July 27, 2007 — Heightened permit requirements and regular septic clean outs were part of a draft implementation plan to clean up Salt River Bay Watershed presented by Anita E. Nibbs Thursday to a public meeting at the Salt River National Historic Park visitor’s center.
Nibbs is an environmental assessor for the Division of Environmental Protection of the Department of Planning and Natural Resources.
The federal Clean Water Act requires states and territories to develop a list every even-numbered calendar year of impaired waters needing a limit on total maximum daily loads of pollutants, or TMDLs. In order for an impaired body of water to attain water-quality standards, a TMDL must be developed and implemented specifically for that body of water and its pollutants. It is an assessment of the amount of pollution the water can assimilate while still meeting federal water-quality standards.
State and territories must identify and rank the pollutants. DPNR maintains its own list of compromised waters, but automatically removes bodies for which a federal TMDL is created, as well as when the quality of water improves. The TMDL developed for the Salt River Bay in 2004 established the basic structure for regulating discharges. Dissolved oxygen — or rather a lack of oxygen — is the issue of concern.
“The impairment is suggested to be the result of contamination from non point sources, including the marina,” Nibbs wrote in the draft plan. Violations of federal minimum levels were documented in 1998, 2002 and 2004. The TMDL was designed to prevent the oxygen level from falling below 5.5 milligrams per liter.
“Today is an implementation meeting,” Nibbs said Thursday. “We have this TMDL and we want to both get knowledge out to the public and get public input.”
The plan is a working document and subject to change, she emphasized.
“This is a draft plan — a very, very draft plan,” Nibbs said. “We picked up and put information in, but there will be a lot more. The government bodies will cooperate and assist with components of the plan. We are working on an implementation plans and we wanted to get your input.”
At the outset of the meeting, Shaniece Theodore of DPNR’s environmental protection division explained that a watershed is an area of land with a single common drainage point. She provided an overview of the problems at Salt River Bay.
“Low levels of oxygen pose a threat to life,” Theodore said. “Warm water lowers the oxygen absorption of the water and then pollution lowers it further. Some causes of low oxygen include failed septic systems. Most of the Salt River area is not ideally suited for septic systems.”
Other likely factors, she said, are household chemicals, pet waste, storm runoff and contaminants from the nearby marina, with paints and coatings containing heavy metals such as copper and tin. Additionally, landscaping and land clearing lead to silting and sedimentation, she said.
Ways to protect the watershed include disposing of chemical properly, draining septic tanks every three years, planting native vegetation, properly disposing of oil, maintaining vehicles properly so they don’t leak or give off oil and other chemicals and implementing standardized best-management practices for construction. The draft plan includes heightened permitting requirements, more enforcement of rules about earth moving and the laying of silt-control mesh, mandatory draining of septic tanks, restrictions on where new septic systems are allowed and increased public outreach and education, among other actions.
Nibbs encouraged concerned residents to get involved and help with water-quality monitoring.
“I would love a public-private partnership,” she said. “Now that you guys have met each other, you can form groups to look at water quality. Federal funding is being cut all the time, as you know. We would love to partner with private citizens helping to monitor the water quality … we’ll help get you guys train and we’ll come and help with the monitoring some of the time.”
The audience consisted of about 20 nearby residents, St. Croix environmental activists and media personnel, and Nibbs took questions.
“In the 1960s they built a dam,” said Hugh Bulkley, manager of Salt River Marina. “In 2000, the government allowed a homeowner to remove a 40-foot high dam, which must have increased erosion and sedimentation.”
As each audience member raised a concern, Nibbs would give it a number and add it to a list she had on an easel, headed “Concerns.” Nibbs said she’d look into the issue, and the first item on the list was “removal of dam.”
Bulkley also said sewage dumped into the sea when sewer system pipes break is flowing up into Salt River, possibly adding to the problems.
“We are studying issues related to that right now,” Nibbs said. “If that turns out to be so, we will get back to you. The territory has been doing better; we don’t have these discharges as often or as severely as we used to.”
On the list it went.
“When I came here 19 or 20 years ago, that little river used to run,” Bulkley said. “Now … all the natural flow has been cut off.”
Nibbs said she would look into that.
“Every bird that nests their puts their droppings into the water and the leaves that fall also put organic matter into the water,” said Richard Difede. “Have you looked into these causes of low oxygen and bacteria?”
Nibbs said they examined organic loading, but not in those terms.
“I looked at domesticated and feral animals,” she said. “But not wild fauna and that may be worth looking at.” And it went on the list.
Another resident, John Farchette, suggested the possibility of aerating the water mechanically, as some stateside marinas do.
After an hour of questions, Nibbs had a list of 19 or 20 concerns on her list. She said there would be another public meeting in the first quarter of next year, at which point she would have an updated plan.
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