We wonder if the cost of our pollution will be more than the millions the lobbyists paid to our politicians? Indeed it will, and it is just beginning. Who will pay? Not Mr. Rubio, not our governor, but those whose businesses serve the tourist industry, which is more important than the sugar czars.
Not to mention those creatures who have died because our greed has destroyed their home.
And this is the way we “…take care of our own water.”
Start to look for the small tourist businesses that turn belly up because of the algae. Make sure to send the story to our governor for his “Visit Florida” ads.
Read the entire article in TCPalm.
Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
-A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back-
80 percent of Lake Okeechobee smothered in blue-green algae bloom
Lt. Col. Jennifer Reynolds announced at the river coalition that Lake Okeechobee discharges will halt for nine days Ed Killer, ed.killer@tcpalm.com
The algae bloom is taking over Lake Okeechobee, the nation’s second largest freshwater lake completely contained within U.S. borders behind only Lake Michigan in size.
A European satellite orbiting the Earth captured images Thursday and Friday showing the algae bloom has grown to encompass nearly all open water on the 730-square-mile lake.
“As you can see, the bloom has gotten worse and is more intense,” wrote Michelle Tomlinson, an oceanographer with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency distributing the imagery. “We estimate that 80 percent of the lake is covered on June 29, based on the pixels visible in the imagery.”
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection said the algae tested in the lake is toxic with microcystin.
Thursday, the Army Corps of Engineers announced it would suspend discharges from Lake Okeechobee into the C-44 Canal for a period of nine days, which began June 30. Some water, however, continues to be released through the St. Lucie Lock and Dam in an effort to relieve the canal from local rainfall runoff. The Corps is scheduled to resume pulse style discharges July 9.
To date, since Lake Okeechobee discharges began June 1, about 25 billion gallons of water has been discharged through the gates at Port Mayaca. Since May 15, about 50 billion gallons of water has been discharged from the gates at St. Lucie Lock and Dam into the St. Lucie River.