Longboat group likes the idea of water quality summit

The chairman of the Longboat Key Revitalization Task Force said he is pleased to see Sarasota County leaders are considering a countywide summit this spring on water quality issues in light of last summer’s red tide bloom in the Gulf of Mexico and Sarasota Bay.

Tom Freiwald said he would be further encouraged if the discussions led to the appointment of a county point person to work with a wide range of stakeholders to direct the fight against future blooms and the cleanup of local waters.

Freiwald said he and Lenny Landau, a fellow task force member, would be happy to participate in the summit to share the results of their group’s comprehensive study of red tide first presented in December. The task force subsequently shared its study with officials of the Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in Atlanta.

No date has been set for the summit, though Sarasota County commissioners last week discussed possibly holding it in April, possibly at Robarts Arena or Sarasota’s Municipal Auditorium.

“We could then build on the momentum, and have each county in the state name a red tide chief,” Freiwald said. “It will be interesting to hear who the speakers are.”

Organizations such as the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, Charlotte Harbor and Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium are expected to be contacted by the county. 

County leaders attended a similar summit in Charlotte County in January and came away from the event with a better idea of how to set up a local version.

“The idea was to let folks know what Sarasota County has done and is doing in regards to water quality, and maybe provide a forum to bring in some new ideas from experts from across the area, and maybe the state or the country,” Commission Chairman Charles Hines said. “My only concern is the timing of all this and, when we put it together, how big it would be. I’m not opposed to it, I just know it would take a lot of staff time and effort to put it together.”

County Administrator Jonathan Lewis said 90 days was a “realistic” window for the county to coordinate the event.

Commissioner Christian Ziegler referred to the summit as an “expo,” at which attendees could set up tables and independent presentations. 

Commissioner Nancy Detert said she’d rather the focus be on “hardcore information,” and that tables would be better left out in hallways.

Freiwald said his organization’s message to the EPA urged the federal agency to take a leading role, as it did in 2010 in setting a “pollution diet” for the Chesapeake Bay through a Total Maximum Daily Load program, which encompassed portions of six states – New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and West Virginia — and the District of Columbia. Limits were set to cut pollutants flowing into the estuary system. That body of water saw a rebound after intervention of the EPA.

But because of the recent shutdown of the federal government, Freiwald said he has yet to receive a response from the EPA and wants to wait a while before making his next move.

“We sent it by certified mail,” he said. “Because of the shutdown, that office was closed. They have probably only had the letter for a dozen working days.”

Sarasota Observer reporter Samantha Cheney contributed to this report.