LOWER SJR REPORT 2018 River Report State of the Lower 2018 St. Johns River Basin, Florida Water Quality FisHeries Aquatic Life Contaminants Prepared for: Environmental Protection Board, City of Jacksonville, Florida St. James Building, 117 West Duval Street Jacksonville, Florida 32202 By: University of NortH Florida, 1 UNF Drive, Jacksonville, Florida 32224 Jacksonville University, 2800 University Blvd N., Jacksonville, Florida 32211 Cover image: Michael J. Canella, courtesy of Daniel L. Schafer and www.unfedu.floridahistoryonline, digitally manipulated. LOWER SJR REPORT 2018 Preface The State of the River Report is the result of a collaborative effort of a team of academic researchers from Jacksonville University, University of North Florida, Jacksonville, FL, and Florida Southern College, Lakeland, FL. The report was supported by the Environmental Protection Board of the City of Jacksonville. The purpose of the project is to review various previously collected data and literature about the river and to place it into a format that is informative and readable to the general public. The report consists of four parts---the website (http://www.sjrreport.com) the brochure, the full report, and an appendix. The brochure provides a brief summary of the status and trends of each item or indicator (i.e. water quality, fisheries, etc.) that was evaluated for the river. The full report and appendix were produced to provide more to those interested. In the development of these documents, many different sources of data were examined, including data from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, St. Johns River Water Management District, Fish and Wildlife Commission, City of Jacksonville, individual researchers, and others. The researchers reviewed data addressing many different aspects of the Lower St. Johns River. The most statistically rigorous and stringent research available was used to assemble the report. When a draft of all documents was produced, an extensive review process was undertaken to ensure accuracy, balance, and clarity. We are extremely grateful to the following scientists and interested parties who provided invaluable assistance in improving our document. Reviewing this report does not imply agreement with opinions and conclusions reached by the Report’s authors. Vince Seibold Maria Mark, Timucuan Trail Parks Foundation Betsy Deuerling City of Jacksonville (COJ) Stephan Nix, University of North Florida (UNF) Bill Karlavige, COJ EQD Kelly Smith, UNF Joy Hoffman, COJ EQD Dale Casamatta, UNF John Flowe, City of Jacksonville Robert Richardson, UNF Melissa Long, City of Jacksonville Maia McGuire, University of Florida Sea Grant John Hendrickson, St. Johns River Water Management A. Quinton White, Jacksonville University (JU) District (SJRWMD) Charles Jacoby, SJRWMD John Higman, SJRWMD Ted Lange, FWRI Dean Dobberfuhl, SJRWMD Douglas Adams, FWRI Teresa Monson, SJRWMD Wayne Magley, FDEP Al Canepa, SJRWMD Anita Nash, FDEP Derek Busby, SJRWMD Kevin O’Donnell, FDEP Russ Brodie, Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Julie Espy, FDEP Institute (FWRI) Daryll Joyner, FDEP Tony DiGirolamo, FWRI Donald Axelrad, FDEP Justin Solomon, FWRI Barbara Donner, FDEP Lee Banks, Florida Department of Environmental Kendra Goff, Florida Department of Health Protection (FDEP) Jan Landsberg, FWRI Patrick O’Connor, FDEP Robert Storm Burks, SJRWMD Lisa Rinaman, St. Johns River Riverkeeper Matthew Waters, Valdosta State University Paul Steinbrecher, JEA Christopher Swanson, FWRI Ed Cordova, JEA Gary Weise Tiffany Busby, Wildwood Consulting John Heine, JU Marcy Policastro, Wildwood Consulting Steve Swann, Applied Technology & Management Mike McManus, The Nature Conservancy Melissa Simmons, JU Richard Bryant, National Park Service Mark Middlebrook, St. Johns River Alliance We have appreciated the opportunity to work with the environmental community to educate the public about the unique problems of the Lower St. Johns River, and the efforts that are under way to restore our river to a healthy ecosystem. i LOWER SJR REPORT 2018 We would also like to thank the following individuals for their contributions toward the development of this report while they were undergraduate students: Laura Elston, JU Jingu Gene Kang, JU Samuel Dixie, JU Andrea Pertoso, UNF Bobbi Estabrook, JU Ryan Keith, JU Anthony Flock, JU Katie Anagnostou, UNF Jessica Fernquist, JU Rebecca Lucas, JU Sara Debellis, JU Sydney Peyton, JU Jessica Goodman, JU Nicole Martin, JU Alexis Crouch, JU Julia Goodman, JU David Roueche, JU Keenan Carpenter, JU Julie Hammon, JU Logan Wood, JU Krystal Dannenhoffer, JU Leon Huderson, III, JU Jenna Manis, JU Emma Fowler, JU Sincerely, Gerry Pinto, Principal Investigator, JU Radha Pyati, Principal Investigator, UNF Gretchen Bielmyer-Fraser, JU Charles Closmann, UNF Nisse Goldberg, JU Brian Zoellner, UNF Anthony Ouellette, JU Niki Spadaro, Technical Editor An-Phong Le, Florida Southern College ii LOWER SJR REPORT 2018 Executive Summary The Eleventh State of the River Report is a summary and analysis of the health of the Lower St. Johns River Basin (LSJRB) available at http://www.sjrreport.com. The Report addresses four main areas of river health: water quality; fisheries; aquatic life; and contaminants. This year’s Report includes a special section on applications of the Report to K-12 schools in Duval County. As noted below, some indicators have improved, others have worsened, and still others have remained unchanged. The trends of some indicators have improved: • Total phosphorus levels in the saltwater reach of the mainstem are improving. • Dissolved oxygen levels in the tributaries are improving for the first time in many years. • Metal concentrations in the mainstem have improved: all metals examined in this Report - arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, nickel, silver, and zinc - indicated concentrations, even maxima, that were below water quality criteria. • Conditions for three critical wildlife species have shown improvement: the bald eagle, the wood stork, and the Florida manatee. The trends of some indicators have worsened: • Salinity has gradually risen over the last two decades and is expected to continue its increase, with increasing potential negative impacts on submerged aquatic vegetation and the aquatic life that depends upon it. • Nonnative species increased from 56 total species in 2008 to 87 in 2018, and the spread of lionfish and Cuban treefrogs is of particular concern due to their impacts on the native ecosystem. • Wetlands continue to be lost to development pressures. The trends of many indicators are unchanged: • Chlorophyll a, an indicator of harmful algal blooms, continues to exhibit exceedances and algal bloom events, and characterizing chlorophyll a levels is complicated by limitations in data collection. • Fecal coliform levels in the tributaries remain significantly above both previously used and newly developed water quality criteria. • Submerged aquatic vegetation has experienced recent regrowth due to rainfall, but the long-term trend is uncertain and the low number of sampling sites increases this uncertainty. • Most finfish and invertebrate species are not in danger of overfishing, with the exception of channel and white catfish, which both have the potential to be overfished in the near future. This year’s Report contains a Highlight section on K-12 applications of the Report. Four threads of content valuable to K-12 educators are discussed, followed by the ways in which Report concepts meet state and national standards for science education. Finally, pre-service teachers at the University of North Florida used the Report in their teacher education curriculum, accompanied by field water monitoring kits. The Ribault and Trout Rivers have been identified as good sampling sites close to Duval County Schools, and Ribault High School has used the kit and the content. The full Report provides an in-depth look at many aspects of the LSJRB. Section 1 provides an overview of the Report and the basin and describes the basin’s landscape, human occupancy, and environmental management spanning the 1800s to early 2018. Section 2 describes water quality in terms of dissolved oxygen, nutrients, algal blooms, turbidity, fecal coliform, tributaries, and salinity. Section 3 addresses the state of the river’s finfish and invertebrate fisheries. Section 4 examines the condition of aquatic life, encompassing plants, animals, and wetlands. Section 5 discusses conditions and importance of contaminants in the LSJRB. These contaminants include air and water emissions of chemicals in the LSJRB, as reported to EPA Toxics Release Inventory; mercury, the subject of a statewide reduction effort; metals, in both sediments and the water column; polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; polychlorinated biphenyls; and pesticides. iii LOWER SJR REPORT 2018 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS AEF American Eagle Foundation MS4 Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System AKA Also Known As NAP Non-Algal Particulates ATSDR Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry NAS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species AWS Alternate Water Supply NAS JAX Naval Air Station Jacksonville BMAP Basin Management Action Plan NMFS National Marine Fisheries Service BOD Biochemical Oxygen Demand NOAA National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration CCA Chromated Copper Arsenate NPDES National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System CDC Center for Disease Control NRC National Research Council CDOM Colored Dissolved Organic Material NPS National Park Service CFR Code of Federal Regulations NTU Nephelometric