River Kidz of St. Lucie and Indian River County

Timing is everything right? I case you missed our Fishy Halloween Party this past Sunday. It was a huge fun success. We had about 50 attendees and hope to grow next year. Ironically, we made "Jellyfish". We wanted to show the Kidz just how life-like plastic bags can be to that of a jellyfish. They look and move just like a really jellyfish can in the water.

The River Kidz have always advocated for healthier waterways, especially when it comes to our lagoon. Outside of the harmful discharges and local runoffs we see during the rainy season, we also see lots of litter pollution. Every shoreline, beach and park cleanup I have done, PLASTIC is the MAIN culprit (amongst other things).

What can we all do?

To start, the use of reusable bags is a brilliant and inexpensive first step. Typically they cost about a dollar. Even if you bought 5 of them for every time you grocery shopped, in six months (if you grocery shop twice a month, as do I) you would have 60 reusable bags. That's a HUGE beneficial impact on our lagoon, rivers and springs.

I wanted to also share some exciting news with my familiez. I was asked to join Mother Ocean and Justin Riney of Riney Ranch to take part in a state-wide campaign to ban single-use plastic bags as we have seen in California just this year. Its going to take a "village" to come together and demand change but as we have seen regarding the damaging pollution we see during the rainy season the past year, I think it's certainly possible.

I'm going to need our familiez help in this very exciting journey. In the meantime, head over to our new Facebook page to not only follow our progress but to also see ways to help get our message across. There are some really awesome ideas that WILL require your help.

https://www.facebook.com/floridabagsit

-Katy Lewey

Thursday, October 2, 2014 Facebook alerts me that gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist was coming to Sandsprit Park for a tour of the lagoon and meet and greet. Being a homeschooling mom and River Mom, I had to be there. I wanted to give my own kidz the opportunity to actually meet Mr. Crist.

Hannah (my daughter), Zasha and Zach (Martin County River Kidz and homeschoolers) and little Aiden braved the heat, humidity and the urge to dive into the dirty Manatee Pocket water while awaiting the possible Governor. 11:30am came, noon came, 1pm came with an update, the former governor was on his way! The Kidz played on the play ground for hours laughing, playing and looking for the green Quaker Parrots.

The time had finally arrived, the former Gov. was there. Has he approach, the crowded hurried to get a good look at him. He was escorted by Indian Riverkeeper, Marty Baum and Rep. Mark Pattford to name a few. Mrs. Crist was also with him. While making his way to the boat and inching closer to the crowd that lingered under the pavilion, he stopped briefly to talk to the crowd. Expressing concern for the water issues and reminding us of the work he has actually done.

It was time to round up the Kidz and let them have a private moment with him. We prepared and printed a copy of some questioned we asked the kidz to ask any politician if they could. Some of the questions were "When the water is so dirty, what will we drink and how will we live?", "How are you going to save all of the animals?", "If you don't stop the dumping now, when will you stop it?".

Hannah, Aiden, Zach and Zasha very patiently waited while Mr. Crist made his way towards them. Dodging the reporters the Kidz did, he finally was standing right in front of the kidz, the real people we fight for, the ones who the lagoon and rivers belong to, OUR FUTURE! County Commissioner and River Kidz friend, Chris Dzadosky introduced who these Kidz were and spoke breifly about them. Mr. Crist shock each of their hands, asking them one by one what their names were. Hot, sweaty and dirty from playing on the playground for hours, the kidz appeared to be on a mission. It was that very moment when 7 year old Zasha asked the Former governor, "Are you going to save our lagoon?". It was a moment that had many in awe and many seeing first hand just exactly WHY we fight. Mr. Crist explained that he would to everything he could to save the lagoon.


Thank you Zach, Zasha, Hannah and Aiden.

So, many of the River Kidz (sadly so) are familiar with the gross discharges that have been occurring year after year. Even as smart as the Kidz are, the problem can be so complex. I wanted to take a moment to help the kidz (and parentz) understand one of the biggest solutions to our problem.

Let me break this down.

Prior to the 1960's, the Kissimmee River meandered through the center of the state of Florida a total of 103 miles. Today, the Kissimmee River runs only 50+ miles STRAIGHT down the center of the state. I HUGE difference when your talking filtrating dirty water, which is what occurred decades ago. When we see heavy rains in north Florida, most of the time, that water ends up in Lake Okeechobee. That same dirty water potentially could end up right there in our own lagoon if we were to see discharges coming from Lake Okeechobee.










It's said that once Lake Okeechobee reaches 15.5 ft., the Army Core of Engineers (ACOE) releases Lake O water out to our estuaries so that people around the lake aren't faced with flooding or a breaching of the dike, which would be catastrophic for South Florida. So what do we do if we don't want to harm families south of the lake and we don't want dirty water killing our lagoon, our livelihoods and harming the people and animals because of toxic algae blooms? There's a lot of great ideas on the table, but one solutions is obvious.

A FLOW WAY SOUTH!!!

Lets talk about the hydrology aspect of the issues here, even with clean water, we CAN NOT afford the discharges we have seen. Our estuary contains brackish water. The amount of fresh water we saw last year was devastating, possibly even more devastating then the algae blooms we saw. Salinity levels were obsolete. For those who don't know, brackish is half fresh water and half salt water....certain animals need that kind of habitat in order to survive. Too much salt or fresh water can have a very bad effect, which is what we encountered last year, especially with our oysters.

One of the most exciting plans on the table IS a flow way south. What would happen is the Herbert Hoover dike would be replaced with an opening for water to flow NATURALLY from, water would filter through the river of grass south of the lakes and into the Everglades. The problem we are facing is the pollutants in the water due to heavy agriculture. These are the same harmful chemicals that are causing toxic algae blooms and killing off many species of animals
surrounding the lagoon. In order to send the water south, we MUST have clean water which is also proposed in what is known as "Plan 6". "Plan 6" or the Flow way south plan would store water, clean the water and convey the water through the river of grass as mother nature intended NATURALLY.

Of course, this is not the only solution on the table. This is however, one of the BEST, most beneficial plans out there and has been for some time. We of course have some hurdles to make it through before we can get there but, we're pretty excited about this solution and know with the kidz help, we can get there.

Thank you for reading today's blog. We hope you found it informative and of course, should you have ANY questions, feel free to comment below, send an email to riverkidzslc@gmail.com, comment on our Facebook page or even on Twitter. We are ALWAYS willing to answer any questions some of the Kidz may have. If we cant get them, we will ask one of the hundreds of experts we're friendz with.

River Kidz news:

• We're still looking for familiez to participate in our trunk or treat on October 12. Send an email if you are interested in helps. We are hoping to have at least 20 cars.
• Sunday, October 5th from 1:00pm to 3:00pm, the Manatee Center will be doing Sunday Stories with Marianne Berkes, awarding winning children's author. 
• The IRL Science Fest was a HUGE success. We would like to welcome all the new familiez that signed up with the River Kidz.
• October 8th, we'll be meeting with the Indian River County Homeschoolers group to discuss the issues along our lagoon, look at MUCK and work on an activity. 
• Monthly we'll be emailing a newsletter with all the months events that occured and are coming up.

Contact us for additional information regarding any of the River Kidz News!

Many know just what an election is. For those that don't here is a good look into what it is and just how important it is in our process of demanding clean water.

An election is the process of electing members of political body or person. In elections in the United States we mostly vote for people who are going to represent us in the government. This could be in a wide variety of positions, but usually we vote for someone who we think is going to vote and work for issues we find important. People who think like us. This way our opinion and viewpoint is represented in the government.

Elections can be complicated things, especially when you are talking about a nationwide election like the president. Candidates have large teams of people working for them who try to convince voters to vote for them. They use statistics and polls to determine what people like and try to say and do the right things to get elected. Candidates run ads on TV, hand out buttons, give speeches, and have debates to let people know why they will be the best person for the job.

Some times were even voting for certain amendments, rights and laws. (As we are this year, amendment one)

So, is voting and elections really important?

YES!!!! It's important that each person vote and get their voice to be heard. Even though it may seem to not make a difference as your vote is one in millions, it's important that each citizen cast their vote. This is important for democracy and for our country that people get to have their say and place their votes.

So what does this have to do with our lagoons problems?

The election plays a huge role, if not the largest most important part when demanding change. As state above, it is our right to believe and fight for all different causes. Some may fight for children's rights, some people may fight for firefighters, some people may fight for animals. It is our right as an American to speak up when certain things bother us. The River Kidz are known to stand up and sometimes talk to candidates, elected politicians and even government agency about what is bothering them.

As adults, many of us are registered voters to specific political parties based on our beliefs, Republicans, Democrats and Independents. There are a few others out there as well but, these are the biggest of the parties. Some people will vote for their own political party, others may venture out and vote for who has done things that they saw important issues. As many of you know, the internet is a very powerful source, were able to find all sorts of information on it. Its important we follow and do out research on candidate, especially if there are issues that you find very important.

Sadly, our problems here will NOT get fixed with out the politicians. While many of us see this as a human and animal crisis, it is very much a political problem. We have had some very good politicians and candidates help us along the way in this fight, those are the guys we want to cheer on and thank. Just like we do with our moms, dads, brothers, sisters, friends and even strangers at times, we want to thank those for helping us thus this far, even if that comes in the form of a vote.

One thing that is truly important and to always remember, when fighting for a cause, any cause, it shouldn't matter what political party you are. That cause is important to you for a reason and ALWAYS stand up and speak up when you feel its necessary, never let fear over come you. You tell your parents when you don't feel good, tell them when certain things are bothering you, such as what were facing here with our rivers, oceans and lagoon. You too have that right!

With the election coming up, were encouraging you parentz to take your River Kidz with you. Let them get a feel for the election. Here are some fun activities for your River Kidz in preparation for November:

Kidz Voters Registration Cards: here

Kidz "I Voted" templates for printing stickers: here

Kidz mock election ballot (make your own): here

Remember,
YOUR VOICE MATTERS MORE THEN THE ADULTS VOICE DO!

So the word discharge or discharges are frequently used when talking about our water problems. Its important to break down this term for all our Kidz to understand.

What are discharges?

• The definition of discharges is the rate of fluid flow passing a given point at a given moment in time, expressed as volume per unit of time, such as cubic foot per second 

or 

As we saw yesterday all along the Indian River Lagoon, many were out helping clean it up from visible pollution. I felt it was a great time to explain to our Kidz what water pollution is and the many types of it.

What is water pollution?

Water pollution is is when waste, chemicals, or other particles cause a body of water (i.e. rivers, oceans, lakes) to become harmful to the fish and animals that need the water to survive. Water pollution can disrupt and negatively impact nature's water cycle as well.

There are many types of pollution water can face. Here are some:

• Sewage (aka microbial pollution)
• Pesticides and fertilizers (aka nutrient pollution)
• Water waste and chemicals from factories (aka ground water pollution)
• Construction site debris (aka suspended matter pollution)
• Litter and garbage (aka surface water pollution)
• Oil spills (aka chemical pollution)

Locally, the largest types we see here are litter and garbage (as we saw here yesterday) and nutrient pollution (fertilizers and pesticides). This passed year, lots of Florida's cities and counties passed fertilizer bans during the rainy season or summer months. This was a great move on behalf of the many counties and cities since we all know how often we're mowing during that time of year. Unfortunately, the agriculture industries still use harmful chemicals AND the rainy season is typically the time of year we see discharges. All of those chemicals eventually make it into our watershed (see previous blog) and are flushed into our estuary and rivers. the effects of this type of pollution is detrimental to the health of the lagoon and has some areas near by completely lifeless.

The issues with our lagoon can sometimes be complicated for adults let alone our children to understand. I wanted to talk about some of the issues, verbiage and definitions to help our youth understand more.

(The highlighted blue waters have definitions at the bottom of the blog.)

Lets talk about watershed. What is it? 

Watershed is an area of land over which water flows to reach a common body of water such as a lake or pond. We all live in a watershed, or drainage basin. Watersheds can be as large as the Kissimmee River basin (which is 2,932 square miles) or as small as a farm with a pond. Your watershed may be made up of mountains, farms, houses, businesses, or towns. You share your watershed with all other living things within the ecosystem.

For us locally, watershed can be yards, land used for agriculture purpose, commercial industries and farms. All our watershed that comes from our homes, canals that branch off Lake Okeechobee, even in the Kissimmee basin can end up in our lagoon and is eventually flushed out to the Atlantic ocean.

Why is this important?

• Watersheds directly affect water quality, whether it's for drinking or recreation. For example, algae blooms from fertilizer runoff draining into water harm watershed health, as do mercury and lead seeping into the water supply due to pollution.
• Unhealthy watersheds affect wildlife.
• Aquatic life quickly suffers the effects of watershed pollution, while new pollutants introduced into ecosystems alter wildlife habitats. This reduces biodiversity by eliminating some species and introducing new, invasive ones that destroy the native species.
• Stormwater runoff can collect many different types of pollution before it reaches a body of water, including debris, dirt and chemicals.The storm water collects these materials and flows directly into a body of water like a stream or lake. These water bodies may be used for swimming, fishing and may even provide some of us with drinking water!