In cooperation with the City of Lake Worth and in honor of Seagrass Awareness Month, Palm Beach County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management (ERM) will implement a volunteer storm drain labeling project. The project entails gluing weather-proof placards to storm drain inlets in the City of Lake Worth east of Dixie Highway. The event will take place on Saturday, March 18th, from 8 am to noon.
Seagrasses are flowering plants that live underwater. They serve many important functions such as maintaining water clarity by trapping fine sediments, stabilizing the bottom with their roots and rhizomes, and providing habitat and food for many fish, crustaceans and shellfish. The depths at which seagrasses are found are limited by water clarity which determines the amount of light reaching the plant.
Seagrasses occur in protected bays and lagoons as well as along the continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico. There are an estimated 1,643 acres of seagrass in the Lake Worth Lagoon (1,968 acres throughout the Intracoastal Waterway). Stormwater pollution from agriculture and development clouds the water column and limits seagrass growth in many parts of the Lagoon. With improved water clarity, the Lagoon’s substrate would be expected to support a dramatic increase in the amount of seagrass.
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