The Jacksonville Waterways Commission convened on September 17, 2026, at 11:05 AM in the Council Chamber, City Hall. Key topics included a status report on water quality and manatees, public comment on the George Crady Bridge Fishing Pier and FIND, review of two ordinances, and updates on subcommittees. The meeting adjourned at 12:04 PM.
St. Johns River Status Report on Water Quality & Manatees – Dr. Gerard Pinto (Jacksonville University) reported that rainfall is 4–5 inches below normal for the year, leading to elevated salinity levels: 25–30 ppt at Mayport (normal seawater is 35 ppt), 13–18 ppt at JU/Dames Point, 11–15 ppt downtown, and 6–8 ppt at Buckman Bridge. A manatee survey found 7–8 manatees, mostly past Buckman Bridge. There have been 16 manatee mortalities this year (4 from watercraft, 3 from canal lock). Doctors Lake is covered in algae; Microcystis was detected but not producing toxins. Red tide occurred in Fort George Inlet, prompting a health advisory. Dr. Pinto noted that algae blooms do not appear to affect manatees, and that buffers and following the city’s fertilizer ordinance can help mitigate nutrient runoff. Matt Jones asked about the Queens Harbor canal lock; Dr. Pinto reported the lock manager disputes state findings, and U.S. Fish & Wildlife is evaluating retrofitting options.
New Business – Ordinance 2026-0648 (Large-Scale FLUM Revision) – Ed Lukacovic (Planning Department) presented a proposed revision of 300.87 acres from Agriculture (AGR) to Rural Residential (RR) at Garden St, Plummer Rd, Messer Rd, Kings Crossing Dr, and Paddington Way. The site contains 167.17 acres of wetlands (135.09 Category II, 32.08 Category III) and lies in the Trout River basin. Development potential would increase from 120 units (AGR) to up to 600 units (RR with water/sewer). Water and sewer line extensions from Garden Street would be needed. The motion to recommend approval passed, with only CM Gay opposing.
New Business – Ordinance 2026-0698 (Funding for State of the River Report) – Dr. Pinto read an email from James Richardson (Environmental Protection Board) explaining the ordinance appropriates $111,233 from the Environmental Protection Fund to Jacksonville University for the 19th State of the River Report. The bill includes waivers for continuous funding, direct contracting, and procurement exemption, consistent with past practices. Adam Hoyles (EPB) supported the report as a synthesis of river data. CM Peluso expressed support and asked to be added as co-sponsor, but requested future reports include specific policy recommendations for policymakers, noting the report’s cost of over $100,000. Dr. Pinto said he would take the recommendation back to the group. The motion to recommend approval passed without objection.
Subcommittee Updates
Thanks everyone. You've had the minutes that have been submitted. I will entertain a motion to approve those minutes from our last meeting. It's been moved and seconded. I noticed in those minutes that were sent out. I just wanted to make it clear for legislative services. It did not, we reversed the order of the the uh minutes of the agenda for last time. So I just wanted on the record that those minutes should reflect the fact that the agenda was uh we took it out of order so that we could get to everyone, especially in Dr. Pinto was uh not with us at that time. Uh so um with that on the record, uh it's been moved and seconded. All in favor say aye. All opposed. The ayes have it, and the minutes are approved, right? And this is the time we've all been waiting for statutorily, we have to do this, but it's something I've been looking forward to. I looked at a few of the other past reports. This is the St. John's River Status Report on Water Quality and Manatees, and for that we have a presentation from Dr. Gerard Pinto from Jacksonville University. Thank you. So actually, I I just usually give it from my seated position over here, if that's fine. Um you will see uh an updated version of uh of uh events in the river here. So, in terms of uh rainfall, we are still below normal for the year, probably about four or five inches below normal. And so this is a reason why our salinities are kind of kicked up a little bit. We're still in somewhat drought conditions, and so at Mayport we have 25 to 30 parts per thousand salinity. Normal seawater is around 35 parts per thousand, so it's a little bit lower than normal there. JU and Dames Point Bridge between 13 and 18 parts per thousand, which is what we expect with brackish conditions. Uh you'll notice downtown and Buckman Bridge are slightly elevated. The 11 to 15 parts per thousand downtown uh is not too unusual, but it's slightly above normal. And then Buckman Bridge is usually below a part per thousand under normal conditions, so it's kind of salty down there. Um I had the opportunity to do a manatee survey last week. There are only about seven or eight manatees in the area, most of them down past past the bus Buckman Bridge down towards uh the St. John's and uh uh Putnam County uh border down there. Uh but we also noticed a lot of dolphins that were quite far down around NAS Jacks, and that's probably because the salinity is elevated in the river down there. Um there's some graphs here that show you water levels and so on, tides. Uh second page shows you the the rainfall. So Jackson International were at minus four for the year, we uh four inches. We were below of a deficit there. If you look at the whole basin, the St. John's River Basin, we're at minus eight inches there, so uh still in drought conditions, and I think on the water management uh website you'll see that we are still in uh considerable drought conditions. One other thing I noticed, and this is moving on to the third page here HABs, harmful algae blooms. There's a lot of algae in the area. Doctor's Lake was covered in algae when I flew over it last week. Um so there's a considerable algae bloom out there. Whether it's producing toxin or not, we don't know. But the uh most recent uh sampling that was done by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on the 8th of uh September showed that microcystis is around in Doctor's Lake and around the Shans Bridge, uh, but wasn't producing any toxins. So there will probably be a um sampling that is in-house right now and going through uh the process, and so we will know. Last month when I wasn't here, there was a red tide in uh Fort George Inlet, and that's an unusual event. We don't tend to have those here very much, although there have been some over the years, and these are usually caused by the very high temperatures and rainfall and nutrients that feed these algae and and these blooms. Uh apparently uh, and so the health department put out an advisory because red tide produces a neurotoxin that's dangerous to humans and uh animals and wildlife and fish, but we didn't see any large uh scale uh fish kills or any fish kills that I know of, and it seemed to die down very quickly, and so it didn't affect uh many people at all that I know of. Um I'm gonna move on to manatee mortalities.