I believe in not being dependent on the federal or state government, but what recently happened along the St Lucie River is ridiculous…
In the months following the June 29th, 2016 “State of Emergency”and toxic algae bloom invasion of the St Lucie River, one thing is clear. Our federal and state governments did not look out for Martin County’s best interests, instead knowlingly discharging toxic algae from the lake into the communities along the St Lucie River— with out so much as “public-peep”— until real tragedy and helath risks had struck. Then suddenly, it was like: “Oh my, where did all this algae come from?”
Well, it happened knowingly because the state and federal government (ACOE/SFWMD/ DEP/ Florida Dept of Health) knew Lake Okeechobee was not “popping” here and there with a few algae blooms as is often the case, but rather was”covered in the stuff.”
By July 2nd commonly distributed government satellite images, like the one above, were showing over 200 square miles of algae bloom that obviously had to grow over time to attain such prominance.
Anyway…the least “they” could have done was to have given the public fair warning to be careful and ready as is standard operating proceedure during a drought when wild-fire conditions are present.
But they did not.
Instead, the Department of Environmental Protection quietly took its tests, reporting to the District and the Army Corp– at their leisure— the few results they attained…They should have warned the county government of more than a bloom here and there. They should have told everyone that a dangerous situation was getting ready to occur. But they did not. Maybe they thought it wouldn’t happen? I doubt it. This is true negligence considering the first duty of government is health, saftey and welfare of the people it levies taxes from…
Thus today, I am sharing a brief exchange between my very technically-savvy brother, attorney, Todd Thurlow, and me, from earlier this week. Todd’s shared images will help us look out for ourselves. Thankfully, the recent Landsat satellite images of Lake Okeechobee, for now, look much clearer of algae than just a few months ago.
The link below the exchange will allow you see the satellite images of the lake over time, dates are also present:
Jacqui
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7-27-16 Email exchange:
Jacqui: Do the satellite images show any more algae in the lake? J
Todd: I might see some in the southwest quadrant but not definitive. As mentioned before, unfortunately, Landsat 7 has a broken instrument that causes the black lines on the image.
Todd
Full Resolution:
(http://www.thurlowpa.com/LakeOImagery/Landsat%2030m%20Resolution/LE70150412016208EDC01%20-%20Crop.jpg)
