Local lawmakers call for end to Lake Okeechobee discharges as new toxic algae warning issued wpbf.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wpbf.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Algae at the Port Mayaca Lock & Dam this week was nearly three times more toxic than the minimum level at which the federal government deems it unsafe.
Samples taken Monday on the floodgates west side measured 22 parts per billion of microsystin, a toxin sometimes found in cyanobacteria, more commonly called blue-green algae, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
At 8 parts per billion, microsystin makes water too hazardous to touch, ingest or inhale for people, pets and wildlife, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Florida Department of Health office in Martin County Friday issued an avoid-water advisory for the Port Mayaca area and has posted warning signs, spokesperson Renay Rouse said.
/ The Fellowship of the Springs take viewers into the wonder and beauty of Florida s unique but troubled springs. Florida has the largest and highest concentration of fresh water springs on earth, and the fight to save them is raging.
Many of Florida’s springs are at risk, largely from a combination of reduced water flow and increased pollution.
Thomas Greenhalgh risked his job and career in 2019 when he sued his own employer, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, to challenge the state’s plans to protect Florida’s imperiled springs from increasing pollution.
Greenhalgh, a veteran hydrogeologist and expert on the underground flows that feed North Florida’s springs, argued that the sandy soils and porous rock of the region made them especially vulnerable a position supported by other springs advocates and independent scientists in a long-running lawsuit seeking tougher state restrictions on how surrounding farms and other industries use fertilizer.
/ The Department of Environmental Protection is testing water around the area where more than 200 million gallons of polluted water was released.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection says varying levels of cyanotoxins have been identified, increasing chances that the discharge at Piney Point will trigger a blue-green algae bloom.
Researchers monitoring water quality near the former Piney Point phosphate plant have identified increased levels of blue-green algae in the area where more than 200 million gallons of polluted water was discharged recently.
The Florida Department of Environmental Protection reported late Friday that varying levels of cyanotoxins have been identified in water samples in Tampa Bay, increasing chances that the discharge at Piney Point will trigger a blue-green algae bloom.
Sarasota Herald-Tribune Editorial Board
It’s never too late to do the right thing, and the momentum now gathering to permanently close the old Piney Point fertilizer plant in Manatee County represents a much overdue bow to those words of wisdom.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ support for closing Piney Point – which drew local alarm and national attention earlier this month when a leak in its reservoir wall led to widespread evacuations in Manatee County, the temporary closure of U.S. Highway 41 and a state of emergency declaration – serves as the beginning of the end for the phosphate plant.
It will be a welcome demise for a facility that’s long been plagued by troubling issues and dubious management – yet one that has been allowed to remain a looming environmental threat because of chronic inaction by state officials.