2 Florida Counties Added to Algae Bloom Emergency; Government Reducing Water Releases From Lake Okeechobee
By Eric Chaney
Published on weather.com
July 1, 2016
Florida Gov. Rick Scott Thursday added two counties to the state of emergency declared over bright blue-green algae blooms that are taking over waterways and beaches on Florida’s Treasure Coast.
Scott issued Executive Order 16-155 declaring an emergency in Martin and St. Lucie counties Wednesday, according to a statement, but added Lee and Plam Beach counties a day later. The executive order allows state and local governments to take action against the spread of the algal blooms by redirecting the water flow in and out of Lake Okeechobee, which many believe are to blame for the foul-smelling algae that one resident described to the Associated Press as “guacamole-thick.”
Scott placed the blame for the algae squarely on the Federal government.
“The state, as you know, doesn’t have any control over Lake Okeechobee,” he told WPTV on Tuesday. “The federal government has got to put the money in to be able to hold more water there when we have a rainy year like we have now.”
Also on Thursday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced it will reduce the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee
The Corps’ Jacksonville District planned to begin the reductions Friday, targeting the Caloosahatchee Estuary and the St. Lucie Estuary, a news release said.
The algae forced Treasure Coast officials to close some beaches in Martin County this week, just days before the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the Palm Beach Post reports, and has been spotted in waterways and canals across much of South Florida.
“It’s just been incubating and growing and growing,” Matt Athan, who lives near the St. Lucie River in Stuart, told WPBF. “And you can see how thick it is. And the smell is just atrocious.”
“It has been observed in a good deal of the district already,” Randy Smith, a spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District, told the paper. “Some of it moves around fairly rapidly. You might see it in one area, and then it dissipates and you don’t see it again.”
Water managers discovered a 33-square mile algae bloom in Lake Okeechobee last month, the Post reports. Algae samples taken June 14-15 from the lake contained more than 20 times the amount of toxins considered hazardous by the World Health Organization, TC Palm reports.
The Corps of Engineers frequently releases water downstream into the St. Lucie River, to manage water levels at the lake. The Corps is stuck between a rock and a hard place, spokesperson John Campbell told WPTV, and that releasing the water from Lake Okeechobee is the “lesser of two evils.”
“Holding the water back in the lake accelerates the rise and puts us in a position that the people that live and work around the lake face an increased flood risk,” he said.
But releasing water also means consequences downstream.
“It’s heartbreaking for all of us who live, work and play along the lagoon to see how the quality of the water has declined,” environmental non-profit Balance For Earth said in video on Facebook, which shows a blanket of algae spreading from the river into a canal, lapping against docks and the sides of boats, thick and goopy.
A thickening bloom is not a good sign, Ed Phlips, an algae expert and professor at the University of Florida, told TC Palm. It means that some cells within the algae are starting to die, releasing any toxins they may hold into the water.
“Out on the lake, the algae goes on as far as the eye can see,” Mike Conner, a fishing guide and member of the BullSugar.org activist group, told TC Palm. “And on the C-44 it’s shoreline to shoreline, the length of the canal.”
Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, told WPTV, he was disappointed with the governor’s handling of the crisis.
“The governor kept mentioning ‘We have the Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Protection on it. They’re monitoring it.’ Like they’re on top of the situation. I personally know that the agencies are not on top of the situation.”