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Environmental Impacts (Behaviours)

Environmental Impacts (Behaviours)

Environmental Health is impacted by three major categories – non point source discharges (stormwater), point source discharges, and air deposition. The degree of impact to the environment caused by each category is dependent upon human behavior and the weather. The following performance measures track some of the behaviors that have been found to most impact our environment.


  • Percentage of Farmland with implemented Best Management Practices (BMPs)

    Agricultural operations that do not employ BMPs can have a significant impact on surface water systems. Without appropriate BMPs such as buffer strips, stormwater runoff from these operations can carry sediment, fertilizer and pesticides into our local surface water bodies. Therefore, to help reduce the impact from these operations, the National Resource Conservation District works with landowners to implement BMPs appropriate for their operations. This measure tracks the percentage of acres in agricultural use that are currently using BMPs.

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  • Miles of Dirt Roads in the Watershed

    Stormwater runoff from dirt roads creates significant sedimentation problems in our area’s surface water streams, rivers and bays. When storms pass through the area, the resulting runoff erodes dirt roads and deposits the silt and clays into surface water bodies. In addition to the negative impacts listed above for turbidity, the sediment buildup eventually impedes boat access to our rivers and bays at which point millions of dollars are spent to dredge the material out. This measure tracks the number of miles of dirt roads in the Pensacola Bay watershed.

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  • Emissions from industrial activities

    Traditionally point source discharges (those from industrial site discharge pipes or stacks) have been the largest single source of pollutants entering the environment. However, after 30+ years of environmental regulation, the pollution emitted from these sources has been significantly reduced. This measure tracks the amount of pollutants emitted to the Pensacola Bay system by facility. Each graph you will see also contains certain other pieces of information so the pollution emission data can be placed into context. To see what point source permit applications (both new sources and renewal of existing discharges) the Department of Environmental Protection is currently processing, click on the “FDEP Permit application database” link below.

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  • Percentage of development with approved stormwater controls

    As you learned in the water quality section, stormwater is probably the single largest source of contamination impacting our area’s waterbodies. Since stormwater regulations have only been in place since around 1975, a large percentage of our community’s stormwater runoff is not treated. However, there are efforts to retrofit old systems with treatment based on a priority basis. Efforts include creating wetlands, installing treatment vaults and exfiltration systems. This measure tracks the percentage of “pre-regulation” development that has been retrofitted with stormwater controls.

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  • Percentage of homes with on-site septic tank systems

    Septic tanks leach nutrients and bacteria into the soil from normal everyday operation. Although the systems do not pose a problem to the environment when all conditions are right, rarely is this the case. Often times these systems are located close enough to surface water bodies that the nutrients enter the water systems and begin causing problems. Therefore, it is a public health goal to replace these on-site systems with centralized treatment systems (i.e. Domestic Wastewater Treatment Plants) in a priority manner. This measure tracks the percentage of homes that are currently using on-site septic tanks.

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  • Percentage of vacant buildings, population size, acreage in development, acreage in natural state

    This multi-unit measure tracks how smartly the watershed is being developed. Undeveloped land naturally treats stormwater runoff, provides open space for recreation and buffers wildlife from development. Taken in concert, the parameters of this measure provide an indication of how well the area’s comprehensive plans are directing development by placing an emphasis on the development of existing facilities in areas with established infrastructure when possible, preserving and maximizing open space areas, etc.

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  • Average Daily Vehicle Miles Traveled

    Air quality not only impacts human health directly, but it also impacts the quality of surface waters through air deposition. This term refers to the fact that a certain percentage of contaminants present in the air deposit into surface water bodies. In Tampa, it was shown that at least 30 percent of the nitrogen problem in Tampa Bay was due to air sources. Not only do industrial activities pollute the air, personal activities do as well. Each time we get in our cars, trucks and vans, we cause air pollution. Vehicles emit air pollution that contributes to poor air quality and low-level ozone formation. Considering that Florida’s largest use of energy is for transportation, this source of pollution must be considered. Therefore, part of the effort to improve our air and water quality must be to ensure that our vehicles are tuned up and that we be smart with using them. When at all possible we should car-pool and use public transportation to reduce the number of miles we travel. This measure tracks the Average Vehicle Miles Traveled Daily (AVMTD) to monitor our success at using vehicles wisely.

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  • Per capita energy consumption

    Energy production, no matter how it is produced, causes pollution. Therefore, both energy conservation and pollution prevention must be used to successfully address this pollution source. During the year 2000, Gulf Power’s (roughly Escambia – Jackson county) residential customers were the largest consumers of energy at 47.4%, followed by commercial entities 33.4%, industrial entities 19% and “other” entities .2%. This breakdown has been roughly the same for the past ten years. Based on these figures, it is vitally important that residential and commercial entities conserve energy since they consume over 80% of the energy produced. To monitor how well we are conserving energy, this section will track per-capita energy consumption.

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    • Per Capita Energy Consumption

  • Number of marinas and boatyards with a clean marina/boatyard designation

    Commercial activities, especially those adjacent to the water can have a significant impact on water quality. The Department and the Florida Marine Industry Association, National Marina Association, Florida Marinas, University of Florida Sea Grant and US Coast Guard/Sea Partners developed a program that encourages marinas and boatyards to adopt Best Management Practices at their facilities. This measure tracks the number and percentage of marinas and boatyards in the Pensacola Bay Watershed that have been designated as a clean marina or boatyard.

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  • Temperature

    As the temperatures increases, ozone levels increase and the amount of available oxygen in waterbodies decreases. Therefore, temperature must be considered when looking at these two parameters. For more information on temperature, click on the following links:

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  • Rainfall Totals

    Although this is a factor that we cannot control, it is important to track this number since rainfall amounts have a significant impact on water quality. During times of drought there is much less Non Point Source runoff entering the waterbodies, and thus there is much less pollution. However, once normal rainfall returns, so does the pollution from the Non Point Sources. Therefore, to track our success in reducing the non point source impacts, we must have this contextual information.

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  • Recycling

    As the size of our population grows, the amount of solid waste we produce increases as well. This increase impacts the environment in many ways. Two of the most important impacts are that our landfills fill up with garbage faster and the raw materials used to produce the products we use everyday are mined faster. To limit the impact from population growth, we must learn to reuse and recycle every material we can. If we don’t, our children and their children could run out of raw materials. This measure tracks the amount of material recycled in the Pensacola Bay watershed.

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The majority of measures above track measures that are usually impacted by ecisions made by local and state government officials. In addition to making our voice heard by these officials that this is an important issue, there are ther personal actions you can take to improve water quality. These actions are represented in more detail HERE.

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