Checking In with @waterkeepermark and Rachel Silverstein from Miami Waterkeeper

This week for the Checking In series, Mark speaks with people from Waterkeeper Alliance member organizations about citizen science, COVID-19, and more. Here, Rachel Silverstein from Miami Waterkeeper answers Mark’s questions.

Rachel Silverstein is Executive Director and Waterkeeper at Miami Waterkeeper. Prior to joining MWK, Rachel was a Knauss Sea Grant Fellow and Professional Staff for the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and Coast Guard in Washington, DC.

MM: Tell me a little bit about yourself and your watershed.

RS: My name is Rachel Silverstein, Executive Director of Miami Waterkeeper. As the full-time Miami Waterkeeper, I operate as part investigator, scientist, educator, and legal advocate, functioning as a public spokesperson for our Bay. Founded in 2010, Miami Waterkeeper works to defend, protect, and preserve South Florida’s watershed. Our scope of work is diverse, with core issues including clean water, ecosystem protection, and sea-level rise readiness. We take on these focus areas through an interdisciplinary, three-pronged approach, including outreach and education, scientific research, and legal advocacy. 

Our ongoing campaigns focus on protecting coral reefs, ending sewage leaks, stopping FPL’s Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant pollution, reducing fertilizer runoff, and more. You can read more about our work here.

MM: How connected is your community to the water?

RS: Clean water is critical to South Florida’s economy, health, recreation, and environment. With the most coastline in the continental US, our beaches hold significant recreational and economic value. 

Tourism brings in $112 billion to the state per year, and visiting a beach or waterway is listed as the top tourism activity. Yet throughout the state of Florida, we all share many challenges that make us vulnerable to sea-level rise. Examples include increased flood frequency levels, sewage leaks, stormwater runoff, and further contamination within our waterways, leading to more frequented beach closures.

Miami Waterkeeper works to mitigate these impacts through our multidisciplinary approach, aiming to restore our watershed and increase availability and enjoyment of clean water. 

MM: What is the role of water quality testing in your work? How do you share results publicly?

RS: Miami Waterkeeper conducts weekly water quality sampling at sites around Biscayne Bay following the protocols of the Florida Department of Health's Healthy Beaches Program. Our sampling efforts test for fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), commonly associated with wastewater, and used as a proxy for safe swimming. Under normal circumstances, results are processed at a lab space located at Ransom Everglades School. We then publish these results as well as DOH’s, on the Swim Guide app for the public to access. This website and app will help you to identify at a glance which beaches are safe for swimming (represented in green) and which have current water quality problems (represented in red). Swim Guide offers an intuitive, easy-to-use interface that lets you see a map of beaches in your area and their current water quality status. Click here to access the site. 

MM: Has the health pandemic affected your work? How?

RS: The outbreak of COVID-19 caused our team to shift gears. We’re all working from home and had to stop our in-person programming. However, we are still busier than ever as projects and rulemaking challenges are still moving forward. We even had new litigaton filed! 

We also had to temporarily suspend weekly water quality sampling during March and April, as our lab site at a local high school closed, as did the parks, marinas, and beaches where we sample. However, thanks to the extraordinary effort of our staff, we were able to return to routine monitoring in early May. 

Our team has been creative and nimble, pivoting quickly to a new series of digital engagement materials and resources for students, teachers, and parents to dive deeper into clean water learning! This toolkit includes lesson plans on “Fertilizer Use: Nutrient Pollution and Decreased Water Quality,” as well as “Climate Change and Sea Level Rise.”

MM: If you were a fish, what would it be?

RS: According to Miami Waterkeeper’s latest interactive quiz, “Which Sea Critter Matches Your Personality?” I got a manatee! Although not technically a fish, I hope “sea critter” counts. We encourage you to visit our site and take our quiz to see which you match with.

MM: Is there a role for citizen science in your watershed?

RS: We believe the best approach to ensure our watershed is swimmable, drinkable, and fishable for all is to establish a strong connection between our water and our community. Connecting our communities to Biscayne Bay and its surrounding waterways in Miami-Dade and Broward is one of our top priorities. 

MWK’s approach is unique, honoring our mission through citizen engagement and action, rooted in sound science and research. Citizen science is the crux of our outreach and education efforts; we work to instill increased stewardship, responsible use, and appreciation of the Bay and its surrounding ecosystem. Through our Junior Ambassador program, students in grades 9-12 are able to gain an understanding of issues impacting Biscayne Bay. In the year-long program, students receive training in civic engagement and advocacy, improve their public speaking abilities, and participate in interactive volunteer events ranging from beach clean-ups and dune restoration efforts to tabling at environmental fairs. They also learn water sampling methods. Read more here.

Our 1000 Eyes on the Water program works to develop a community well versed in pollution issue spotting, training individuals to observe, document, and report pollution. Read more here. While people have been at home, we have still had pollution reports, including three oil slicks and medical waste dumping.  But good sightings of rare and endangered wildlife have also come about from the quiet waterways during the shutdown. For example, someone reported a sighting of a pair of endangered smalltooth sawfish in Biscayne Bay - the first time two were seen together in Biscayne Bay. This data is now being used in NOAA’s publication, working to create increased protection for this ecologically important species. This increase in reporting led to our most recent campaign, #SeeaFishSendaFish, encouraging individuals to send in wildlife sightings, from a distance!

Read more from the Checking In with @waterkeepermark series here.

Connect with us on Twitter, @LOWaterkeeper and @waterkeepermark.