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GEOLOGIC DIVISION NEW PROJECT PROPOSAL- FY 2001
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Background Narratives: Project Objectives and Strategy
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City of St. Petersburg, Florida
as viewed from Tampa Bay |
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The objective of this project is to coordinate with key state and local agencies, the University of South Florida (USF), the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (ULL), USGS BRD, WRD, NMD, and NWRC through planning meetings and a workshop to develop a Tampa Bay Pilot Study that will serve as a model for assessing and monitoring other Gulf of Mexico estuaries through the Gulf of Mexico Initiative proposed to begin FY2002. Funds will be requested the following fiscal year through the Gulf of Mexico Initiative to begin work on the Tampa Bay Pilot Study in FY2002.
Tampa Bay, as all Gulf of Mexico estuaries, is threatened by numerous anthropogenic influences. For example, the bay is presently influenced by a population of 2 million people with a 17% increase expected by 2010, three deep-water shipping ports (including the state’s largest seaport) with 90 km. of dredge channels > 10 m, two fossil fuel power plants, 17 treatment plants that discharge into the bay and its tributaries, and the country’s largest open-pit phosphate mine (a source of radioactive pollutants).
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Construction continues in the
St. Petersburg area to accomodate an estimated 17% increase in population
by 2010.
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The bay has undergone severe shoreline erosion, habitat loss, seagrass and scallop dieoffs, and an increase in NOx, nitrogen/chlorophyll, heavy metals, and pesticides. In 1999, the USEPA Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program reported Tampa Bay as an "area of probable concern" when it was identified as one of several estuaries characterized by predominantly contaminated sediments.
Currently, plans are in progress to deepen and enlarge several ports, construct a desalination plant that will remove 25 million gallons per day from the bay, and to bury the terminal end of a 36" underwater gas pipeline from Alabama. These projects are in the permitting process, will begin in 2001, and will inevitably affect the Tampa Bay ecosystem.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) in union with local agencies and state agencies such as the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission – Florida Marine Research Institute (FWC-FMRI) have a comprehensive plan for restoration and protection under the auspices of the Tampa Bay National Estuary Program (TBNEP). This plan recognizes restoration and monitoring objectives can be achieved only by "new and innovative public-private partnerships." Most issues concerning Tampa Bay have focused on water quality, habitat health and loss, and decreased biodiversity and plant/animal populations.
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| Fossil Fuel plants are only one of a variety of industries located on Tampa Bay. |
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Preliminary meetings with USF and FWC-FMRI representatives indicate a critical need for USGS expertise to provide baseline geological and geochemical information, which are linked directly to the biota and water quality of the Bay, prior to additional anthropogenic alterations. The location of the USGS Center for Coastal and Marine Geology on the coast of Tampa Bay and the active participation of local and state agencies in Tampa Bay research makes this estuarine system an ideal candidate for developing an integrated approach for assessment and monitoring protocols that can be used for other estuarine systems.
Additional funds are requested for small demonstration projects, the synthesis of existing information on Tampa Bay research and monitoring, and development of a knowledge bank that will provide the historical background and context from which to organize research. Clients have indicated an immediate need for USGS participation in Tampa Bay.
Demonstration projects outlined in task 2 will be coordinated with FWC and USF research to meet these immediate needs, will insure the continued participation of the USGS in Tampa Bay efforts, and will demonstrate the synergistic benefits of integrated studies in the bay. Materials compiled for the Tampa Bay Knowledge Bank will feed directly into the National Estuaries Assessment Project. |
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