GUEST COMMENTARY
PETER D. O’BRYAN/INDIAN RIVER COUNTY COMMISSIONER
Lately there have been several press articles regarding the County’s lack of inclusion in the Indian River Lagoon Council (IRLC) and how this somehow implies that the County is not taking action to improve the Lagoon or that the County’s efforts are ineffective. Unfortunately these articles neglect to inform the readers about the nutrient removal projects the County has already built and that have been actively removing nutrients and debris from canal water prior to reaching the Lagoon. Indian River County began designing the first of these projects back in 2005, making the County a leader in taking concrete steps to reduce nutrients heading into the Lagoon with documented results.
Since 2005, the County has spent over $29 million on four major, state-of-the-art regional projects to help the Lagoon, using a mixture of Optional Sales Tax, Utilities funds, and grant funding. These four projects: Spoonbill Marsh, Egret Marsh, PC Main Skimmer and Osprey Marsh have collectively removed over 128,000 pounds of Total Nitrogen and over 29,000 pounds of Total Phosphorous, preventing these damaging excess nutrients from reaching the Lagoon. These numbers could hardly be called ineffective. County staff has received several awards from the Pelican Island Audubon Society as results of our efforts to reduce pollution to the Lagoon. Included are two Maggie Bowman Conservationist of the Year Awards and a Special Recognition Award.
Our PC Main Skimmer project on the Main Relief Canal, in addition to removing nutrients, has also removed over 2,800 wet tons of floating trash and debris such as lumber, vegetation, tires, plastic and Styrofoam containers, etc. To put that in perspective, if you convert the weight of the debris removed to elephants, it equals approximately 471 adult male African savannah elephants! Finally, the PC Main Skimmer has also removed over 4,600 cubic yards of muck-creating sediment from the Main Canal since start up. The PC Main Skimmer won the prestigious Indian River Lagoon Project of the Year Award from the Marine Resource Council. It later won the 2008 Friends of the St. Sebastian River Environmental Enhancement Award.
The County also spent $28,500 of Utilities funding to build a vertically designed oyster reef that has been extremely successful in not only providing a substrate for oyster recruitment and their water filtering benefits, but habitat for dozens of other Lagoon species. The County has also received $50,000 in grant funding for additional oyster reefs.
The County was the first local government to enact a very strict fertilizer ordinance, including a summer ban on lawn fertilizing. Even more importantly, the County is the only local government to hire a full-time Stormwater Education and Fertilizer Coordinator position to increase public awareness and improve compliance with the fertilizer ordinance. In addition to enforcing the fertilizer ordinance within the County, the Fertilizer Coordinator also enforces within the City of Vero Beach and the Town of Indian River Shores, via interlocal agreements.
Finally, regardless of inclusion in the IRLC, the County is still moving forward. On December 1, 2015 the Board unanimously approved a 5 year capital expenditures plan that includes nearly $8 million for additional stormwater projects.
Please rest assured that the Board of County Commissioners is committed to building projects that will help the Lagoon, and we will continue to be a leader in Lagoon protection.
Indian River Guardian 
This all sounds good, but why hasn’t the county commission joined the regional council dealing with the Indian River pollution problem? Why did Sebastion, Vero Beach and Fellsmere have to pay money instead of the county meeting its obligation and pay to join? Is the reason Indian River County did not join the other groups because of Bob Solari ? Thanks to Bob Solari and the commissioners who voted his way ,we have a miles long hole in the solution.
Thanks to Bob Solari and the commissions who joined him, we are way behind other areas. Lecturing the high school students on smaller govenments years ago, refusing to join the regional council all are the results of Bob Solari’s mismanagement of our key resourse. We need to replace him before he does more damage in the coming years.
Mr. O’Bryan wrote, “Since 2005, the County has spent over $29 million on four major, state-of-the-art regional projects to help the Lagoon, using a mixture of Optional Sales Tax, Utilities funds, and grant funding. These four projects: Spoonbill Marsh, Egret Marsh, PC Main Skimmer and Osprey Marsh have collectively removed over 128,000 pounds of Total Nitrogen and over 29,000 pounds of Total Phosphorous, preventing these damaging excess nutrients from reaching the Lagoon.”
County Commissioners deserves no credit for how much money they spend, but rather for the results they achieve. For example, the $4 million Spoonbill Marsh project has some issues.
http://insidevero.com/2015/02/26/is-countys-spoonbill-marsh-better-than-citys-deep-injection-well/
Mr. O’Bryan’s commentary leaves unanswered the question of whether the Commission could be more effective in addressing Lagoon issues, if it were willing to cooperate with others.
Mr. O’Brien’s defensive comments refer to past actions of the County. He is correct that were was a time when the County did play a leadership role in environmental management. But that was then. Regardless of initiatives that the County may take unilaterally it cannot claim the mantle of environmental stewardship while refusing to participate in a coordinated regional effort to repair y decades of abuse of the lagoon.
Bob Swift
Bad news/ Good news. The bad news is the Indian River is in great distress and getting sicker every day. The good news is Bob Solari is running for re-election for county commissioner,so we can begin to clean up the river by kicking him out of office.