Chapter 2.3
Preserving our Environment: Water Quality
On this page, there are three key elements:
- Summary
- Full text for this section of the Neighborhood Plan
- Short survey
Summary:
Clean water is essential for our health, recreation, and wildlife. Many factors that affect water quality are outside our control, including hurricanes, heavy rainfall, red tide, boat traffic, and regional pollution events. As development increases, protecting water quality requires monitoring, coordination with agencies, and responsible local practices to reduce nutrient runoff, protect sensitive habitats, and keep our swimming waters safe.
Recommendations
- Develop a monitoring program to create a reliable water quality baseline.
- Support continued Health Department water testing on the beaches.
- Promote island-wide education.
Full Version:
We encourage everyone to read the full version. While we did our best to summarize above, this full version offers much more nuance.
The islands are part of the Lemon Bay, Gasparilla Sound, and Charlotte Harbor Aquatic Preserves, where water quality is essential for residents, visitors, and wildlife.
Water quality in the entire basin is impacted by larger natural events beyond our immediate control. Some of the largest impacts are from rainfall and runoff, shoreline changes, boat traffic and events such as hurricanes, red tide, fires, sewer spills, phosphate spills, etc. In fact, Charlotte Harbor has a long history of seasonal oxygen depletion and fish kills related to salinity stratification.
As development increases, maintaining pristine water conditions requires careful monitoring, regulation, and collaboration with ongoing studies by various agencies. Coordinated sampling programs should be implemented to track and address all sources of degradation, with input from local, state, and federal authorities.
Issues related to Preservation of Water Quality
- Lack of control over the contributing elements that are natural and/or outside of the Island boundaries.
- Controlling the nutrient load to protect the waterways.
- Loss of environmentally sensitive habitat.
- Maintaining healthy swimming water.
Recommendations related to Preservation of Water Quality
- Develop a monitoring program to establish a baseline to provide quality data regarding the state of water quality in and around the islands.
- Support continued Health Department water testing on the beaches.
- Promote Island-wide education pertaining to the elements that degrade the water and encourage good practices to reduce water degradation and improve water quality.
Survey
Each head of household (up to two per household) may submit the form once. If you submit it more than once, only your most recent submission will count. This also means you can update your response later if you change your mind.
