (untreated wastewater) is unaccounted for every day. That totals almost 1 billion gallons unaccounted for each year. • The county audits itself and reports its findings to the DEP. By the county's self -audit report no missing water has ever been reported giving the appearance of a "don't ask, don't tell" policy between the DEP and the County. This 'tacit agreement' between the county and the DEP has been going on since Spoonbill's inception. • By design there should be 2 outfalls for Spoonbill water. As per independent site inspection, only one outfall is in use. The other to the north has apparently not worked for years. Therefore all effluent MUST go through the one functioning outfall. As a condition of the permit all discharges must go through these outfalls. Obviously the majority of this unaccounted for water is going somewhere else. • The difference in the amount of input and outfall cannot be accounted for by evaporation leaving the question "where is this water going?" • A 1 inch rainfall adds about 1.8 million gallons to the unaccountable wastewater volume.