July 2016.
Above average rainfall in South Florida causes dangerously high water levels in south-central
Florida s Lake Okeechobee.
Flood control managers, fearing a breach in
the dike surrounding the lake, release billions
of gallons of water through canals, rivers
and streams into the Gulf of Mexico and the
Atlantic Ocean.
The discharge to Florida s Atlantic coast
surged down the C-44 canal that flows into
the St. Lucie River and Estuary and into the
lower Indian River Lagoon.
It formed a toxic blue-green algae mat, as
much as six inches thick, that shut down marinas
and polluted near shore waters as it flowed
out the St. Lucie inlet and into the ocean.
Airborne toxins from the algae bloom sickened
people and contaminated one of the most biologically
diverse estuaries in North America.
We all suffered from the headaches, the hoarseness
of your throat and the smell that you couldn t
get rid of once you went home at night.
It was horrible and we don t want to do
it again.
I had very little business coming through
the door, the phone stopped ringing.
Nobody s using their boats.
The water s just that nasty, nobody wants
to go out on it.
This has been making national news, it s
going to have a devastating long term impact
just from an economical standpoint.
My hope is that they can figure out a way
to stop the discharges to protect our estuaries
which we are slowly killing off.
Florida s coastal communities have struggled
for decades with harmful algal blooms caused
by seasonal freshwater discharges from Lake
Okeechobee.
We ve got to do something about this and
hold the politicians responsible.
This is where the greatest damage is being
done to the ocean as a whole.
It s where humans and the ocean meet and
interact and it s the lifeblood of so much
of the ocean.
In South Florida, algal blooms are a long-term
problem with complex sources and solutions.
Now, scientists, engineers and water managers
are pursuing restoration and rehabilitation
strategies in response to one of America s
complicated marine challenges.