NEWS PRESS
March 04, 2007

Water-quality gear to test river
$65,000 sensors measure Lake O inflow

By Kevin Lollar
klollar@news-press.com

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007703040394

It has a long name, a nifty acronym, a hefty price tag, and soon it will be producing real-time, online water quality data for use by scientists, policy makers and fishermen.

It's the Land/Ocean Biogeochemical Observatory (LOBO), and the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation is raising money to buy six of the $65,000 instruments to be deployed in the Caloosahatchee River and possibly nearshore Gulf of Mexico. The first LOBO should arrive in about 10 weeks.

"It all has to do with freshwater discharges from Lake Okeechobee," said Eric Milbrandt, a research scientist at the foundation's Marine Laboratory. "We'll have a series of these instruments at the most interesting places and provide a more resolved picture of the dynamics of freshwater discharges."

Since the very wet rainy seasons of 2004 and 2005, nutrient-rich freshwater discharges from the lake have been blamed for a number of environmental problems, including frequent and massive micro- and macroalgal blooms in the river and southern Pine Island Sound.

Among other tasks, the LOBOs, which were developed at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, will measure nutrients, salinity, tannins, dissolved oxygen, temperature, turbidity and chlorophyll. Marine lab staff will collect the data at 15-minute intervals and post them on an Internet site every hour — at this point, the Internet address has not been determined.

"This is an opportunity to give the community and resource managers a window into the scientific process," Milbrandt said. "And scientists will be able to use it for any research they have in mind." With LOBO data in hand, the marine lab will be able to predict algal blooms.

"There are freshwater discharges from multiple sources, and with continuous data, we'll be better able to predict some of the things that are surprises now," Milbrandt said. "Also, if you're planning to go fishing in the Caloosahatchee, and you know where an algal bloom is, you can go around that area."

If fishermen really want to get technical, they can find what's called the estuary turbidity maximum, an ever-shifting area in an estuary with elevated levels of suspended organic matter that supports plankton, which is the basis of the food web. So, note to fishermen: An estuary turbidity maximum, which has a salinity of 10 to 15 parts per thousand, can be a very fishy place.

When algae started taking over the Caloosahatchee and lower Pine Island Sound, Southwest Floridians pointed fingers at water managers and Lake Okeechobee discharges as the only problem; public workshops were held; local politicians threatened to sue the federal government and South Florida Water Management District; The News-Press initiated a Stop the Muck campaign.

One detail was missing: data. Policy makers seldom make important decisions without data, and SCCF's array of LOBOs will provide data. "Anybody working to make things better environmental-health-wise needs to be able to use this information," foundation Executive Director Eric Lindblad said. "The information that comes from these instruments will inform us where in the river system — from the lake to Pine Island Sound and San Carlos Bay — the pollution sources are. Then we can work on what type of policy and regulatory changes need to be made.

"In the long run, it's absolutely necessary that we address these issues. Water quality will not improve until we do."