The Canaveral Port Authority recognizes that maintaining the high quality of our water is of utmost importance. In 1992, the Port Authority initiated a voluntary water quality monitoring program. Water samples from six different stations in the Canaveral Harbor and five stations in the Canaveral Barge Canal are analyzed monthly for a variety of parameters. Additional parameters are measured on a quarterly and annual basis. The results enable us to identify short-term fluctuations and long-term trends in water quality.

Stormwater run-off, if not handled properly, can be a primary contributor to water pollution. We regularly sample the effluent from Port stormwater outfalls to identify and eliminate potential pollution sources. The actions we take to eliminate pollutants include: educating our tenants on managing potential pollutants on their properties, sweeping all piers after cargo operations, cleaning out stormwater pipes and installing stormwater treatment boxes. These ongoing efforts continue to decrease the level of contaminants in the Port’s stormwater run-off.

In addition, we retrofitted our stormwater system to redirect between 75 and 140 million gallons of run-off per year away from the Banana River, where it could reduce salinity and compromise plant and sealife health, to retention ponds. All new construction projects at the Port are required to include effective stormwater retention systems.

We also are concerned with water quality along the beaches south of the Port. In 2005, the Brevard County Near Shore Ocean Nutrification Analysis Project, a $100,000 study jointly funded by the Canaveral Port Authority and Brevard County, and carried out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), concluded that there was no evidence of a water quality problem in the form of elevated bacteria or nutrient levels along these beaches. However, to increase available data and maintain water quality, the Port since has added three new monitoring stations on the coastline between Jetty Park and State Road 520 in Cocoa Beach.