Florida Water Quality for Reefs and Human Health 2008

Environmental News for Florida; the last 30 days

This Florida News briefing made possible from the sale of Green License Plates and EarthRehab

Florida has been a hot spot for Environmental News over the last 30 days. I would like to highlight and link to a few great moments.

June 24, 2008- Governor Crist tells US Sugar to pack their bags and buys back a section of the “River of Grass.”
The Sugar Deal

July 7-11, 2008- To kick off the 11th International Coral Reef Symposium, Governor Charlie Crist signed a bill to close all of the sewage pipes that pump 300 million gallons of untreated sewage into the Atlantic Gulf-stream. Ed Tichenor and Reef Rescue of the Palm Beaches get the hard won victory and credit.
The Sewage Deal

July 16, 2008- Surfrider Foundation and the City of Lake Worth join in a lawsuit to stop the useless Dredge and Fill projects that suffocate the Reefs.
The Dredge Lawsuit

July 16, 2008- Ciguatera Outbreak, 5 cases reported in Florida. Ciguatera is a disease caused when you eat reef fish that have consumed Harmful Algae Blooms.
The Ciguatera Outbreak

July 17, 2008- EarthJustice files a lawsuit for Clean Water Act enforcement in Florida vs. Harmful Algae Blooms.
The Clean Water Lawsuit

Help celebrate Environmental Victories and support Nature Research with the 100% Bright Blank Recycled Green License Plate by EarthRehab.Check out the photos.

Water Quality Monitoring and TMDL

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The Term Water Quality Monitoring and Abbreviations WQMS and TMDL will become more familiar over the next century.
The simple fact that our Current System for calculating TMDL or Total Maximum Daily Loads for a Water Quality Monitoring Standard is broken.You could spend an entire week researching future and past meeting minutes and power point presentations regarding WQMS and come to the only conclusion, our current Water Quality Monitoring System is broken; and the standard for judging clean healthy water is broken.
Here are the Minutes for a meeting in December 2007:
http://acwi.gov/monitoring/minutes/san_diego_120407.html

If any Group or Foundation claims to be a Coral Reef Initiative, the very first step should be a Water Quality Monitoring Program.Without a Water Quality Monitoring Program in place and working they are just spinning their wheels and wasting their investors money.

EarthRehab has established a Coral Reef Initiative in which Phase 1 is to establish a Water Quality Monitoring Program for South East Florida and The Atlantic Ocean Gulf-stream.

The funding for this program is made possible solely by the sale of Our Green License Plate, with proceeds to benefit Nature Research.visit www.earthrehab.com

Coral Reef Bleaching, Lost at Sea

February 10, 2008 finally the water conditions appeared good enough to dive Coral Cove Park in Jupiter.

It has been at least 3 months of waiting, the photo's above are what I saw.

I am not too sure whether this is a living coral or the remains of a dead bleached coral.

I do know that it was not here 3 months ago.

I felt Lost at Sea, I used to know every nook and cranny of this Reef Park, I recognized nothing.

Is this the end for the Living Reef Eco-systems in North Palm Beach?

Flickr slideshow of pollution effects from Jupiter, Fl

Flickr slideshow of Pollution and effects at Jupiter Inlet, Fl
just a click away..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/18565170@N07/sets/72157603473963347/

EarthRehab Coral Reef Initiative

100% non-profit/ non-funded Coral Reef Initiative for Florida.

Hello Ocean Eco-Activists,

I wanted to give you an update regarding our Water Quality Monitoring program for Palm Beach County. (on hold for now)

As I mentioned before, we were interested in finding out if the public would support a Non-profit/Non-funded Independent Water Quality Monitoring program with donations.

Pilot Phase 1 of the project would include: (collaboration not partnerships)
A) EarthRehab and Volunteers (possibly Jupiter High School Environment Club) to collect the Live water samples and obtain data like temperature, salinity, date, time, visibility, current tide status, and photography.
B) Samples would be delivered to Reef Rescue for fecal coliform bacterium testing.
C) Test results would be deciphered by SEFCRI, made public, and copies would be sent directly to the sponsors.

I submitted several news stories regarding my intentions and posted on-line in Forums and Message Boards including YourHub, Topix, Palm Beach Post, Orlando Sentinel, Sun-Sentinel and many others.
Unfortunately I could not find a pulse or get any response from the general public without the support of BIG media.

From December 14th up to our current date several Funds and Grants have been made available from EPA, and DEP (millions) to establish and maintain a WQM program.

We (EarthRehab) have invited the EPA and DEP to discuss the funding further and have approached the Dept. of Agriculture for appropriate legal direction.

I will continue to seek for the Media to announce our program and its mission.
‘An Independent WQM program for the Atlantic Ocean and Florida’s Future.’

Cordially,

William Djubin
Founder
EarthRehab
www.mygreenlicenseplate.com