This Week’s Hot Topics

• Home water conservation program launched.
• Nov. 24 permitting public meeting agenda is available.
• Governing Board approves Solary Canal Project.
• Land purchase offers water storage potential, partnership with Volusia.
• District Governing Board elects 2009-2010 officers.
• New water conservation cost-share program information available.
• Watering restrictions changed Nov. 1 to one day per week.

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Current topic:
“Existing homes can now be certified as Florida Water Star^SM homes”

Water efficiency is affordable

By Teresa Monson

PALATKA — A St. Augustine builder of affordable homes is proving that building “green” doesn’t have to mean spending a lot of the other kind of green.

The St. Johns Housing Partnership has built 13 affordable and water-efficient homes in the Hancock Place subdivision in west St. Augustine, following Florida Water Star^SM criteria set out by the St. Johns River Water Management District. Three homes were certified by District inspectors in November 2007 and additional inspections are scheduled.

Florida Water Star^SM is a point-based new-home certification program, similar to the federal Energy Star program, but with a water conservation focus.

Developed by the District and launched in 2006, Florida Water Star^SM encourages water efficiency in household appliances, plumbing fixtures, irrigation systems and landscapes, and promotes the economic and environmental benefits of water efficiency in new home construction to builders and home buyers.

The Hancock Place is a seven-acre development with home landscapes designed to exist on rainfall. The community also is utilizing low impact development design elements to help reduce water, fertilizer and pesticide use while increasing groundwater recharge.

The Hancock Place’s affordable homes are designed for working families who typically cannot afford to pay large water bills. Its homeowners must maintain Florida-friendly landscaping practices, and new residents must attend an introductory Florida Yards and Neighborhoods Program class on waterwise landscaping.

Builder and St. Johns Housing Partnership Executive Director Bill Lazar said Florida Water Star^SM and the Hancock Place were a natural fit.

“Once we understood what Water Star required, it was pretty simple and not very expensive,” says Lazar. “We like the idea of both conserving water, thus reducing utility bills, and doing our part to preserve our future water supply.”

The St. Johns Housing Partnership has embraced the Florida Water Star^SM concept and worked hard to maximize water savings for his home buyers,” says the District’s Florida Water Star^SM coordinator, Deirdre Irwin. “The Hancock Place will offer more sustainable homes for people who need to conserve money as well as water.”

The Hancock Place also received the Florida Yards and Neighborhoods’ second annual Outstanding Florida-friendly Communities Award in July 2007.

The St. Johns Housing Partnership is a private, nonprofit, and United Way agency in St. Augustine. The agency works to create links between the public and private sectors on projects that create low- and moderate-income housing and that rebuild neglected homes and neighborhoods, thus benefiting disadvantaged areas and enhancing community, economic and social development.

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District efforts earn
top honors

By Beth Hickenlooper

PALATKA — Two St. Johns River Water Management District programs developed to inform the public about the importance of water conservation garnered top honors at the fall conference of the Florida chapter of the American Water Works Association. The District received Awards of Excellence, “Best in Class,” in November for its Water Conservation Public Awareness Campaign and its new Florida Water Star^SM program.

“Market research shows us that the six-year-old Water Conservation Public Awareness Campaign is helping to change people’s water use habits and we appreciate the recognition of this program,” says Linda Burnette, director of the District’s Office of Communications and Governmental Affairs. “We believe that the Florida Water Star^SM program will show as much success as it continues to grow.”

The water conservation campaign for 2008 is being launched this spring. The campaign includes television advertisements, newspaper ads, radio ads, billboards, a Web site and supporting outreach documents.

Florida Water Star^SM is a points-based, new home certification program, similar to the federal Energy Star program, that focuses on the economic and environmental benefits of water efficiency inside and outside the home.

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Zoo exhibit highlights wetland benefits

By Ed Garland

PALM BAY — For the longest time, the Baird’s tapir exhibit wasn’t the most alluring feature at the Brevard Zoo. A small pond at the exhibit was glazed with green scum that simmered in the Florida heat because the pig-like creatures, native to Latin America, naturally prefer to defecate in the water.

“Our visitors didn’t want to spend a lot of time at the tapir exhibit for the obvious reasons,” says Keith Winsten, the zoo’s director. “The tapirs didn’t spend much time in the water either.”

When zoo officials decided it was time for an extreme home makeover for the tapirs, the St. Johns River Water Management District provided a $47,895 grant aimed at educating the public about the value of wetland systems.

The zoo’s deputy director, Jon Brangan, marvels at the transformation. The once fetid water, he points out, “is now clear 4 feet to the bottom.” And what Brangan jokingly calls “the floating presence” left behind by the tapirs is quickly filtered from sight.

The calming aesthetics of the wetlands and its gurgling brook belie a complex and effective filtering system below the water’s surface. Pipes submerged in the tapirs’ bathing pond churn solids (translation: tapir poop) and transport the waste over a series of weirs, forcing the solids to drop to the bottom. Finally, one pump shunts water to the wetlands, where the roots of the plants capture and filter nutrients, while a second pump sends solids to a collection chamber, which is cleaned out regularly.

“We had a substandard system before,” Brangan says. “Now, we’re sending 15,000 gallons an hour through the wetlands.”

One unexpected result of the project is a change in foot traffic patterns, Winsten notes.

“The wetland exhibit has actually changed the flow of people,” Winsten says.
“Everybody sees the stream and they turn left
instead of following the loop. We’ll have to add
directional signs because folks walk the loop
differently.”

The tapirs seem to be reveling in their new digs too. Instead of hopping into the pond just long enough to use it as a latrine, they’ve become fond of luxuriating in the clear water.

“The tapirs behave differently,” Winsten says. “They seem to have a comfort zone now. They like to have the water barrier.”

For the District, the education grant was money well spent, says Linda Burnette, director of the District’s Office of Communications and Governmental Affairs.

“Many people, including recent arrivals to Florida, are unaware of the value of wetlands as natural filters for pollutants,” she says. “The zoo’s exhibit is helping educate the 300,000 people who visit there each year. Oftentimes wetlands are inaccessible. This is a way to bring them to people so that they will understand and care about their surroundings.”

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District project attacks hydrilla

By Hank Largin

PALATKA — Hydrilla is a familiar opponent when it comes to maintaining the health of Florida’s water bodies. The invasive plant is difficult to control and can take over areas of freshwater lakes, damaging the fish habitat.

For years, contact and systemic herbicides have been the only answer to fighting hydrilla.

Unfortunately, in some areas, hydrilla is developing resistance to the systemic herbicides and use of the primary systemic herbicide (fluridone) is being discouraged. And even when herbicides are successful, they do not destroy the tubers that fuel regrowth and the tubers can remain viable for years, even after chemical treatment.

For those reasons, the St. Johns River Water Management District initiated a pilot project at Emeralda Marsh in Lake County in summer 2007 to try a new treatment on hydrilla. The District hired Dredge America Inc., a company from Kansas City, Mo., to try a mechanical approach to eliminate or at least reduce the nonnative weed.

“Herbicide does not treat the tubers and the way we see it, you have to remove the tubers to control hydrilla,” District environmental scientist Walt Godwin says. “This pilot project involved taking the top layer of vegetation off first and then removing the remainder of the aboveground biomass, as well as the root zone where the tubers are located.”

The District set up three experimental areas of about an acre at Emeralda Marsh. In the first section, the control area, nothing was done to treat the hydrilla. In the second area, the hydrilla was treated with contact herbicides. In the third area, Dredge America used its equipment to remove the hydrilla.

The first round of post-treatment sampling began in October involving the District’s Division of Environmental Sciences. Staff from the District’s aquatic plant management program are assisting with the project.

“We’re going into the same three areas to see what changes have occurred,” Godwin says. “We will sample every quarter for 18 months to see the short-term and long-term effects. The key with the mechanical removal is to see if we can get long-term control with one treatment.”

District staff will evaluate whether the process works and the percentage of tubers removed. Cost and efficiency over a five-year window is crucial for the feasibility of this approach.

“The potential for this project is tremendous if it proves to remove the tubers,” says David Walker, senior project manager for the District. “Plants are developing resistance to chemical treatment and this gives us a way to get at the tubers.”

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