For the past year, my seven-year-old son and I would always walk down to the Willowbranch creek and walk the creek’s edge from the Riverside Avenue Bridge up to the drainage pipes at Sydney Street.  It has become a ritual for us on Friday evenings and Saturday & Sunday mornings.  I truly enjoy watching my son catch & release and observe the animals around the creek.  He has an insatiable fascination for creatures great and small.  It was always a spectacular site to catch a glimpse of the Alligator Snapping turtle about the size of a lawn mower that resided under the Riverside Avenue Bridge.

We were very disappointed on Friday evening (15 June 2007) to find the Willowbranch creek heavily polluted with petroleum products.  The petroleum products were sourced from the McDuff Fire Department.  The ‘Official’ statement from the McDuff Fire Department was; Only five gallons of Diesel was released into the storm drain and that they did not where the Diesel ended up.  A few days later after this article, the actual estimate was reported to be 150 gallons.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/063007/met_181084447.shtml

A friend called me on Tuesday afternoon (17 July 2007) to inform me that new diesel was flowing through the Willowbranch creek again but, not in the same magnitude of the first diesel release.  I took some detailed pictures to document the new diesel in the creek.  Along with the diesel there was collected pools of floating objects that looked like human waste.  Since the water sewage facility plant #111 on Mc Duff is older than 50 years old, I would challenge the City of Jacksonville to validate the operating integrity of the facility since it is on the same drainage line to the Willowbranch creek.

There is the major point that the City of Jacksonville refuses to address.  The diesel spill source was caused from an underground storage tank, which developed leaks from age.  The ground water table rose from the summer rains and pushed the diesel out of the tank.  The major issue is: the tanks are documented as removed in 1988 to the State of Florida and the contractor was paid by the City of Jacksonville to have the tanks removed.  The city will not disclose who paid the contractor and who the contractor was.  When you observe the parking lot of the Fire Department you will also notice many personal owned diesel pickup trucks.  I suspect the firemen were having diesel delivered to the fire department and distribute the diesel for their own personal use since the tank had no official city use.

Being the outspoken individual I am, I continued to make noise with the local newspapers and local government employees:  Here are some exchanges with the City of Jacksonville.

On Tuesday evening (31 July 2007) I received a voice mail from a Dana Morton requesting me to contact him.  Vince Siebold wanted Dana Morton to talk to me in person about my concerns of the Willowbranch creek water quality.  I talked to Dana Morton on the phone Wednesday morning, and voiced my initial thoughts of the Willowbranch creek on the phone.  We agreed to meet in person at the Willowbranch creek at 5:15pm, Wednesday afternoon (1 August 2007).

We met at the Oak street pedestrian bridge.  We introduced ourselves and, Dana Morton threw a water-testing probe into the creek to show me how he tests the water.  Since the water is tidal at Oak Street, we agreed to drive up to the pedestrian bridge between Park Street and Sydney Street.  That is the location where I have documented the questionable contaminants in the Willowbranch creek.

We observed the creek health there and I showed him locations where the turtles used to reside in the creek.  Dana Morton did some more creek measurements and observations.  He also educated me on how to spot signs of pollution and how to find the source.  Even though Riverside/Avondale is an old established urban neighborhood that does not guarantee that sewer and discharges go to a treatment plant.  There still can be septic tanks and direct discharges in use.

I voiced my theory that the petroleum has stopped flowing in the past few days but now a detergent like substance has replaced it.  It is almost like someone is trying to disguise the petroleum with a detergent to mask it.  There was a heavy milky substance flowing from the Sydney street pipes, which caught Dana Morton’s attention.  He originally did not intend to take water samples but the heavy milky substance made him decide to take some water samples.  This was clearly not a natural occurrence.  Samples and measurements were collected at:

• Sydney Street
• The pedestrian bridge between Park Street and Sydney Street
• The Oak street pedestrian bridge
• St Johns Avenue Bridge

The fecal contaminant results measured 8 times the city and state limits for allowable pollution discharge.  No mention of what the milky substance was.  I doubt the city would disclose incriminating evidence about itself.

Since the major diesel spill from the McDuff Fire Station mid June, those creek walks have almost ended.  With all the summer rainstorms the diesel seems to have been flushed from the creek.  We have walked the creek banks six times since the spill.  We are very disappointed of the lack animals living in the creek, just a few schools of fish and some occasional snails.

Since the spill, the City of Jacksonville has started broadcasting commercials on local TV stations promoting the idea ‘The St John, It’s Your River’.  The commercial asks private citizens to take responsibility to make all possible steps to keep from polluting the river.  It is very ironic that the offender tries to cover and show concern about the issue but places the responsibility on another.

Two days ago a tugboat owned by a private entity is reported to have spilled oil in the St John’s River.  The City of Jacksonville is all over this investigation.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/110707/met_215590538.shtml

Such a careless act of disposal from a private citizen is center of local news with the City of Jacksonville vowing to enforce fines and penalties.  Why does the City of Jacksonville get a quite pass or immunity?  The McDuff Fire Department and the City of Jacksonville should be held accountable to the same standard.

To further add insult to the City of Jacksonville’s disregard for environmental law, the local city government is attempting to create new taxes in the name of ‘environmentalism’ but there is absolutely no guarantee or motivation to direct the environmental taxes to environmental purposes.  The new Sewer Storm drain taxes have yet to be approved.

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/103000/met_4470030.html

This is the government’s new tactic to increase taxes and control private land use.  Make the private citizen feel good about taxes in the name of environmental causes then use the taxes in the general fund.  The same applies to Global Warming.