Protecting the St. Johns River

I have to give kudos to the The Florida Times-Union for producing a series of videos on how significant it is to preserve the St. Johns River.

The videos are named as if they were horror flicks with titles such as, Return of the Green Monster and Honey, I Shrunk our Environmental Footprint. The videos definitely attracted me to click on them and what I expected to be entertaining was something much more.

The video, Return of the Green Monster, started off with images of green algae dominating the St. Johns River, but the more the video played, the more it became clear that the video was more informational than entertaining. The video is very organized in a way that it takes viewers step by step on the problems polluting the river. It describes seven reasons to why the St. Johns is the way it is, with such reasons being: nutrients overload, suffocating streams, hazardous toxins and failing septic tanks. And as each reason is revealed to the viewer, a speaker talks on behalf of the reasons. The speakers varied from community leaders such as, Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton, St. Johns County Commissioner Ben Rich and University of North Florida President John Delaney to experts in the subject like, Forensic Toxicologist Richard Lipsey and Bill Belleville, author of "Losing it All to Sprawl," among others.

Another video titled, Showdown on the St. Johns, describes the Department of Environmental Protection. The DEP is responsible for giving discharge permits to waste plants which limits the amount and time of discharges in the river. The video investigates the violations of some of the discharge permits. There were 294 wasteplant violations that were discovered. This type of video took viewers indepth to witness some of the problems occuring that damages the St. Johns.

The series of videos are excellent examples of keeping the public inform. Not only does it take viewers behind the scene, but it explains the issues in different angles. Two other websites I found helpful also is The River Returns which shows documentary videos of the St. Johns River and even takes you underwater. Another is Vanishing Wetlands by the St. Petersburg Times. This is a cool website that not only includes awesome pictures and articles, but graphics like the cycle of wetlands.

Hopefully these types of coverage raise awareness and call for some much needed changes for Florida's longest river, the St. Johns.