What steps need to be done now to save the Indian River Lagoon from an ecological collapse and to return it to health according to Mitchell A. Roffer, Ph.D.,  President of ROFFS™?

• Get rid of the muck within five years by reducing the paperwork to get permits to dredge.
• End the residential use of fertilizer other than on small potted plants.
• Removal of all septic tanks in primary sand environments where flushing carries the nutrients into the lagoon and require the testing of all septic tanks every five years and prior to the home sale.
• Re-mediate the surface water and ground water entering the lagoon.
• Mandate the reduction of nutrients coming from agriculture including farms, citrus and cattle.
• Increase the number of and improve existing water treatment infrastructure to modern tertiary and quaternary treatment, as well as, stopping sewage spillage during rain events.
• Ban the use of glyphosate based herbicides (Roundup).
• Restore the ecosystem through sea grass planting, oyster and other bivalve culture; and fish restocking.
• Improve the monitoring and science.