Small Town News

Dune lakes operating normally and free of oil

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The monthly meeting of the Coastal Dune Lakes Advisory Board (CDLAB) revealed a report that culverts were put in place at all the dune lakes because the amount of rain in the region had pushed most- of the lakes to open and when the lakes opened, they took much of the sand in the berms. Pipes have been put in through the rebuilt berms to move the water out to the Gulf without disturbing any more sand. The berms were erected at great cost to the county to try and protect the lakes against the oil spill and they will remain in place through the end of hurricane season when the pipes and the berms will be removed.

The board decided to continue to pursue special designation for the dune lakes. The globally rare and imperiled dune lakes could be eligible for special grants if special recognition is achieved. Richard Bryan said we should ask the county to designate the lakes as globally rare and imperiled.

Chairman Marsha Anderson suggested the Northwest Florida Water Management District be approached to see if they can help with special designation.

Bryan will do some fact finding to see how many other agencies might help in this effort.

"This is one of those goals we have set in the past that have tended to drift away from us. As an advisory board if we believe having special designation is important, we must do it," Anderson said.

Ken Sloane volunteered to develop a volunteer list of electronic mail addresses to send periodic info out to those interested in CDLAB.

Julie Terrell, director of the Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance (CBA) gave a presentation on nutrient criteria for the lakes. If a lake violates the numeric criteria, it becomes impaired.

An impaired body of water is one that is polluted to the point where it does not meet its designated use. Florida has not tested all rivers, lakes, and estuaries, but of those tested about 25 percent in each category is considered impaired, although at this time the coastal dune lakes are not impaired using these standards. There are three categories for water and the lakes can change category due to the amount of rainfall and they rarely remain static as to category. Most of the criteria are for freshwater lakes, criteria that do not apply to the coastal dune lakes.

Nutrient samples have been taken by CBA from the lakes for years, so a lot of data is available. Terrell

was unsure how the standards would be used or who will be responsible for bringing impaired waters back to proper status.

To date there has been only one application to fill the open position on the board. It was decided to wait an additional month to see if anyone else applies and vote on the new member next month.

Next month reports will be made on the status of the Adopt A Waterway program, the development of the homeowner's guide, and grants available from the Florida Lake Management Society.

Leah Stratmann may be reached via leahwrites@gmail.com



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© 2011 The DeFuniak Springs Herald DeFuniak Springs, Florida. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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