Water Lectures for November 2008

Good to the last drop: Water Lectures for November 2008
Palm Beach and Martin County Florida

Friday November 7th- Friends of the Loxahatchee River Meeting
The meeting is at noon at the River Center and a light lunch will be served. Our guest speaker will be David Roach from the Florida Inland Navigation District. He will present a brief history of the Atlantic Intercoastal Waterway and its current use and management.
Contact Jocelyn P. O'Neill Environmental Education Coordinator for more details.
http://www.loxahatcheeriver.org/environmental_center.php

Tuesday November 11th- Palm Beach Reef Research Team
The meeting is held from 7pm-9pm on the 2nd Tuesday of each month in Building 509 of the ERM complex. For more information contact Lin Creel
http://www.pbcrrt.org/

Thursday November 13th - Loggerhead Marine Life Center Lecture
“Changing Tides: Strategies to Protect America’s Oceans." From 6:30-9pmGuest Speaker: David White, Director, Ocean Conservancy. Wine and Cheese reception is included. Cost is $5 for LMC members and $8 non-members. Seating limited; RSVP is required. Contact Loggerhead MLC
http://www.marinelife.org/eventscalendar

Saturday November 17th- Tequesta Harvest Festival Lecture
“The State of the Oceans; first Global then Local”; 2 presentations regarding Florida’s impending water crisis. Guest Speakers: Terry Gibson and William Djubin.
At 1:30pm speakers will present an informative view into the most current state of our global ocean eco-systems. William will discuss Reef Check, EPA Clean Water Act, inland waters impaired and salt water intrusion action.Then at 3:30 PM he will discuss the state of Florida Reefs, speaking on a local level about the same topics as abovehttp://www.tequesta.org/index.asp?NID=466

30 Days in Florida; Environment News

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.

EarthRehab & World Ocean Day 2008 recap and photos

EarthRehab & World Ocean Day 2008 recap and photos

We celebrated World Ocean Day on June 7th and 8th for 2008.
EarthRehab joined the Friends of Jupiter Beach at 8am for a beach cleanup, and made sure that any volunteer that participated received a Green License Plate complimentary.
The Green License Plate campaign is a fundraiser for Nature Research. The Worlds most productive and respected Environmental Foundations and Sanctuaries receive the proceeds from the sale of the $10 plate. Visit EarthRehab today and see who is involved.

One June 7th and 8th at 11am we arrived at Coral Cove Park in Jupiter for a Group Snorkel.

EarthRehab explained the different habitats the group would encounter, Live Rock, Brown Algae, Worm Rock, Sponge, Red Algae, Sea Grass, and Limestone. We expected to see many Tropical Fish on the Reef because the visibility was greater than 20’.

So what did the Ocean Adventurers see underneath the water on this Coral Reef Eco-system?
A Green Sea Turtle, Manatee, Barracuda, Snook, Jacks, Blue Fish, Cuttlefish, French Grunt, Hog Fish, Angel Fish, Damsel Fish, Gobies, Blennies, Sergeant Major, Basslet, Parrotfish, Blue head Wrasse, and a Nurse Shark.

EarthRehab explained that the fish stock levels were down due to the Algae and Sediment buildup. Then to illustrate the point we took a deck brush out to the reef and cleaned small sections to allow the snorkelers an opportunity to see the Mature Purple Live Rock beneath. As we scrubbed the reef massive amounts of Tropical Fish showed their appreciation and searched the Live Rock for Invertebrate Worms.
The mature Live Rock that is present on this Reef could host several species of Invertebrate Soft Corals and Sponges if given the chance.

Learn more about the EarthRehab Coral Reef Initiative Here.

Water Quality Monitoring and TMDL

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 http://www.earthrehab.com/

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2 Water Quality Monitoring Advocates added to site

In celebration of the International Year of the Reef 2008

EarthRehab & the Green License Plate campaign has added these 2 Outstanding Coral Reef Activists Foundations for Proceeds:

1. Reef Check- a Worldwide Ocean Advocate that has Global Leadership in addressing the current State of our Reefs, Water Quality Monitoring efforts, and Collaboration effectiveness for bringing about change
2. Reef Rescue of Palm Beach County- A Florida based Coral Reef Advocate with an on-going commitment to legislation and action vs. Ocean Sewage Pollution and a stricter Water Quality Monitoring Program utilizing collaborative efforts to bring about change.
We are very pleased to also add a MetaTag link for IYOR 2008 to our Foundations Links Page.

Visit EarthRehab today. Follow this link.

Water Quality Standards

Mentorship received a few years back:
A 2 time General manager of the Year at the #3 busiest restaurant in Orlando held a meeting with his Mgmt. team, I was a member and was present.
He asked for the current Assistant General Manager to leave the table and go into the kitchen and return with a cooking pan that meets our standards.
A short dispute arose on his return with a clean new pan; so the General Manger went to the kitchen and returned with a filthy, blackened from carbon, rusty Pan and exclaimed:

'No, this is our current standard for cookware, simply because we allow it to exist.'

We fixed the cookware issue immediately and also terminated the bottom 12 personnel on the Staff, mixed from different departments.
We raised our Standards by 40% quickly and consequentially increased our volume.

Reason for the short story:
Water quality standards should not be judged at their best, nor should they be judged vs. other bodies of water from other locations.If we (Florida) have 272 known bodies of water classified as Impaired, and that possibly over 1000 may exist, then Our Current Water Quality Standard is “Impaired.”

272 Water Bodies Impaired in Florida

the original web-site that brought you this report
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/dec2007/2007-12-21-092.asp

Thank you Environment News Service.