The permit for the ASR well at Port Canaveral has expired.  According to Carol Noble, Director of Environmental Plans and Projects, “At this time we are not performing any injections or any additional sampling for the ASR project.”

Stay tuned for the upcoming Council meeting date.

The next closest ASR well injecting reclaimed water is more than 1500 miles away, in El Paso, Texas.  In addition to treating their water to tertiary standards, they use carbon filtration and ozone.  That is the only ASR reclaimed well in Texas that I am aware of.

Arizona has clustered many of their wells in a secured area of 15,000 acres.  Unlike Rockledge, they kept their wells away from any population center.  Arizona treats their water to tertiary standards and removes nitrogen to prevent the problems of unpredictable bacterial growth.

California treats their water to tertiary standards, and additionally uses reverse osmosis.  Some wells are also oxygenated to remove the possibility of arsenic mobilization.

Florida is the only state in the U. S. (actually, maybe the world!) that allows the disposal of inadequately treated wastewater.  Because of our unique geology, research recently completed by FDEP points out the likelihood of arsenic mobilization in our groundwater, along with increasing levels of endocrine disruptors, other pollutants, and the increasing resistance of bacteria and viruses to disinfection and antibiotics.  There is also concern about the rapid growth of “superbugs” caused by the nitrogen that is found in reclaimed water.

To classify the Rockledge well as “experimental” is an understatement. Reclaimed water is not safe to drink.  Consumption is prohibited by state law.  FDEP is currently conducting more research on problems with ASR wells.  It is entirely possible these wells will no longer be permitted in Florida under the current FDEP guidelines.

It is not too late to put this project on hold, until FDEP has completed all their research.  We can be certain the cycle testing will release arsenic into the aquifer and contaminate local wells.  Once cycle testing is begun, we can never go back and undo the damage.  We will just be throwing good money after bad.

Kathy Reinhold, Rockledge

The Rockledge City Council narrowly approved (4-3 vote) the motion made by Mayor Larry Schultz and seconded by Georgia Phillips “to approve the scope of services and submit an application for cycle testing to Florida DEP.”   Council members Coleen Stuart and Frank Forester also voted for the motion.  We would like to graciously thank Council members Joe Lee Smith, Richard Blake and Kimberly Prosser for supporting the residents wishes of the Rockledge community and for voting against the motion.

The City still has a LONG way to go to meet the State requirements and prove they meet the applicable Florida Administrative Code (F.A.C.) Rules.  The City will be required by FDEP to hold at least two more public hearings before any fluid (potable or otherwise) is discharged into the Floridan aquifer in Rockledge.  This may take years.  SOA will be outlining those hurdles and posting them on this website.  PLEASE NOTE: In the near future City employees will be going door to door armed with a list of questions to ask well owners in order to “physically verify” private wells and their use in the 1-mile radius. The FDEP permit states, “No cycle testing will be allowed in the event there remain any in-use potable wells in the well inventory.”

Save Our Aquifer will continue to educate the public, elected officials and the permitting agencies about the critical need to protect our Underground Source of Drinking Water.  Please stay tuned and let your friends and neighbors know we shall continue to defend our water rights and protect this vital Underground Source of Drinking Water from unnecessary experimental testing.

Please help us spread the word by forwarding this message.

For Immediate Release:

January 5, 2010

Canaveral Port Authority (CPA) contaminated the aquifer and a stormwater pond at the Port with unsafe levels of arsenic while testing an Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) well.  On January 4, 2010, the Brevard based environmental group, Save Our Aquifer (SOA), sent a letter to the Canaveral Port Authority (CPA), the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD), and other State and Federal officials regarding the possible release of unsafe levels of arsenic into Waters of the United States at Port Canaveral.

SOA discovered the information via a public records request from the Canaveral Port Authority office.  The Canaveral Port Authority Aquifer Storage and Recovery Cycle Test Report (July 2008) shows cycle testing of their Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) well released arsenic above Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) safety standards into the surrounding aquifer and nearby stormwater ponds that outflow into Waters of the United States.

In 2008, Tetra Tech Inc., the ASR engineering firm hired by CPA, performed three consecutive cycle tests for an ASR well over a four month period.  High rates of arsenic were seriously problematic during all three cycle tests of the ASR well.  Results of the tests are outlined in the report.  At only 35 to 60 feet in depth, this is the shallowest ASR well in the state of Florida.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) and the EPA limit arsenic to 10µg/l for groundwater and drinking water safety.    The 10µg/l (10 parts per billion) standard is considered to be high.  Even waters that meet this standard have been associated with a risk of greater than 1 in 400 for bladder cancer or lung cancer according to the study “Arsenic in the Drinking Water: 2001 Update, National Academies’ National Research Council.”

When cycle testing began in February 2008, background arsenic concentrations were “0″ (zero) or “ND” (Not Detected), according to Tetra Tech’s report.  After cycle testing, arsenic levels at the injection sites were two to seven times FDEP and EPA permitted levels.  Arsenic readings in the nearby stormwater storage pond spiked to 19µg/l.  The elevated arsenic levels in the stormwater ponds were noted in test data submitted, but were not mentioned in the narrative explanation of test results.

It appears the SJRWMD, which holds the permit for the stormwater ponds, was not notified by the CPA or Tetra Tech that the cycle testing caused arsenic-laden water to flow into the nearby stormwater ponds which outflow directly into Port waters near Glen Cheek Drive.  There is no evidence the restaurants, businesses, or people using Port waters in this area were notified of the potential danger posed by the release of this high-level arsenic stormwater.   Also put at risk were marine species, including the endangered manatee, sea turtles, and wood storks.

“Arsenic is naturally present but bonded to the sand.  Oxygen introduced with the injected water broke the bond and released the arsenic into the aquifer and groundwater,” said Mark Jacobs (SOA).

“Arsenic is a highly poisonous element.  The Port and the other communities in Brevard who are considering utilizing ASR wells to store their sewage wastewater need to realize the many dangers this process poses for our water ways and water supplies,” said Amy Mosher (SOA).

“The stormwater ponds at the Port were designed to capture stormwater runoff, with overflow mechanisms that channel excess runoff into Port waters.  They were not designed to treat arsenic-laden waters,” said Dick Glenn (SOA).  “We don’t know how much arsenic-contaminated water overflowed into the Port waters and the nearby Banana River.”

“The Florida Department of Environmental Protection has called these types of ASR wells “experimental”.  It appears this well has not only been a costly experiment in terms of taxpayer dollars, it has been a risky experiment with unknown consequences to the health of our groundwater and waterways, including the Indian River Lagoon system,” said Kathy Reinhold (SOA).

STORY CONTACT: Save Our Aquifer
Richard Glenn:  (321) 298-6726
P.O. Box 251 Cocoa FL 32923,
email:  info@saveouraquifer.org
website: www.saveouraquifer.org

*** Read the letter that was received by the Canaveral Port Authority and State and Federal agencies: click here (pdf)

Overloaded Sewers Lead To ‘Toxic Waters’ (December 17, 2009)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121529243

How Safe Is Your Drinking Water? (October 19, 2009)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113927993

Everyone who cares about health, the environment, or the purity of their drinking water ought to watch an informative documentary video named “FLOW, For Love of Water.” You can watch the trailer on this page.

Is water a commodity? Does water get bought and sold on the open market subject to market forces? Does it go on sale? Does the price go up when there’s a natural disaster?

Or is water more like air, available to everyone as a free-flowing natural resource?

The film explores how man-made drugs and other pollutants have made their ways into rivers, oceans, and aquifers, and are causing mutations of aquatic life. It tells how corporations have utilized concerns over polluted ground water to make water sold in a bottle with a scenic image seem healthy and clean – when in fact it is not. There are no regulations governing bottled water and tests show most of it is less pure than city water.

The film also shows how the poor in third world countries have had trouble getting clean water simply because they cannot afford it. World Bank monies go to improve a country’s water resources, but the results are predictable: the rich get the clean water, the poor are left with what’s flowing in the river.

What’s in the process of happening here in Rockledge? The City is using the aquifer below our feet as a filter for excess reclaimed water from its sewage treatment plant, pumping it down and hoping to be able to pump it back out again. But the aquifer flows, leaving us wondering how much will remain near the well and how much will have flowed “downstream” in the layers of the aquifer. Because this “reclaimed” water is not truly drinkable, the City had to implement a potable well ban for any land owners within one mile of the ASR well. This ban came in the form of an Ordinance which no one knew about until some people heard about the ASR project and started investigating. The City thinks it owns all of the water beneath our feet – how did it come to think that?

Nonetheless, it intends to inject non-drinkable, reclaimed water into an aquifer where many wells have existed for many years. Most people may not regularly drink from these wells because of salt-water intrusion, making the water somewhat salty, but it is still healthy to drink. So where did the City get the idea IT owned it all and could take away our rights to this water for the claimed advantage of reducing the use of City of Cocoa water? Why intentionally pollute MY water so it is no longer an option?

The film makes a contrast between the private interests of the people in clean water for health and drinking, and the corporate interests in water for profit. This intrusion into our water rights may not be as big or obvious as what happened in third-world countries, but FLOW makes one think about our relationship to the land and, in contrast, to corporate interests. I find the City’s attempted property rights grab offensive and I hope many of you reading this invest enough time in researching the issue to come to a similar conclusion.

FLOW is available for rental from BlockBuster and NetFlix, among other sources.

EDIT: FLOW can be viewed for free here (broadband required).