B-CU students work to improve area's waters

Bethune-Cookman University students are working on a project that could help reduce some of the harmful algal blooms that plague the Florida waterways.

The project's goal is to use native wetland plants to reduce the amounts of nitrogen, phosphorus and other algal-feeding nutrients entering the waterways, B-CU environmental science Professor Hyun Jung Cho said.

While algae grow naturally and are needed for a healthy aquatic environment, at high levels they form thick mats on the water’s surface. When the algae die, microorganisms consume a lot of oxygen in breaking them down, creating “a low oxygen environment, which leads to fish kills and other stressful events in the water,” Cho said.

Though plants in the area’s coastal wetlands once absorbed large amounts of nutrients and limited their entry into the water, development has removed much of the original habitat. Because of this, more nutrients now reach the algae, allowing them to quickly grow, Cho said.

The project, which began last year, takes place at a kidney-shaped murky pond behind an old cement factory near the intersection of U.S. Highway 1 and Reed Canal Road. The pond is small but significant because it’s part of a chain of waterways that leads to the Indian River Lagoon.

Storm water, which contains fertilizer, oils and pesticides from Daytona and South Daytona flows into the Nova Canal before then flowing into Reed Canal. That canal feeds directly into the pond making it one of the last places the water stops before reaching the Halifax River and then the lagoon, Cho said.

While the city of South Daytona built the original pond as part of its storm management plan in the '90s, Cho’s project called for a major expansion. Funded by nearly $365,000 in grants, of which, more than $181,000 comes from the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program, the project transformed what was once a dumpsite into a wetlands area.

To do that, the litter and debris were cleared out and then construction crews lowered the elevation to access the original wetland soils. From there, flood-tolerant trees like mangroves and cypress were planted along with grassy wetland plants, Cho said.

B-CU graduate student Samuel Mwenda has been working at the site since last December. He said the project was important because the water quality impacts “the quality of life and potential health of not only the organisms living in the system itself, but of residents that live up and down the lagoon in a number of coastal communities.”

However, Mwenda said he’s also noticed a fringe benefit of the project: a return of wildlife to the area.

“The mangroves and the grasses that have been installed in the marsh provide protection for the smaller juvenile fish,” Mwenda said, adding that he’s also seen red-cockaded woodpeckers, osprey, and gopher tortoises in the vicinity since the new pond was built.

At the site recently, B-CU graduate student Abraham DaSilvio collected water samples and measured their clarity, pH levels, particles, salt content and temperature.

He said he wanted to explore potential environmental solutions to the problem and that he was interested in the project’s long-term outcomes.

“We all have to live and interact with it (the water),” DaSilvio said. “It influences a variety of different facets of life.”

Measurements are taken where the water enters the pond to get a baseline reading, then in middle, and then again at the outlet before it leaves the pond. In this way, the team can see if the water leaving the pond is of better quality than the water entering it, Mwenda said.

“The challenge in the coming times is not only having an adequate water supply but ensuring that you have decent water quality as well,” Mwenda said. “That’s important not just for this municipality or for this region, but more so for the state.”

Mwenda was tasked with examining the health of the plants by measuring them for frequency and density. The health of the plants is important because they absorb nutrients before they reach the algae, Cho said, adding that she hopes to reduce the nutrients entering the Halifax by 20 percent.

While it will take a few years for the plants to mature and to see the final results, Cho said preliminary tests show that the water quality has improved. She plans to present the findings at local and national conferences.

The project doesn’t comparatively cost much to implement, and once it's up and running, it’s also self-maintaining, Cho said, adding that she hopes coastal cities employ the method and in doing so help restore the original Florida landscape.