Letter to Editor in Florida Today, June 13, 2021
by William R. Klein
Let’s establish our right to clean water. Titusville approved the Brookshire subdivision to be built in the “area of critical concern.”This was a heavily wooded area of wetlands that naturally filtered and purified water going to our drinking water supply. Brookshire developers clear cut and burned 80 acres of trees and filled in wetlands. This development will create an estimated 34 million gallons per year of polluted stormwater that will flow to the Indian River Lagoon, creating more algae blooms, killing sea grasses and eliminating a food source for manatees, causing more to starve to death.
Titusville pumped many million of gallons of sewage -contaminated stormwater for four days, from the Sand Point Park ponds, into the IRL, without testing the water quality or monitoring the amount of water. These ponds were contaminated with 7.2 million gallons of sewage. A small percentage of the mixed contaminated water was hauled away in trucks. The rest was left for the natural organisms in the ponds to digest the fecal matter and turn it into nutrients and algae. When the fecal matter could no longer be measured, Titusville pumped the water out for four days without a required federal point source permit. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection said there are no regulations to test or remove the pollution from stormwater ponds emptying into the IRL.
We need to establish the rights to clean water. Titusville, Brevard County, and Florida government have failed to protect the IRL, our aquifer, and our drinking water supply. Please view the
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*Reprinted with the permission of the author.