Friday, July 18, 2008

Muddy Waters




These photos were taken yesterday by Christopher Ball, a St. Johns Riverkeeper Board member. Neil Armingeon, the Riverkeeper, responded, trying to locate the source of the sediment. Unfortunately, it was difficult to pinpoint the culprits with absolute certainty. However, there is some reason to believe that it may have come from a Department of Transportation road project. The City of Jacksonville is still investigating the incident. We'll keep you posted about what we find out about this unfortunate situation.

1 comment:

Nasby said...

I moved to Amelia Island last year, & just saw the sediment impact to the river in today's paper. I work across the country, with Streamside Systems, and we have several technologies for selective removal of fine sediments (e.g., only removing harmful sands & silts, while leaving native cobble & gravel, to restore sediment-impacted spawning habitats). Obviously, it's next to impossible to do anything AFTER a major suspended sediment impact has occurred. However, we certainly can selectively remove harmful fine sediments from stream deposits before they become resuspended by storms and get flushed downstream. Construction site impacts can be prevented, but many silt fence installations and other "BMP's" are nothing but a joke. Our passive systems are so efficient that they can actually be used to monitor the transport rates of bedload fines (as fine as iron floc). We even have agricultural modifications that are used to separate sand from cow shit (for cattle farms that use sand for bedding). For research data and case studies, visit http://www.streamsidesystems.com or drop me a note if you have any questions about possible applications for preventing sediment impacts to surface waters, or restoring sediment-impacted habitats. We can work with clean or contaminated sediments.