Bad news from Florida
Ellen Paul (epaul@dclink.com)
Sun, 14 Mar 1999 09:57:39 -0500
Lake cleanup leads to 800 poisonings
By CYRIL T. ZANESKI
Herald Staff Writer
ZELLWOOD, Fla. -- Hundreds of large fish-eating
birds have died in recent months as a result of an
ambitious state effort to restore the health of Florida's
most polluted lake.
Pesticides are prime suspects in the killing of at least
800 birds -- including almost 700 American white
pelicans and dozens of wading birds -- that wintered
on vegetable farms that were flooded as part of the
planned restoration of Lake Apopka, 15 miles
northwest of Orlando.
The poisonings are far from over. Scientists expect
the deaths to continue into spring as many of the
41,000 or so birds that stopped at Apopka begin
their long northern migrations. Dead and dying white
pelicans were reported last week throughout the
state, including the Florida Keys, and from as far
away as Jackson, Miss. -- some of them literally
falling from the skies.
``We're seeing birds suffering violent tremors and
convulsions, said Resee Collins, director of Florida
Audubon's Bird of Prey Center in Maitland. ``What
these animals go through is very graphic. And almost
all of them die.
The symptoms suggest that the birds were poisoned
by a powerful class of compounds known as
organochlorines. Those compounds were common in
pesticides sprayed on the vegetable fields. But
laboratory tests by federal, state and private
researchers have yet to identify a so-called smoking
gun. Some scientists suspect the birds ate fish
contaminated with chemicals.
The investigation is being watched anxiously by
advocates of other large-scale environmental
restorations, including the massive Everglades project.
Like the Apopka restoration, the much larger Glades
cleanup hinges on the ability to successfully convert
huge expanses of farmland into marshes that will filter
pollution from agricultural waste water and provide
habitat for wildlife.
The worry is that those lands near Lake Okeechobee are also
contaminated by
agrichemicals, similar to what many believe have been
killing birds at Apopka.
Conservationists and government officials alike say the
shocking bird deaths will
not weaken their resolve to forge ahead with plans to
restore damaged
ecosystems.
``Does this die-off mean we're going to throw in the towel?
No way, Florida
Audubon ornithologist Gian Basili vowed. ``This is not a
failure. It's a pretty
serious bump in the road that's going to make all the
partners in this refocus on
what's right.
Unpredictable outcome
The bird deaths, however, point out how difficult it is to
know what's right in
massive restoration projects like the one going on at
Apopka. Every step is an
experiment in projects that are unprecedented in their
scope.
``There was nobody out there that could predict this
[die-off] would happen based
on the science as it stands, said Ed Lowe, the top
environmental scientist for the
St. Johns River Water Management District, which is leading
the Apopka
restoration project.
The Apopka restoration began under a law passed in 1985 by
the Florida
Legislature, after farmers resisted the state's efforts to
regulate agricultural wastes.
Over a 70-year period, farm pollution had turned a lake
that had an international
reputation as a fishing resort into a sterile lagoon.
The key to the cleanup was halting the flow of silt- and
phosphorus-laden waste
water into the lake from vegetable and sod farms to the
north. The water
management district has spent $103.5 million buying more
than 18,000 acres of
farmland around the edges of the lake.
The idea is to flood that farmland, creating wetlands for
soaking up pollutants and
creating a wildlife habitat.
Controversial project
The farm buyout has been controversial. About 2,200 farm
workers lost jobs as
the water management district pushed in the last two years
to complete the
purchase with $90 million appropriated by state lawmakers
in 1996. Meanwhile,
some scientists worried that flooding the farmland might
create a toxic hazard as
pesticides applied over decades to corn, lettuce, beets,
celery, parsley and other
vegetables were set loose.
But the district refused to back down.
``This is the most polluted body of fresh water in Florida,
Lowe said. ``It could not
be ignored.
Responding to criticism last week that the district had not
done enough to avoid
poisoning wildlife, Lowe said the potential problems from
the cleanup had been
studied in exhaustive detail. The restoration effort was
crafted, he said, by 80
scientists and engineers, 12 consulting firms, 10
government agencies and three
universities. They conducted 11 studies that diagnosed the
lake's problems and 17
different cleanup plans.
``Science led the way in the shaping of this program, Lowe
said.
One study did point to powerful compounds that could affect
fish-eating birds and
largemouth bass. Levels of toxaphene and DDT were high, but
not enough to halt
the restoration, officials said.
``Levels of those two compounds were insufficient to cause
a die-off, said John
Schell, one of the district's consulting scientists. ``We
felt progression of the
restoration program was a good idea.
Soil and water removed
The district conducted what was described as a routine
cleanup of contaminated
farms. Focusing mostly on pesticide mixing and storage
areas, the cleanup, which
was paid for by the farmers, removed 20,343 tons of soil
and 3,230 gallons of
ground water from ``hot spots contaminated by either
pesticides or spilled
petroleum products.
``We did our due diligence in proper form, said Rob
Christianson, the district's
director of operations and land resources.
Before the birds began turning up sick, there were strong
signs that the cleanup
was achieving results faster than anyone had expected. With
the buyout of the
farms, pollution flowing into the lake had been cut
dramatically. Moreover, a
1,800-acre pollution-filtering marsh on former farmland at
the lake's northwest
corner since 1990 had shown an ability to remove phosphorus
and silt from the
lake's water.
As a result, the lake's water had begun to clear up. For
the first time in half a
century, submerged aquatic grasses began growing again. The
grasses were a
clear sign of improving water quality.
``This is a very strong start to a restoration project, the
magnitude of which this
country has never seen before, said Mark Glisson of the
Florida Department of
Environmental Protection.
An influx of birds
There was an even more encouraging sign in late fall as
huge numbers of birds
flocked to about 6,000 acres of farmland flooded as part of
the district's efforts to
control phosphorus.
During Audubon's Christmas count, birders identified 174
species on those old
farms. Nowhere else in the country had such diversity been
seen on any inland site
in the count's century-long history, Basili said.
``There was a buzz among birders across the country about
this restoration
project, Basili said. ``In fact, there was an international
buzz. Birders were coming
here from England and Western Europe to visit Apopka.
On average, from November through January, there were
20,000 birds on the
flooded farmland, with a daily peak of 41,000. Among them
were more than
4,300 American white pelicans -- about half of the number
stopping in Florida
during their winter migration from the Great Plains. Prior
to this year, no one had
ever seen more than 20 white pelicans at Apopka.
There were also hundreds of wood storks, herons and egrets.
Also seen were
bald eagles, hawks and golden eagles, which are rarely
observed in Florida.
``This has the potential to be a birding mecca, Basili
said. ``No doubt about it.
Then birds began getting sick.
Toll of birds increases
Harold Weatherman, a heavy-equipment operator for the
Zellwood Drainage
District, was the first to notice. Weatherman was working
in the farmland,
maintaining canals for the last few farms that had resisted
early buyout offers.
Weatherman picked up the first two sick pelicans on the
flooded fields in late
October. By late January, Weatherman and Basili were
picking up as many as 25
sick or dead birds a day.
``They'll get where they're just lying there quivering,
Weatherman said. ``It's
heartbreaking. But at least if you pick them up, you know
they have some small
chance that they'll survive.
Only three of the 161 live birds sent to the center have
survived. In all, 404 birds
have died on the farm, with 400 others found dead
elsewhere. Those birds are
linked to Apopka.
Though the fields are now dry and most birds have fled,
Basili said that as pelicans
and other migrants begin returning to their distant
northern breeding grounds,
contaminants stored in their fat will be let loose, killing
them.
``This is not over yet, he said. ``Not by a long shot.
Copyright © 1999 The Miami Herald
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Ellen Paul
Executive Director
The Ornithological Council
Mailto:epaul@dclink.com
Ornithological Council Website: http://www.nmnh.si.edu/BIRDNET
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