Emily UR - Flooding in the Florida Flatlands

Tuscawilla Parks soft-shelled turtle.
She lives in the main retention pond.

Living, working and going to school in Florida, we all know two things that are very characteristic of our beloved sunshine state. The first being that this state is disturbingly flat and the second being that it rains a lot. Humans are intelligent and adaptive creatures though, so over the years we've been able to control flooding through the implementation of storm drains and Stormwater Management Ponds (SMP), also referred to as retention ponds, which are constructed basins designed to hold stormwater and its associated runoff from higher elevations. Stormwater runoff can be defined as the "water flowing over the land during and immediately following a rainstorm.¹

A great blue heron feasting on a water snake
in the Halifax retention pond. (This took place
in my backyard, cool to wake up to see)

SMPs serve two main purposes: to limit flooding and to catch (urban) runoff pollutants. During a rain event, stormwater will be essentially guided into an SMP, picking up everything from fertilizers and sediment to decaying animal feces along the way, which can dramatically affect the overall quality of these ponds. In fact, "statewide, stormwater (as compared to regulated discharges such as sewage and industrial treatment facilities) is the source of (1) 80 to 95 percent of heavy metals; (2) 99 percent of all sediment; (3) 90 percent of oxygen demanding substances (i.e., decaying plant or animal material); and (4) 50 percent of the nutrients".² High enough concentrations of nutrients from fertilizers, such as nitrogen and phosphorus, with the appropriate meteorological conditions can cause massive algal blooms in these ponds, effecting the various creatures that reply on these ponds for food and as a habitat. In fact, the St. John's River Water Management District (SJRWMD) suggests that SMPs have a higher potential for a bloom due to their concentration of stormwater runoff in combination with "lots of sunlight, warm temperatures and shallow, slow-flowing water."³
For my research, I have selected two particular retention ponds to study and compare. The first pond is located in the heart of the Halifax Plantation in Ormond Beach, a very urban setting, where it is exposed to a great deal of fertilizers from surrounding golf courses and newly constructed homes. The second pond is located in Tuscawilla Park in Daytona Beach, a more natural setting, where it is also exposed to fertilizers as well as pesticides.
So finally, my scientific question is, "After a rain event, which retention pond is more heavily polluted by nutrients?". My follow-up question, if you could call it that, is, "Are the sources of the pollution found, if any, from urban runoff or atmospheric composition at the time of a rain event?". Other factors to consider would be the amount of total suspended solids (TSS), pH, salinity and dissolved oxygen content of the water.

And for the sake of Valentine's day being around the corner,
this birdy was making the moves in front of Tuscawilla's other
retention pond.

Citations:
(1) Wetherell, V. B., & Chiles, L. (n.d.). Stormwater: A Guide for Floridans. Retrieved from www.dep.state.fl.us/water/nonpoint/docs/.../Stormwater_Guide.pdf
(2) U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). (2016) Facts about Stormwater Management Programs in the State of Florida. Retrieved from http://nepis.epa.gov/
(3) St. John's River Water Management District (SJRWMD) (2014, June 03). Understanding Algal Blooms. Retrieved from http://floridaswater.com/algae/