The City of Titusville calls itself ‘The Gateway to Nature and Space.’ And yet when its citizens speak, the City turns a deaf ear to their expressed concern for the plight of the Indian River.
For years citizens have engaged the City requesting they pay more attention to the recognizable losses in our environment, our trees and our waters. Alarmed, in 2021 a group of citizens started a petition drive for clean water and met all legal requirements to qualify for the ballot. A referendum was placed on the November ballot and the right to clean water became law in Titusville when it passed with 82% of the vote November 8th 2022.
Titusville’s new law says its citizens have the right to clean water that’s free from pollution. It allows our waters to flow, to exist in their natural form and to maintain a healthy ecosystem. This right benefits all citizens by giving them ‘standing’ in a court of law should their right to clean water be infringed. Like the Right to Free Speech, the Right to Clean Water, is a sacred right to be defended and not annulled.
Rather than champion this new law voted in by its citizens, our City has found it more important to spend tax payer money to sue the citizens and oppose their indefeasible right to clean water. This City government’s belief logically indicates that a polluter’s right to pollute takes precedence over the right to clean water. Rather than use tax dollars to test our water and fix our problems, our City has chosen to continue its routine of water pollution shenanigans thereby fouling its own nest.
For over 50 years the City of Titusville, the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) have been (and still are) the principle governmental authorities issuing permits to pollute in the North Indian River Lagoon basin. These entities are responsible for our environmental degradation.
Titusville, like Flint, Michigan and more recently Jackson, Mississippi, flatly denies that a problem exists. How do you explain their non-existent water problem having been rated ‘F-Minus-Minus’ by the Marine Resource Council? Today it is no longer safe to fish or swim in the waters around Titusville. The time has come for accountability.
The IRL National Estuary Program says the problem is caused by eutrophication; too many nutrients in the environment. These lead to harmful algal blooms, dead zones, fish kills and soon the demise of this national treasure. Because the IRL accepts all inputs (like a bathtub without a drain) it retains all.
Titusville’s own Environmental Commission (TEC) has recognized the City’s responsibility for the health of the North Indian River Lagoon. To address this challenge, the TEC recommended the adoption of metrics and measures for its stormwater ponds and stormwater outfalls into the North IRL. Measuring nutrients flowing into the lagoon is the first step in getting a handle on the sources of our pollution so that we may begin to heal the IRL. The City responded with a resounding: ‘No.’
Without data, no City can recognize the nature of its problems let alone solve them. Simply put, if you don’t measure it you can’t understand it. And if you don’t understand it, you can neither recognize, control nor resolve the situation. This City’s ignorance and wanton denial (in conjunction with lax SJRWMD and FDEP permitting) placed the lagoon in free-fall for decades.
Yes, NASA, the Merritt Island mosquito impoundments, the space center’s commercial launch operations and related support activities impact our water. While these impacts are significant, each one pales in comparison to the multiple, frequent and often unacknowledged sewage leaks going into the IRL… for now.
Furthermore, the City of Titusville has historically turned a blind eye toward the poisonous amounts of excess fresh water carrying a high nutrient load: stormwater toxic to the lagoon. Rather than building with nature, Titusville chose irresponsible over-development leading to eutrophication.
Our clean water initiative holds all polluters accountable for their mess with the hope that a court of law will, in equity, rule that their pollution shall be cleaned up at their own expense.
Will the city of Titusville continue to be a polluter or mend its ways and become a champion for clean water? Only time will tell.
Michael Myjak
Chairman, Speak Up Titusville