“Yes. No. No. Yes. Oh wait, sure OK…Sorry, No!”
Such has been the direction from Martin County Government of whether the public is allowed to swim at area beaches.
Let’s review recent days….
8-21-18: Bathtub Beach reported as closed
8-24-18 Bathtub Beach reported as not closed
8-25-18 Bathtub Beach, Stuart Beach, and Jensen Beach reported as closed
These changes are very difficult to keep up with!
Although the 2018 pulse release schedule from the ACOE is certainly a good thing, and a positive effort, one has to wonder if that is part of the reason for the recent back and forth scenario reporting. In 2016 with no pulse releases the algae was everywhere and plastered the beaches with no breaks.
In any case, it has been crazy around here, and unfortunately, the only safe way to deal with things, is to take the “may” out of the permanent signs and not to swim in the water anywhere.
When I visited lifeguards at Bathtub Beach on August 24, the word was if one got on a surfboard and paddled out 50 yards, cyanobacteria was floating in clumps in the sea water watered down by fresh water discharges from Lake Okeechobee since June 1st.
~On and off that is…
To try to get a handle on things, Ed and I took up the SuperCub for the first time on Saturday, the day all beaches were closed, and boy was that a good thing they were closed because blue-green algae was flowing down the St Lucie River in long arched lines. Right in the middle of the river! And this was a day the ACOE had stopped discharging from the Lake…As Ed and I were flying around up there in heavy winds, I was trying to figure out the timing of the algae’s 35 or so mile journey from Lake O and how the pulse releases would affect it.
When Ed and I photographed, the algae was just west of the beautiful peninsula of Sewall’s Point and out in the main St Lucie River.
God what have we done? My home town?
To close the beach or not to close the beach, that is not the question. The question is how did the state of Florida let the most bio-diverse estuary in North America go straight to hell.
The wild thing about flying in the SuperCub is that I can communicate via text and Facebook. As Ed and I were taking photos from the sky of what was heading to Martin County beaches, reports were coming in of the algae blowing up from the ground from my friend Mary Radabaugh at Central Marine, located in the same area Ed and I were flying. Go to Toxic#18 Facebook for more reports.
Martin County Beach Hotline:http://martin.floridahealth.gov/programs-and-services/environmental-health/beach-and-river-sampling/results/index.html
Not sure why it’s called Blue-Green, I’ve started referring to it as Hulk-Piss.
Doesn’t look good… Keep up the good word in keeping the public informed Jacqui.
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Thanks you for all your hard work. It’s great to see people take action instead of just complain. Your efforts no doubt keep everyone informed, and keeps the pressure on the politician, etc. to act.
I live at the end of south seawalls point. There is a 5 acres island there that is designated as a conservatory. I was thinking is there a viable way to fence in the waters around the island to create a fish farm that would help repopulate the rivers etc. I’ve been around the world and seen many fish farms that are basically fences. Of course they are usually for making money and selling the fish.
Would you know of any organization that helps the breeding of fish or repopulation efforts to help the rivers come back after these devasting events?
Russell Madris
561-654-5171
This is as bad as the government officials in Flint, Michigan ignoring health concerns with water. Government officials responsible for this should be prosecuted when they knowingly endanger our health and our property and refuse to acknowledge it and stop it. The fake science to ignore the biggest polluter, discharges from the Lake, and blame septic tanks and runoff, is much like the fake science which said cigarettes did not cause cancer. Who knows how many people will end up sick; not to mention the destruction to the estuary and marine life and our property values and quality of life. The government did this, and they can fix this; Sugar has to sell enough land to clean and send the water south with NO discharges to the St. Lucie and only historical normal flow in the Caloosahatchee. A 10,000 acre reservoir is grossly inadequate, and sugar is backpumping into the STAs, so they don’t have much capacity for lake water. The St. Lucie River was never connected to the Lake, and it should receive no fresh water, mud, and pollutants from the lake. Unless we get strong local politicians who are not sold out to sugar we are in store for a bigger catastrophe than just algae.
Mr. Stuckey is spot on. What an appalling group of humans we have at our helm. Those photos of the ominous tendrils of doom marching down the river look like something from a Star Trek movie. It is just not a movie.
Raw sewage simmering in the hot sun on both the east and west coast and poor Adam Putnam {the man responsable for putting sewage on farmland) on TV saying he’d be honored to have our vote.
How can a politician who lies and promisis the world be beaten by one who is honest and tells the truth. Here in Brevard Trudie Infantini was beaten by Curt Smith. It was for Trudie I wrote a paper telling how our beloved Indian River Lagoon was destroyed. Now Curt Smith(who represents developers) stands to hold the deciding vote on how to “fix” (not restore) the lagoon. This is why I think all politicians should be given lie detector test. I have been handing out this paper I wrote to fishermen for several years now.A lot is at stake. Many rare and indangered creatures are just hanging on.
They voted and passed 300 million to restore the lagoon here in Brevard. How I think Curt Smith won is he went around promisising a bunch of not for profit groups and other free loaders this money.
Remember at the fair where you could throw a ball and if you hit the target the man would fall in the water? I think they need to save this green sewage water and when politicians lie when they are asked questions the platform drops and they fall in.