*The following letter was mailed to the City of Key West Mayor and Commissioners in regards to water quality concerns and testing responsibilities recent discussed in the January commission meeting.
Attn: City of Key West Mayor and Commissioners Dear Mayor and Commissioners,
On behalf of our members and community, Reef Relief is deeply concerned with the water quality issues surrounding Key West. There are countless threats impacting the health of our ecosystems and with a rapidly declining water quality, our coral reef suffers more and more. Over the last 40 years the Florida Keys have lost over 90% of the living coral coverage located in the Florida’s coral reef (NOAA), North America’s only living barrier reef. This deterioration can be attributed to multiple threats including, but not limited to, coral diseases, coral bleaching, sedimentation and turbidity, sewage discharge, storm water pollution, and derelict fishing gear.
As you may be aware, Reef Relief manages the Key West Marine Park through a contract with the City of Key West. Unfortunately, swimmers are rarely able to enter this area due to high readings of bacteria per Monroe County Health Department testing. Several years ago, we would utilize the area in front of Higg’s Beach every Tuesday for our summer Coral Camp snorkel school trip. In recent years, we have been unable to utilize this area due to constant “poor” water quality readings during the summer months.
The City’s partnership with Dr. Patrick Rice and the College of the Florida Keys (CFK) has been an incredible step in the right direction in tackling water quality issues. Too often when fighting for policies and regulations we have been left with a lack of baseline data. The work that the college has been doing is filling in that hole, and it is long overdue. Finally, the citizens of Key West have a path forward in targeting water quality challenges and creating solutions. By considering other options, or even a request for proposals, we are doing a U-turn in that process. We strongly urge you to move forward with the ILA between Key West and CFK.
The City of Key West and CFK created a plan to expand much needed testing to other areas around Key West and can collect mountains of data regarding turbidity, nutrients, bacteria, hydrogen sulfide, and more. The opportunities are endless with their technology and can be right at our fingertips upon ILA renewal.
Furthermore, due to outside funding from the EPA, by partnering with CFK to identify water quality challenges, the City of Key West will be saving taxpayer dollars. Renewing the ILA is fiscally, scientifically, and logistically responsible.
It is imperative that the City of Key West not only tackles water quality issues head on, to pursue avenues where unbiased sound science will prevail. Your residents and the residents of the environment deserve that. Reef Relief would like to offer our time and knowledge to assist with anything you may need to make this important and necessary decision.
Sincerely,
Millard McCleary
Reef Relief Executive Director