The algae is toxic, as thick as guacamole, and if that isn’t enough the muck smells like dead animal tissue decomposing. The coveted waterfront neighborhoods that now stink so foully have been rendered very undesirable locatales.
Reeking, Oozing Algae Closes South Florida Beaches
By LES NEUHAUS
...the Baskins were preparing Friday to stay with friends across town for the weekend just to get away from the green and blue algae bloom that has overtaken their small neighborhood marina, from which most neighbors have moved their boats.
“Our lives revolve around the water; we have a boat, surfboards, and there’s nothing really to do here without the water,” Ms. Baskin, 31, a lifelong resident of Stuart who works as a social worker at a local hospital, said Friday. “And I think our governor and local politicians are to blame. This isn’t the first time this has happened, but it’s definitely the worst.”
At play are many of the forces that define modern Florida: competing environmental, residential and agricultural interests, a failure by state officials to invest in managing the demands of growth, finger pointing between state and federal officials. The result has been an environmental nightmare playing out here, about 35 miles from the source of the problem in Lake Okeechobee.
Mark Perry is the executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society.
But the area south of the lake has been controlled by sugar farmers for decades, and environmentalists like Mr. Perry say state legislators in Tallahassee kowtow to agricultural lobbyists who fund their re-election campaigns.
“The flow used to go south to the Everglades, and now this is a man-made, criminal disaster,” Mr. Perry said. “They, as in the state and federal government, say they can’t send the water south, but they can. This is an absolute atrocity that they are allowed to continue this in the name of agriculture. This is the worst I’ve ever seen it.”
Ms. Baskin and her daughter stood outside in their front yard, wincing at the smell. She said she and her husband were considering whether to sell the home they purchased just two years ago.
Toxic algae bloom crisis hits Florida, drives away tourists
By Craig Pittman
Gov. Rick Scott has declared a state of emergency and blamed the federal government. The state's U.S. Senators, Bill Nelson and Marco Rubio, have stopped by for photo ops and expressions of concern. And national TV and radio news crews are broadcasting to the country a clear warning: Stay away from Florida right now.
Lake Okeechobee is more than just Florida's biggest freshwater lake. It's also a repository for nutrient-polluted runoff from suburbs and farms around its rim and a reservoir for drinking water for communities south of the lake. The nutrients come from fertilizer, manure and septic waste.
The lake is also a threat, because the earthen Herbert Hoover Dike — built around its rim after a 1928 hurricane pushed it over its natural banks and killed hundreds — is at risk for leaking and collapsing. To reduce the chance of a breach during hurricane season, the Army Corps of Engineers tries to keep lake water levels between 12.5 feet and 15.5 feet above sea level.
Thus when heavy rains hit, as happened in January, the Corps starts dumping water from the lake. It goes west via the Caloosahatchee River into the waters surrounding Fort Myers and Sanibel, and east via the St. Lucie River into the waters around Stuart.
The last time there was a bloom close to this size and intensity, back in 2005, the estuaries took months to recover, Parry said.
• • •
Scott contends the culprit is the federal government because it has yet to fix and raise the dike. But the affected coastal communities blame the state and the sugar industry. They have sought for years to get the water redirected south through what's now sugar land, but political opposition has proven too strong.
U.S. Sugar is among the largest donors to the governor's Let's Get to Work PAC, handing over another $100,000 in June. Rubio's campaigns have been fueled by sugar donations, too. After he announced his presidential run last year, he stepped off the stage and immediately hugged a sugar mogul.
In January, Scott signed into a law a sweeping rewrite of the state's water policy that included a loosening of the restrictions on dumping pollution into the lake. Now instead of going through a strict permitting process governing their discharges, sugar companies and other agriculture operations need only show that they're following a set of "best management practices."
That’s some fortuitous timing Governor. Six months after Rich Scott moved to worsen the putrid problem by making it easier and more convenient to pollute Lake Okeechobe (no doubt hoping the memories of 2005 has faded) and disaster strikes again, and this time harder than ever. So Governor Sugar desperately needs to shift the blame. But Republicans like Rubio in Congress have been very reluctant to spend any money on infrastructure (like dikes and bridges) out of spite to make President Obama look bad.
Yuck!