[PCA] Illegal Contaminated water --Questions on impact of contaminants on specific plants in Florida
Dwight Hines
dwighthines at bellsouth.net
Thu Dec 4 20:01:41 CST 2008
Yesterday, while observing the City of St. Augustine officials
showing hauling-bidders the Old CIty Reservoir, where the City
recently dumped 40,000 plus yards of toxic materials, I noticed two
huge plants that did not look native to the area. The large
flourishing plants had some cute hemitera beatles all over the flower
buds. I took photos. One of the city environmental consultants said
that the plant was castor bean and was poisonous and it was used to
make ricin, the toxic stuff that terrrorists used.
My questions are:
1) Is the healthy growth of the castor bean (not native to this part
of Florida) plant indicative of any toxic substance or combination of
toxic substances in the soil or waters near it?
2) Are there beatles (hemiptera) that feed exclusively on castor bean
flowers, thus having some type of immunity to the plant's poisons?
3) When I asked the City official at the site if the city had an
ecological restoration plan for the reservoir, the official said that
it was to remove the materials to approved sites. Given that the
illegal dumping only resulted in a small fine to the city, even
though all the fish were destroyed, are there plants that depend on
fish and other vulnerable species to survive in an aquatic environment?
4) Has anyone on the list been involved, or know anyone who has been
involved in a court case with a government agency or a private firm,
that refuses to even conduct a quantitative and qualitative survey of
plant and animal species in the areas of the toxic dumpings? It is
obvious that the City will not conduct any type of biological study
of the site and thus can have no idea of what the restoration goals
should be. Suggestions welcome.
5) The old city reservoir is one of a number of porous coquina lakes
in the area and the city has not conducted any surveys or tests of
the adjacent lakes. Does anyone on the list know of any research or
court cases on diffusion of contaminants between adjacent lakes (the
lakes are with 25 yards of each other in places)? It appears that in
one adjacent lake, one that tested pristine before the toxic dumping
no longer has apple snails. While we are waiting for the city or
the state department of environmental affairs to test the adjacent
lakes, does anyone know of any plant species that are dependent on
apple snails to survive.
6) The different toxic substances in the old city reservoir were not
collected using an acceptable random sample, but that is not a
concern to the City, although the levels of toxins are above safe
levels, and women of child bearing age should not be exposed to these
concentrations. In the absence of reliable chemical tests, are
there any plants or assemblages of plants that can be used to
indicate that the waters are unsafe for children and women of child
bearing age?
7) There are databases of different habitats that have been created
and does anyone know if they have been used as comparisons or
baselines to compare species presence and absence and dominance and
ratios in habitats that were exposed to toxic materials?
So, rather than try to find a control habitat, one that was not
exposed to chronic high levels of toxic materials, the database would
be used for comparison to see what species were impacted and to what
degree, and how the impact effected their relationship to other species.
Please, if you know of good peer reviewed publications that are
relevant here, please send them. If you know of people working in
similar situations, please send contact iinformation. If you know
of sites or cites, please send them.
Dwight Hines
St. Augustine, Florida
More information about the native-plants
mailing list