The Water Mediator

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Waterway Study

I am starting a project where I will be sampling from each of the waterways in Fort Lauderdale. The reality is we are all exposed to these waters now. We need more information about what is going on. I will take a series of drone pictures(where permissible, which unfortunately means most of fort lauderdale is not permissible. Thanks FLL lol) wide angles, featurette photos, down to macro, and finally microscopic images of things found in the water. Things that it really only takes some curiosity to figure out. I’m starting local, but slowly I’d like to branch out and investigate sites near places I’ve learned about, or other frequented areas like the florida keys….

Stay tuned this week for my first entry of the Victoria Park Canal which is basically the closest body of water to my residence. You could say the water likely represents the activities of the neighborhood. Things I observe are people walking their dogs in parks, people not picking up after pets, a proponderence of iguanas, plastic fishing line left, haphazardly. Trash. God. So much trash. Cigarette butts.

A year ago, this sample was from there. I paddled through some pretty thick green just up the way. This was at the height of the blue green algae, and finally impending red-tide crisis in South Florida.

This is what got the state to investigate the Las Olas Isles, among other reports that were coming in that people witnessed a shiny green on the water. Something similar to what they’ve seen on the news, I’m just a regular curious person. Are you curious too? We need to do something.

I am happy to say, so far this year, the isles water seems cleaner. I’ve witnessed many fish on the banks. However, during the recent water main break in the isles, the water seemed to have a lot of odd sediment on the surface. What concerns me is there is no simple to find method of information as to when this is occurring unless you know to go to a city website, etc to stay up to date. Many tourists enter that water for paddle boarding and other water activities, completely unaware of the hidden dangers to their wellbeing, because we’ve reached a point where the system is vulnerable to imbalances?

The water seems to have cleared a bit again, but people are in the water, and just a couple of weeks ago that was mixed with raw sewage.

Let’s see what the microscope says. Stay tuned!

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Mediate this.

Blue Green Algae sample from Las Olas Isles Summer 2018. This sample was submitted to the state protection agency and 3 days later they came out and declared the water unsafe. It now takes every day citizens to get the government to act.

So, Who am I? Why are we here? Why should you read my blog?

I am a 37 year old female, currently residing in Sunny Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Ahh. Paradise? Think again…especially when it comes to our water.

I’ve been drawn to water and water quality over the past couple years after being gifted a microscope by my father a few years ago for Christmas. I’m a photographer, and started to think it would be cool to photograph the world on a different level. I thank my father for allowing me to play with that interest. As I went along, I learned a lot about algae, about things like diatoms that tell us a bit about the diversity and water quality of an area, to all other kinds of things, like shady business practices (contributing to deadzones and red tide and blue green algae outbreaks), to shady politics ignorant to the damage their well meaning legislation sometimes causes. I almost wish I didn’t know about the state of the water in our world today.

But now I know….

and so there is NO turning back.

I realized I wanted to share what I know with the world. Effect change. I realized I also wanted to have the world come along as I learn more and find ways each of us can help make the future of water less of a worry for people all around the world.

I chose the name Mediator for a specific reason as well. I tend to sometimes be a person in an argument that will play the devils advocate. At times, you need to be able to think like the other side to really come to an agreement. Mediators often allow this to happen. They keep both sides calm and allow the messages come through that need to be heard. They search for the COMMON ground between two opposing viewpoints . So you may hear opinions that challenge the status quo at time, but I ask that you always keep an open mind with anything published here.

So, I ask you, to join me. Subscribe below. Stay up to date with my posts and I guarantee you will feel moved to make a change towards a more secure water future. My posts will be a variety of my projects detailing water quality concerns starting at my local level, but bigger stories will be covered. I will also be highlighting a microscopic, photography project centered around citizen obtained water data coming up soon!

I will also be providing suggestions on different products or “life hacks” that I find that will help address issues with fresh water access.

This blog/site is a work in progress but I am announcing a new project very very soon. Stay tuned!

Fort Lauderdale – Blue Green Algae – Summer 2018

Forgive me, this is sort of a “throwback” post. What I mean by that is that I wanted to talk to you about a situation from the summer of 2018, when Florida, including southeast Florida, were experiencing an influx of algae of several types such as the blue-green algae (cyanobacteria) and RED tide.

One of the sneakiest and most prominent species is the blue green algae. There are many debates in Florida as to it’s current contributor, but I really think it’s no ONE thing. If you spend even just a little time researching the “causes” of the outbreaks you come across many theories. You will find that it is a perfect storm of corporate interests and farming communities up the state contaminating the environment in countless ways (thank you big sugar, and thank you potash and phosphate mining!), to altering water flow throughout the state through releases from Lake Okeechoobee. It involves pesticides, and herbicides, and all the different” cides” we use everywhere, on our lawns, etc to manage different pests and disrupt the flow of things, as us humans are so good at doing. It involves letting all our dogs defecate all over the place in public places with no efforts to clean it up. When you have a whole urban neighborhood doing this, you can realize things can get pretty overwhelming, and is carried away with the rain, down in to the sewer drains.

Anyhow, Last year, around the time it was coming to light that Fort Lauderdale had also become home to the blue-green algae, and the Red Tide, I had taking a bike ride around my city. I had already seen sewage main breaks in this area in the previous years, so it was always an area I check out out from time to time. It’s a small canal that runs under a bridge around 8th street. It’s now surrounded by large high-rises that have since been constructed and are still in construction since 2018.

Below is a collection of images from Downtown Fort Lauderdale last year. This is at the end of the New River, where it meets the Himmarshee Canal. The construction site had to put those barriers in in order to contain their waste site from items getting out. The irony is that it was holding out of the algae that had drifted downstream.These images also pain me, because it just encapsulates how our systems get overwhelmed when we overgrow as we have. The city of Fort Lauderdale by many accounts is overgrowing it’s boundaries and ability to contain itself. Ask any resident or local and they can tell you how the cities sewer system is rife with issues. The system is aged. Between construction mishaps causing complete water outages for all of greater Fort Lauderdale. This is the same problem that is being repeated over and over in city after city. People’s health are declining in many places where there are large reports of aging sewer systems. I want you to know, It’s not only happening on a “Flint” level in places like Flint. This is happening in “million dollar nieghborhoods” like where I live in Fort Lauderdale too. I’ve seen so many sewer main breaks both off main roads, and in bodies of water (George English Park 4 years ago, Himmarshee Canal 4 years ago, Federal and Broward 2019), that I know enough sewage has spewed all over our local water ways and upset the balance of our water. It’s sad when I don’t even feel safe to put my hands in the water in our waterways, and after last year, I quite honestly lost faith in feeling safe going in our oceans. I still do, but the more I learn, the more cautious I become in wanting to know more about the environment I find myself in. Through education I believe we can make it better, and that’s why I am here. Maybe in your day to day life you haven’t seen the reality of this. Maybe you don’t know it’s happening? That’s what motivates me to be curious about this. I was shocked to find out that even in the water coming out of the tap, I found algae like filaments in my water (unfiltered). It makes me wonder, why we even wonder why we are getting sick?

Also, please note the trash in the images, we really need to do better as a society in managing our waste on so many levels. If we did that, perhaps, these algae crises may not occur, because we won’t upset the balance so horrible.

Outfall

out·fall/ˈoutˌfôl/Learn to pronouncenounnoun: outfall; plural noun: outfalls

the place where a river, drain, or sewer empties into the sea, a river, or a lake.

fall·out/ˈfôlˌout/Learn to pronouncenounnoun: fallout; noun: fall-out

1. radioactive particles that are carried into the atmosphere after a nuclear explosion or accident and gradually fall back as dust or in precipitation.
- airborne substances resulting from an industrial process or accident.”acid fallout from power stations”
2. the adverse side effects or results of a situation.”almost as dramatic as the financial scale of the mess is the growing political fallout”

Have you heard of an outfall? Chances are you probably haven’t. I didn’t until recently. I recently learned that all along the Florida seaboard and elsewhere, are series of these outfalls. Many outfalls were created in the Ocean in the 1970s as a solution to the growing populations extra sewage. You have to remember though, they didn’t have the chemicals then, that we have now. They didn’t have the birth control pills, the phosphorus rich fertilizers we douse our lawns with, the machine oils and by-products of our industrial processes that make their way into the system. Sure, they had them, but not like we do now.

What do you think happens to all the water it expels? Do you think the extra things just disappear?

The recent Sewer break in Miami near Oleta River was a result of a break near or around the outfall located near there. It has still not been fully repaired, as of this writing. The most disgusting thing to me is that they have had to use machines to suck the sewage out of the water and are shipping it to locations in northern Florida. (Remember, Florida does have higher elevations up north, everything flows down to us in the “Swamp”) My question is why do we have those so close to our large populations, and our large beach going touristy locations. No wonder Fort Lauderdale water has reports of dirty water for YEARS coming and going.

I added the definition of Fallout here for a reason. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you why, but in the interest of being clear, I will.

Fallout being the inverse word of outfall, it is something I believe to be resulting from these outfalls. People have lost dogs for innocently putting them in the water. People have DIED from Flesh eating bacterias in local waters. Some were lucky enough to have only gotten sick. Fort Lauderdale lost water COMPLETELY for 36 hours recently. Our systems are collapsing and we are barely aware of it. That’s why I am here. People NEED to know CLEARLY what is happening out there. We are not as safe as we think we are, but there is hope.

One of the things I suggest you go out and do if you do nothing else, is get yourself an emergency water filter. This lifestraw filter will protect you against bacteria, parasites and microplastics. It will allow you to drink from streams when necessary. It’s filtering power is quite amazing. Drop me a line if you bought one and were happy with it! Follow my link below. Thank you!