Emily UR- Pesty pesticides

Eutrophication at its finest.

As the research on varying nutrient pollution between a rural water body and a more urbanized water body continues, I seem to have become involved in various games of "phone tag" in which I call someone, leave a voicemail, they call me, leave a voicemail then I call them back and it goes to voicemail. It hasn't been very fun but I have been able to get some interesting new information. First and foremost, the Tuscawilla Park Stormwater Management Pond (SMP) is currently experiencing an algae bloom, pictured to the right. I spoke with the grounds manager for the city of Daytona Beach who informed me that fertilizers have never been applied at Tuscawilla Park. They do however spray the trees with pesticides for mosquitoes. I can't imagine this would effect the levels of the nutrients in the water though, so I've turned to poor sewage management as the source of the algae. Earlier this year, more north in the park near the bathrooms, a sewage containment issue occurred and the city stepped in to resolve it. What exactly they did, I'm not sure but I can make some calls to find out. But in light of the information that fertilizers are not applied, I've turned to poor sewage management as the likely source of the eutrophication of the Tuscawilla Park water.

Seen on the lawn of the house furthest from the
SMP at the Halifax Plantation

Now as far as the Halifax Plantation SMP is concerned, I have been unable to get in touch with the "greens supervisor" which is the man who maintains all the golf courses, as he is on vacation until Tuesday, March 15th, so information regarding fertilizers on the golf course will be added to this blog in a future update. Meanwhile, I knocked on three doors, the doors to the houses that surround the SMP opposite of the golf course. Over the two days, I was unable to get someone to answer the door at two houses but one, really kind man answered the door on day one and told me that he has a landscaping company come once a month and that they apply fertilizers no more than twice, maybe three times a year. I thanked him for his help and moved on. It is important to note that there are actually four houses that line the SMP but one of these houses was currently being constructed and there was no grass except for the tall grass that acted as a buffer for the water body in my previous post. I also noted that the house furthest away from the pond, had a pesticide application marker, pictured left. Again, I can't imagine it would impact the levels of nutrients in the water but it's worth a note since Tuscawilla Park applies pesticides as well.
Updates soon to come!


To answer Dr. Woodall's Question: "Do you know how deep your water is and is it circulated?"

 According to the woman who oversees a great deal of the environmental concerns at the Halifax Plantation, the retention ponds are connected to the main pond, known as the "ribbon pond" from which water is taken and used to water the golf courses. I suppose that counts as a sort of circulation but other than that, the wind is the only other known source of circulation. This same woman told me that the ponds vary in depth from 5-10ft. I recall her mentioning 30ft about a water body, possibly the ribbon pond.
 As far as circulation of water is concerned, the Tuscawilla Park waters are connected to one another via drainage basin and small culverts such as the one pictured to the left and possibly have a weak current influenced by marine life. Mixing of surface and deep waters is certainly influenced by winds here.
The picture to the left is an opening of one culvert into the pond of interest being studied at Tuscawilla Park.

Note all the algae.
 Picture to the right is the body of water connected to the pond I'm studying via that same culvert pictured above. Much more green and polluted with algae and to my surprise has a much stronger vegetation buffer than the cleaner waters of the neighboring pond and of the Halifax Plantation pond.
The ponds at Tuscawilla park are an estimated 5-10ft maximum depth.