ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The San Sebastian River runs through St. Augustine, some of it along U.S. 1.
It eventually connects to the larger Matanzas River which is next to the fort and the Bridge of Lions.
And now the San Sebastian River has a problem.
Jen Lomberk, the Matanzas Riverkeeper, said, "We are seeing consistently high levels of total nitrogen as well as chlorophyll."
And when there’s too much of those, "that can lead to some degraded conditions, things like harmful algal blooms," as well as fish kills, according to Lomberk.
Prompted by concerns of researchers at Flagler College, Lomberk and team started taking water quality samples from the Sebastian River this year. The latest test results show failing grades when it comes to too much chlorophyll and nitrogen.
Where is it coming from?
"A common source of nutrients could be residential fertilizer. Another common source could be wastewater from either wastewater treatment facilities or from septic tanks," Lomberk said.
Both wastewater and fertilizer runoff could be on the rise because there are more homes and businesses in St. Augustine.
What can be done? Lomberk suggests making sure septic tanks are working properly as well as "reducing or eliminating residential fertilizer."
Lomberk notes that San Sebastian River has not seen a fish kill or dangerous algal bloom yet, but these latest water tests show that it’s on the edge.
"There could be a fish kill in the future if we continue to have too many nutrients in this water. So we would like to get out ahead of this. We would like to try and bring that waterway back into a healthy condition before we have those really obvious impacts," Lomberk said.