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)
You have my vote! But I am still not sure what happen next to correct this ongoing nightmare.
Russell Madris 561-654-5171
just keep pushing. 🙂
And Brian LaPointe, the same scientist who said the primary problem was septic tanks now wants to time the discharges with the outgoing tides, so the algae goes through the river to the ocean faster, so it gets to Bathtub Beach and other beaches quicker. Where’s the guy who said the Algae could be discharged because Salt Water would kill it. Guess what; there is no appreciable salt water left in the river due to daily blast of 1.3 billion gallons of fresh water and mud. Also, if that is true, they must have also significantly diluted the salt concentration in the coastal area of the Ocean. The scientists working for the government and the sugar interests are just figuratively muddying the water about the real cause of all this; Lake Okeechobee Discharges. There can never be any more, and there has to be a solution which guarantees that. Fire any scientist who says occasional discharges are acceptable or that we should “store” more water anywhere; they would have to build an entirely new Lake Okeechobee to store enough to stop the discharges, and storage does not get the fresh water to the Everglades where it belongs. Only recreation of a natural filtering marsh can clean the water, but all the sources of pollution surrounding the Kissimmee River have to contain it on site, and all other sources south of the flow way have to contain it on site. The government caused this problem (both state and federal bear equal blame), and they need to fix it before we become the Love Canal or we start having the health problems of Flint Michigan. Stop the stupid science and tell the whole truth; just fix this now!