Building on a successful program that helped more than two dozen Sarasota County communities bolster (and beautify) their stormwater retention ponds, Solutions to Avoid Red Tide (START) has secured a $100,000 grant from Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation to expand a regional “Healthy Pond Collaborative” (HPC) initiative into Manatee County. The Manatee version will be a partnership with START and the Manatee County Department of Parks and Natural Resources that will in combination with the Sarasota County effort now cover all ponds flowing into the Sarasota Bay Watershed. This is a major step forward in the attempt to reduce the flow of excess nutrients in stormwater into our waterways that lower water clarity needed to restore the health of our seagrass beds and feed harmful algal blooms like red tide. According to START, stormwater contributes 65% of the nitrogen into local waterways, which feeds red tide and causes other damage to water quality and wildlife. You may call them lakes, but the more than 6,000 bodies of water in Sarasota County are all manmade and only operate at 40% to 60% efficiency in removing the excess nutrients that contribute to water pollution. This new collaboration will help more neighborhoods upgrade their ponds and cost-share the improvements. It also will create and distribute a step-by-step pond enhancement guide, host educational focus groups, and do follow-up monitoring of pond enhancements. A very successful pilot pond program funded by a grant from philanthropists Ed Chiles and Elizabeth Moore helped enhance over a half-mile of pond shoreline in Manatee County communities last year. This unique effort and collaboration is helping to establish state-wide and national models that can be recreated in other communities.

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