State policy seems to have gone from providing assistance to clean up the mess to now trying to figure out how to prevent it.

This statement, if true, is more important than one can imagine at first glance.  We have repeatedly said that we must face the sources of pollution problems instead of treating the symptoms.  Stopping the sources will cost money and change the way agriculture has operated for decades.  This is such a huge undertaking and change of mind-set, that it will be a slow, arduous process.

But hopefully we have started.

Rooney has brought together some people who are asking the right questions:

Edie Widder, CEO and senior scientist of Ocean Research Conservation Association in Fort  Pierce, exhorted Rooney to find polluters.

“We have to have accountability. We have to have monitors in Lake Okeechobee telling us where most pollution is coming from,” she said. “To have best management practices and absolutely no monitoring makes no sense. There’s no teeth.” (See link to Rooney’s second meeting.)

Cassani et.al. are rightly concerned about the role (or non-role) here of the federal Center for Disease Control in regard to the health effects of the algae.  Strange indeed.

Also, it appears Mote Marine was not at the table.  Perhaps another plus for Rooney.

What Rooney has started may begin a new attitude on Florida’s water problems which, if it takes hold, could affect us in North Florida and everywhere in the state.

Read the original article here in News-Press.

Comments by OSFR historian Jim Tatum.
-A river is like a life: once taken, it cannot be brought back-

The roundtable convened by Rep. Francis Rooney with federal, state and local officials about the public health consequences of Harmful Algae Blooms left many scratching their heads.

But despite frustration over closing the discussion to the public and the slow pace by which government agencies are putting programs in place to mitigate or prevent algae blooms, Congressman Rooney deserves credit for bringing folks together.  This is more progress than we have seen in years.

Recent initiatives – the appointment of a new South Florida Water Management District Board that will give greater priority to water quality and public health, the appointment of the state Chief Science Officer, securing $200 million in the budget for water quality, and the resuscitation of the Blue-Green Algae Task Force that Former Gov. Rick Scott had left dormant – are huge improvements from where we were.

Much of the credit goes to Gov. Ron DeSantis for making a 180-degree turn from the policies of Gov. Scott. State policy seems to have gone from providing assistance to clean up the mess to now trying to figure out how to prevent it.

But the lack of information coming from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC) was puzzling and disappointing.  Were they muzzled or did agency scientists choose to be silent?

FRANCIS ROONEY: Making progress on harmful algal blooms around Florida

More: Rooney gathers high-powered panel for second roundtable on toxic algae, but this time, it was open to all