History has been cruel in different ways to two beautiful Escambia County bayous.
A thesis produced for the University of West Florida in 2010 by a student pursuing a Master's Degree carried the scintillating title of "Between Two Bayous: The Maritime Cultural Landscape of the Downtown Pensacola Waterfront."
The author writes of the city's streets between Bayous Texar and Chico at the beginning of the 20th century as "teeming with business, including dance halls, saloons and licensed brothels, many of which catered to sailors and others who resided only temporarily in the city."
Almost unintentionally, the writer points out the heavy industrial development that had begun taking place along Bayou Chico, while citing no real evidence of the same sort of activity occurring along Bayou Texar. And though she touches on the downturn of shipping fortunes due to the demise of the timber industry and collapse of the local red snapper fishery, contamination of the two waterways was not a featured topic of the thesis.
A more modern tale of two bayous would speak of the horrors years of using Bayou Chico in particular as an industrial dumping ground have wrought, but also how Bayou Texar has been decimated by residential development and its location close to what would one day become a federal Superfund site.
It would not only detail the continuing impacts on the two bayous though, this tale would also chronicle the extensive, and expensive, efforts now being made to save them.
Bayou Cinco, the "finest jewel"
In 1693, according to a website called ArcheologyInc.com, the king of Spain sent the Rev. Dr. Carlos de Siguenza y Gongora to map Pensacola Bay. Upon encountering the waterway he would call Bayou Chico, he described it as "the finest jewel possessed by his majesty."
The bayou was not only beautiful, its location and attributes made it strategically important. In the 200 years between de Siguenza y Gongora's mapping mission and the dawn of the 20th century, it was exploited for its abundant freshwater springs, elevation and strategic proximity to Pensacola Bay, ArcheologyInc.com said.
Remains of a fort have been located on the bayou that are believed to have been associated with the Spanish Luna expedition of the 1500s. Later, the Spanish would camp there during their successful bid to recapture Pensacola from the British, and Andrew Jackson positioned his troops on the waterway in 1814, prior to his attack on the Spanish occupying the city.
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Industry first began cropping up with the dawn of the 20th century, possibly attracted by the same features that had drawn military leaders. Newport Industries, which extracted sap from the stumps of longleaf pines to use in the production of turpentine, was among the first. It is reported that waste from the extraction process, comparable to asphalt, was pumped directly into Bayou Chico.
Over time, according to a Studer Institute report that credits the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for supplying the documentation, nine lumber mills, three fertilizer factories, four oil terminals, four naval stores/yards and a beer brewery would locate along Bayou Chico.
The Weis-Fricker Mahogany Company brought in mahogany logs from Latin America and stored them in the bayou water because the pollutants in it killed a worm that could damage the wood. It is said the owner of the company fought against initial efforts to clean up the bayou to preserve the deadly swill.
In 1955 a University of Miami researcher found the industrial discharge into Bayou Chico to be comparable to the raw sewage from a city with a population of 100,000. Chips Kirschenfeld, who has been working in some capacity on Bayou Chico for 30 years, said there was a time when a wastewater treatment plant on Old Corry Field Road discharged poorly treated waste water directly into Jones Creek, which flows into the bayou.
Today, swimming in the bayou is unheard of, and David McDonald, president of the Bayou Chico Association, said even working on his dock requires that he wash up thoroughly afterward.
"The sediment is pretty gooey down there," he said.
Gooey and dangerous. Researchers have identified the presence of chlorinated hydrocarbons, toxic materials whose manufacture was banned in the U.S. in 1929; PAH's, chemicals associated with coal, oil or gasoline; and dioxins, byproducts of burning and various industrial processes and metals.
Fecal coliform, a bacteria associated with human and animal waste, has also consistently been found in the bayou. "Site numbers suggest a steady source of release," according to research done by Rick O'Conner with the University of Florida's Extension Service.
Residential development impacts Bayou Texar
In the 1950s Florida, like the rest of the America, began a rapid transition from rural to urban. Studies show that between 1954 and 1982, a third of Florida's agricultural land had been subdivided and sold for development. Pensacola was no exception, and many coming to the area settled along Bayou Texar and its primary tributary, Carpenter Creek.
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With new homes in places like East Pensacola Heights and East Hill came septic tanks and driveways, paved roads and parking lots. Unhindered stormwater ran off the asphalt and into the waterway, carrying pollutants and sediments with them.
"Carpenter Creek and Bayou Texar were like one big catch basin for a large part of the city of Pensacola," said Kirschenfeld, who for the last 20 years has held the title of Escambia County's director of Natural Resources Management.
Stormwater runoff, then as now, has been the major contributor to pollutants entering the waterway, but laws weren't passed until 1981 to regulate storm water treatment. Septic tanks have also historically contributed to the nutrient load, and there are still nearly 800 of them within the watershed.
As the city of Pensacola grew and prospered, Bayou Texar was quietly being choked down by eutrophication. Nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorous were flowing into the waterway and creating an environment in which algae could grow and prosper. As the algae died off, it consumed the dissolved oxygen in the water, which decimated fish populations.
By the 1990s, annual fish kills were to be expected each summer, and city crews were sent out in pontoon boats equipped with large nets to scoop the corpses off of Bayou Texar.
The Agrico Chemical Co. phosphate fertilizer plant opened in 1889, but it wasn't until the late 1950s that officials became aware of the dangerous materials, chemicals such as arsenic, fluoride and lead, that were saturating the soil and groundwater of Pensacola. In 1958, the city had to close a municipal well on 12th Avenue due to contamination from the plant site.
It is unclear when toxins from the chemical plant, operated by Conoco, a Houston-based energy company, began entering Bayou Texar, but it has long been reported that a plume of pollutants had migrated the 7,000 feet from the Superfund site to the bayou. In 2004, Conoco paid out $70 million to 3,000 residents residing in the area to settle a lawsuit filed by the Levin Papantonio firm.
Among those named in the settlement, which claimed residents had seen their property values decline, were the owners of shoreline property along the bayou.
"It's disappointing to think you can put retirement money into a waterfront home, then find out it's polluted," one East Gonzalez Street resident told the Pensacola News Journal following the settlement.
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As the lawsuit was progressing through the courts, the News Journal uncovered documents that revealed Conoco had known since at least 1992 that flouride from the Agrico plant was leaching into Bayou Texar.
In a June 1992 report marked "Confidential," the newspaper reported, company consultant Michael McDonald estimated 1.3 million pounds of fluoride would make its way to Bayou Texar over the course of 75 years.
Kirschenfeld confirmed the Environmental Protection Agency had detected pollutants in the soil of the bayou through sediment sampling, but due to physical differences between Bayou Texar and Bayou Chico, settling into the soil beneath Bayou Chico doesn't tend to linger as long in Bayou Texar.
He said some of the reason for the migration of sediment in Bayou Texar could be due to its being "a north-south linear type bayou" whereas Chico Bayou is situated in a more east-west layout. Carpenter Creek flowing into Bayou Texar also appears to bring with it a greater "flow energy" than the Bayou Chico tributaries of Jones Creek and Jackson Creek.
Kirschenfeld said the strongest reason he believes the pollutants from years past have continued to linger in Bayou Chico while those in Bayou Texar have not is the sheer proximity of the deposit of contaminants into Bayou Chico, while those moving into Bayou Texar traveled some distance before being deposited into open waters.
"Pretty much what enters Bayou Chico has stayed in Bayou Chico and what settled in Bayou Texar has moved out," he said.
Also flouride, while toxic, does not pose the threats to health and human safety that residue from PAH's and dioxins and heavy medals do.
"When sediment gets resuspended during storms or even by boats, they become bio-available to fish, shrimp and crabs. Then we eat them and absorb those into our tissue," Kirschenfeld said.
Reluctant start to clean up of Bayou Chico
According to the Studer report, a first effort to clean up Bayou Chico actually took place in the 1950s, when Pensacola attorney Grover Robinson Jr., grandfather of the previous Pensacola mayor, filed a lawsuit on behalf of bayou homeowners. The legal action initially had a significant impact in that it forced two companies to stop discharging waste into the waterway.
"But within a few years, at least one was right back at," the report said.
As late as 1971, eight industrial and domestic waste sources were continuing to discharge directly into Bayou Chico, according to Escambia County documents. But by 1980, some inroads were beginning to be made toward undoing the mess that had been made of the waterway.
Kirschenfeld credited two men, Laverne Mathison and Dr. Bob Austin, with stepping up in the 1980s to begin the push to save Bayou Chico through the creation of the Bayou Chico Association.
"They were very active politically and they were very active at the state level, getting the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Northwest Florida Water Management District involved," he said.
"Through years of hard work, (Mathison) and the association transformed the bayou from a polluted, nearly dead waterbody to one that was renewed," a memorial written at the time of Mathison's passing said.
With the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Northwest Florida Water Management District engaged in the process, several steps were taken to begin restoring the health of the waterway.
Wood treating operations were closed and the Warrington Waste Water Treatment Plant stopped discharging partially treated waste into Jones Creek. A train trestle at Pensacola Shipyard was removed, a storm water project was initiated at Juanita Williams Park and a weir, or dam, was installed at W Street.
Also, state dollars began flowing to the county to help with clean up efforts. That assistance has continued, as have the county's continuing efforts to save its impaired waterways.
$100 million has been invested in Bayou Chico cleanup
Brent Wipf, the county's manager of the county's quality and land management division, estimated that with the help of grants, loans and RESTORE Act funds, Escambia County has invested over $100 million in efforts to clean up Bayou Chico alone.
In 2011, city and county officials gathered at Sanders Beach, where Bayou Chico enters Pensacola Bay, to celebrate the adoption of the Bayou Chico Basin Management Action Plan. The plan "identifies actions to decrease fecal coliform bacteria in six waterbody segments within the Bayou Chico watershed," a news release from the time said.
The BMAP, as it is called, brought in stakeholders such as the Emerald Coast Utilities Association, businesses operating along Bayou Chico, boat yards and marinas and residents. Meetings were held for over two years before the plan was finalized, Wipf said.
Under the BMAP, progress reports are produced every five years, he said.
"The reports will tell us how we're doing on meeting the BMAP," he said. "With the goal is to meet DEP daily parameters."
Reports have been published in 2011, 2016 and 2021, and Wiph said, "I think there have been some small gains." But changes noted from year to year must take into account things like major rainfall events.
"You really need to look at a longer course of history to get a true idea of the change," he said. "One year you might get 90 inches of rainfall which creates more run off and bacteria loading than in a year where you get, say, 60 inches."
Much of the focus at Bayou Chico has been directed toward the bodies of water feeding the bayou.
"When we started tackling the issues in Bayou Chico 20 years ago, the monitoring showed nutrient and bacteria lodes in the feeder streams were higher than they were in the bayou itself. We knew we had to look at the tributaries," Kirschenfeld said.
The major tributaries feeding Bayou Chico are Jackson's Creek, Jones Creek and a waterway known as Maggie's Ditch.
Projects include a city/county joint effort to collect approximately 50 acres worth of runoff at a pond at Bill Gregory Park to treat it through various means before it has an opportunity to enter Maggie's Ditch, which runs just north of the park.
At Jones Creek the county has constructed the Jones Creek Trail and Boardwalk, which runs on land purchased by the county along Jones Creek.
The project began with the removal of old culverts that had impeded the flow of water and installation of a new bridge. Engineers have added "meanders" to the creek to slow its flow and added subtle V-shaped rock weirs that create a small spill way that serves a dual purpose of oxygenating the water and attracting aquatic species.
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Lift stations built close to the waterway have been moved and the Navy has been cooperating to remove fill dirt that had been dumping sediment to the creek and even removed an old runway to create a more pervious surface and reduce needless stormwater runoff, Kirschenfeld said.
"Jones Creek is different from other tributaries in that the others are urban," he said. "The county has seen the value in holding onto the land around the creek and now owns most of the Jones Creek Corridor."
Aging neighborhoods in the vicinity of the boardwalk are getting curbs and gutters. They were built in a wetland, Wiph said, and asked to rely on septic tanks that were often submerged, leading to seepage that went into the creek. The new curbs and gutters route water coming off the properties to stormwater inlets.
Kirschenfeld said the infrastructure amenities seem to have lifted the spirit of neighborhood residents to the point where homes and lawns are being better cared for, and there has even been some new home construction in the area.
Phase one of the project cost $15 million. Phase 2 will be closer to $20 million, but Kirschenfeld said funding has been obtained for it.
Along Jackson Creek devices have been installed to help determine what pollutants are in the waterway so that a source can be located. The county has also made a significant investment in land at the end of Citrus Street to create wetlands that protect Jackson Creek from pollution running from the upland neighborhood.
Pensacola Storm Water Utility has proven successful on Bayou Texar
Much of the water entering Bayou Texar flows through the city of Pensacola, which has taken a different approach from the county by creating a Stormwater Utility that gives it a recurring source of funding with which to maintain the waterway.
The Pensacola Stormwater Utility probably owes its existence to Marty Donovan, who in 1998 took over the Bayou Texar Foundation and in 2000 won a seat on the Pensacola City Council. His campaign focused on preserving Escambia County's coastal environment and once in office he spearheaded the effort to found the utility.
One of the utility's greatest achievements was the placement of stormwater "vaults" in the Carpenter Creek watershed. The vaults are designed in such a way that they capture debris, sediment and vegetation as water flows through. Vacuum trucks remove the collected material for deposit in a landfill.
The utility has allowed the city to expend millions over the years on stormwater treatment projects, including $2.8 million since 2019 at Bayou Texar outfall locations.
"Improving the quality of our local waterways is a top priority for the city of Pensacola, and we are continually completing projects to accomplish this goal," city spokeswoman Kaycee LaGarde said. "Our waterways play a significant role in the quality of life and natural beauty that makes Pensacola so special, which is why it is so important for us to pursue grants and invest in projects to improve our water quality."
Lagarde said the city has also budgeted for Fiscal Year 2027 to install of three more proprietary stormwater treatment units on existing outfalls to Bayou Texar.
Jointly, and in cooperation with the Pensacola and Perdido Bays Estuary Program, the city and county have turned the focus to Carpenter Creek, where a watershed restoration plan has been formulated. The plan would commit $8.1 million to projects directly impacting the health of Carpenter Creek and Bayou Texar.
More: Two-year journey to plan repairs to Carpenter Creek and Bayou Texar taking shape
Under the plan, which is expected to take about 11 years to complete, engineers would restore approximately 20 acres of wetlands in hopes of significantly reducing the amount of sediment entering Carpenter Creek.
It would also add an additional five stormwater treatment units along Bayou Texar. The underground treatment units, to be installed by the city of Pensacola, are designed to remove nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, along with suspended solids from stormwater. They'll service approximately 40 acres of densely populated watershed prior to discharge into the bayou.
The restoration proposal also calls for the cleaning of an area of Carpenter's Creek between Davis Highway and 12th Avenue and developing two properties off Olive Road, at the headwaters of Carpenter Creek, for stormwater treatment and to provide recreational opportunities.
Prior to embarking on planning efforts for the Carpenter Creek restoration program, engineers conducted 10 years of water testing on Bayou Texar. Kirschenfeld said the data indicates noticeable improvement.
According to Donovan, the former city councilman, there hasn't been a fish kill on Bayou Texar since the Stormwater Utility was created, and the county confirmed data shows dissolved oxygen levels have increased in the waterway.
Seagrasses have come back to the area and are becoming a dominant species again. Benthic communities — macroinvertebrates, mollusks and crustaceans — have also returned to play their vital role in helping maintain water quality, Kirschenfeld said.
"All the signs are pointing toward water quality improvement on Bayou Texar," he said.
For success on Bayou Chico, remediation of toxins is crucial
Still looming over the collective heads of those working to create the same magic at Bayou Chico as is seemingly occurring at Bayou Texar is the question of what to do with all of the poisons remaining in the soil beneath the surface water.
The county is in the second year of sediment monitoring, according to Kirschenfeld. The hope is to remediate to remove the toxins in the sediment.
A group called AECOM that has conducted similar projects in the U.S. is assisting with the work.
The sediment sampling should allow the county to identify where the heaviest concentrations, the hotspots, for toxins are located, Kirschenfeld said. Monitoring will also allow officials to determine how deep below the surface they are.
"There are places we could consider dredging to remove the soil in the hotspot areas," he said.
Other approaches include "sequestering" the toxins, leaving them where they are, if it is determined the soil deposits above them will keep them locked in place.
A first draft of remediation planning should be available for public consideration this fall.
"Most of the comments we're getting are 'what's taking so long,' " Kirschenfeld said. "We need two years of testing and one year to get everything in place. I can see why people are impatient."
The first plan to remove the Bayou Chico toxins was generated in 1977, according to Wiph. A consultant at that time recommended the sludge be taken off shore and dumped.
"It's probably a good thing they didn't have the money to do that," he said.
EPA has developed new technology that uses electricity to probe bottom sediment and determine what lies within. The county and EPA lab in Pensacola plan to partner.
"They were looking for mucky material to test," Wiph said. "We happened to have a good source."
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Bayou Chico and Bayou Texar have separate, but coinciding, histories
