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Algae blooms found in Matlacha Pass
Published: June 9, 2021 5:29 PM EDT
Updated: June 9, 2021 5:34 PM EDT
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“The smell is awful,” said Jeff Boone.
Friends Boone and Sue McAfee were out on Matlacha on Wednesday looking for fishing spots but instead, the two ended up finding foul-smelling water.
It’s not just noticeable from the fishing pier. A bird’s eye view of the water shows it is milky with mat algae on the bottom of the Matlacha Pass.
The algae in this case is likely feeding on nutrients from septic tanks and the Peace River, not Lake Okeechobee releases.
“When my father was growing up, when he was a fisherman, this was a pretty clean estuary, it was full of oysters which helped clarify the water,” said Dr. Rick Bartleson, a research scientist with the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation.
DeSantis stops by Franklin Lock in Lee County to see blue-green algae treatment
Published: June 3, 2021 5:35 PM EDT
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Gov. Ron DeSantis stopped by Franklin Lock on Thursday to see firsthand the blue-green algae and how it’s being treated.
It has been a major problem recently and is igniting conversation about a repeat of 2018’s water crisis.
Crews have recently started using algaecide on the water’s surface to dissolve the algae, which isn’t a problem exclusive to our area. Israeli company BlueGreen Water Technologies is using the algaecide to combat the algae we’ve seen at Franklin Lock.
Environmental groups and political leaders are urging the Army Corps of Engineers to maximize flows south from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades and Florida Bay. The clock is ticking as different groups push for the Army Corps to get Lake O’s management right. They see it as a chance to send more water south to […]
Neighbors lined up for safe drinking water in West Palm Beach after testing showed high levels of algae toxins. Home filtration systems don’t work in this case, and you can’t just boil it out. We wanted to know: Could this happen here? In Lee County, almost all of our water treatment plants pull from groundwater, […]