Documenting the discharges, is critical whether by air, on the ground, or from outer space.
The two videos above were taken by me over S-308 at Port Mayaca, the opening from Lake Okeechobee to the St Lucie River, and over S-80 at St Lucie Locks and Dam on Friday, July 20th, 2018. The satellite images below, my brother Todd Thurlow provided, were taken the same day.
It is clear that the blue-green algae/cyanobacteria, covering, at its height, 90% of Lake Okeechobee, has run its course and bloomed. Now, as the “flower falls,” we see what’s left.
As seen in the aerials, and what the satellite images cannot portray, is that the algae is still there just lessened. Flying out over the lake a light green algae film remains over the water, a pastel shadow of its once flourescent self.
The seven aerials at the end of this blog post were taken by my husband, Ed, this afternoon, July 22, 2018 around 4pm. The tremendous green shock is gone, but squiggly lines of nutrient bubbles remain, and blue-green algae visibly lines the eastern shoreline to be sucked into the gates…
Will another gigantic bloom arise? Another flower to replace the dropped blooms of yesterday? Only time shall tell…
One thing is certain. Nutrient pollution (Phosphorus and Nitrogen) is destroying Florida’s waters, and unless non-point pollution, especially fertilizer runoff from the agriculture community, is addressed, faster than Florida’s Basin Management Action Plan requires- pushed out 30 or more years, we are will be living with reoccurring blooms indefinitely.
A great book on this subject is Clean Coastal Waters, Understanding and Reducing the Effects of Nutrient Pollution, National Reaseach Council 2000, https://www.nap.edu/catalog/9812/clean-coastal-waters-understanding-and-reducing-the-effects-of-nutrient
Read below how Florida is trying to fix its impaired waters; nice try but no urgency. As we all know, there is no time to wait.
Florida Dept. of Environmental Protections Basin Management Action Plan: https://floridadep.gov/dear/water-quality-restoration/content/basin-management-action-plans-bmaps
Timely quote for thought by the late Mr Nathaniel Reed 1933-2018
“…The fact that the Department of Environmental Protection and the Everglades Foundation have at last identified every polluter in the vast Okeechobee headwaters is an astonishing feat. The sheer number of polluters is mind-boggling.
The failure to enforce the possibly unenforceable standard (best management practices) shines through the research as testament to the carelessness of our state governmental agencies about enforcing strict water quality standards within the watershed.
There is not a lake, river nor estuary in Florida that is not adversely impacted by agricultural pollution.
As one of the authors of the 1973 Clean Water Act, I attempted late in the process to include agricultural pollution in the bill, but the major congressional supporters of the pending bill felt that by adding controls on agricultural pollution the bill would fail.
Now, 54 years later, fertilizer and dairy wastes are the main contributors to the pollution of the waters of our nation. Algal blooms are all too common even on the Great Lakes.”
Excerpt, Letter to the Editor, Stuart News, 2017
With all due respect to you and scientest — your theory that nitrogen and phosporus is killing Floridas waters is severly flawed. Nitrogen and phospors become nitric acid and phosporic acid in decaying plant material on lake bottom. In this state they will NOT decompose and lie inert indefinately. You did not take into account that historicly most of Floridas lakes shores were lined with shell that settlers and indians removed for fertilizer. Some more productive lakes still have shell on shore. You did not allso take into account that historicly our lagoons shores were lined with shell that was allso removed. Our lagoon used to support billions and billions of tons of life and now where I live the only thing that limits the life in the lagoon is the amount of shell I move from underwater and take to shore where acids wash in and bring back chemistry that was here for many thousands of years. I do whish you would send man made algie bloom out to sea. The calcium in this algae will bring back the fresh water oyster beds along its way if you do.
Our woods used to also ring out with the beutifull sound of millions of bobwhite quail. Now they are almost completely silent. I have been clearing a shaded area at end of my parents property. My intentions are to build a flying pen for baby (native)bob white quail to learn to fly. If it was me flying around in a piper cub I would sure enough have a parachute