Editorial: Begin a new focus on water quality

The Sarasota County Commission will consider today whether to launch a Water Quality Improvement Program.

The practices and policies affecting inland, bay and Gulf waters are complicated but the answer to the immediate question — Should the County Commission begin the pursuit of a comprehensive improvement program? — is simple: Yes.

A devastating Florida red tide outbreak lingered, often in intense concentrations, off the shores of Sarasota and Manatee counties between 2016 and early 2019. It wasn't the first long, nasty episode here, but it caused serious economic and environmental damage and was the first to be recorded and widely shared on social media. Concerns about the impacts of red tide were exacerbated by harmful blue-green algae in South Florida's inland waters and in the Gulf of Mexico south of our region.

If there was a positive result from the photos of massive marine-life kills and empty beaches, it was a heightened awareness of the need for governments — local and state, in particular — and individuals and private-sector institutions to focus on water quality.

To their credit, the Sarasota County commissioners agreed to reassess their government's role in reducing water pollution. Perhaps the greatest challenge will be setting priorities because of the number of factors affecting water quality — for instance, stormwater runoff, septic tanks near waterways and inadequate sewage-treatment facilities — and the high costs of many solutions.

Scientists continue to research and debate whether there are provable, direct links between nutrient-laden wastewater and Florida red tide blooms that occur offshore. There is greater certainty, however, that when blooms arrive inshore, they can feed off nutrients contributed by human activity.

A chart that will be presented to commissioners and the public shows a gradual but sustained increase in total nitrogen concentrations in Sarasota Bay between 1998 and 2019. That chart alone should make it relatively easy for the county commissioners to make reduction of nitrogen loads the priority.

Achieving that goal will be costly but better for the commissioners to commence a vigorous, multifaceted program while the memories of the long red tide remain fresh in the public's collective mind.

The county staff cited three main contributors to nitrogen-laden waters: runoff from watersheds; septic systems in areas with high water tables or near waterways; and public wastewater-treatment plants.

Each must be part of any comprehensive approach but improvements in sewage treatment should be the short-term priority. The county already faces regulatory actions and a lawsuit over sewage-plant failures and, according to the staff report, upgrades would provide the best combination of return on financial investments and decreases in nitrogen loads.

The city of Sarasota expended a lot of money to improve its system to the advanced treatment standard and its nitrogen concentrations are far lower than those from three of Sarasota County's plants. The county should follow suit. Although some additional funding sources might be available, most of the burden will fall on ratepayers and customers.

Enough of operating on the cheap. The work needs to be done and during the red tide, the public called upon government to do something. The time has arrived to do it.