JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Local environmental advocates said that the St. Johns River has too much waste and they want it cleaned up.
Lisa Rinaman of the St. Johns Riverkeepers said this has been an issue for a long time.
“Unfortunately, we have chronic sewage issues or poop in the St. Johns River and it’s coming from multiple sources,” Rinaman said.
The massive 310-mile river gets tons of sewage sludge dumped at the mouth of the St. Johns River, near the Osceola, Brevard and Indian counties. It travels to North Florida counties.
“It’s making our sewage issues throughout the watershed even worse, Rinaman said. ”Right now, South Florida is transferring around on average 69,000 tons of sewage sludge, also called biosolids, sometimes up to 79 tons annually."
In addition to tons of sludge every year, Rinaman said locally failing septic tanks and old leaky infrastructure are also part of the problem.
Some people still fish in the St. Johns River, including Cynthia Shaw, who has been fishing for over 40 years. She said she fishes to eat and for fun.
“I do it both ways but I do eat it sometimes if it’s big enough because it has to be a legal size,” Shaw said.
Rinaman said algae is an ongoing issue as well. The state took samples from the water at Doctors Lake on Aug. 13.
This is an algae outbreak near the Fuller Warren Bridge recreational path.
Rinaman said progress is being made, but the plants that grow in the river are under stress from the pollution.
“In some areas, we are doing better which we are thankful for, but unfortunately, we are not keeping up with some of the other run off that’s undermining the progress that we have made as well as the investment there has been significant investment from local government and state governments to reduce pollution in the St. Johns River,” Rinaman said.
Click here to see the weekly algae report.
The advocacy group said that if the problem isn’t proactively fixed on the front end, it will become more expensive on the back end.
Rinaman said the costs over 10 years to clean up to sewer sludge is $1 billion.
The City of Jacksonville and JEA are working together to phase out failing septic tanks to reduce the waste that often finds its way into the St. Johns River and other local waterways.
Take a look at the infographic below to learn more about the septic tank phaseout program.