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Whether you fish, boat, swim, like to observe wildlife along the water,
or simply to bathe in and drink it, the quality of water in Southwest
Florida is important to you. Nutrients
or minerals in too high a concentration can result in water that is not
safe to drink or that can contaminate fish and seafood, making them
unsafe to eat.
Several agencies within
this region monitor the water quality of our waterways.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP)
Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve participates in water quality monitoring,
and is one of the six Florida Aquatic Preserves that does this under the
Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program.
The Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve encompasses over 9,000 acres of
sovereign submerged lands. Water
quality monitoring for the Charlotte Harbor system has been historically
limited. In 1996, a water
quality monitoring program was set up as a cooperative project with the
DEP. Now, 44 fixed stations
within these six Florida Aquatic Preserves are monitored by a group of
over 70 volunteers on a monthly basis.
Water quality testing
through this program looks at such parameters as tide, water clarity,
salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, temperature, total phosphorus (TP),
total nitrogen (TN), Chlorophyll-a, color and turbidity.
Volunteers are trained at determining the first six parameters,
the rest are measured at a laboratory.
Water clarity is important
to the health of our water bodies, and is measured by how far you can
clearly see into the water. The
Estero Bay, many of its tributaries and the Calusahatchee River are
shallow water bodies that support the growth of seagrasses.
Seagrasses, just like other plants, require sunlight to grow.
Reduced water clarity reduces the amount of light to seagrasses
and thus reduces their growth. Seagrasses
are highly important aquatic species, not only to the endangered and
controversial manatee, but also to many fish and invertebrate species.
Dissolved oxygen (DO), as
it sounds, monitors the amount of oxygen in a water body.
Oxygen is dissolved from the air, and is essentially stirred into
the water through currents, wave action and wind.
A water body with
flow contains more DO than a stagnant water body, and therefore can
support more fish and aquatic species.
Nitrogen and phosphorus
are nutrients that naturally occur in water bodies, but will enter water
bodies in higher concentration through runoff containing fertilizers.
Just as fertilizers increase the growth of your yard or plants,
an increase in nitrogen and phosphorus can increase the growth of algae,
which is tested for as chlorophyll-a.
Turbidity measures the
amount of particulate mass in the water.
Sediment discharged through a tributary, stirred up by currents,
construction or watercraft increases turbidity.
An analysis of water
quality data for the Estero Bay from 1998-2000 gave the bay an over all
rating of fair on a scale of good-fair-poor.
The bay received a ranking of good for chlorophyll-a, a ranking
of fair for dissolved oxygen and water clarity, and a ranking of poor
for levels of total nitrogen and total phosphorus.
As previously stated,
water quality is important to everyone.
Water quality data is only as good as the number of sites
assessed each month. Currently,
the Estero Bay Aquatic Preserve has two sites that need volunteers to
assist with water sampling. If
you are interested in this, please contact the Estero Bay Aquatic and
State Buffer Preserves at 463-3240.
Also, inquiries into the water quality of the Caloosahatchee
River, the tributaries of the Estero Bay or other rivers and creeks
tested within Lee County can be made to the DEP’s South District
Office at 332-6975.
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