Florida - Thursday July 28, 2022: The algae bloom in Lake Okeechobee this month is nothing new. Although not as severe as 2018 or 2016, its the latest in what has become an annual outbreak of toxic algae blooms.
Three years ago, the Blue-Green Algae Task Force made a series of recommendations to curb the outbreaks, but so far few of those recommendations have been implemented.
That was the subject of The Friends of the Everglades Clean Water Conversation Wednesday.
The Blue-Green Algae Task Force was created by Governor DeSantis after he took office. Prominent scientists, educators and community leaders were appointed to the task force. They made a series of recommendations in late 2019 to reduce the severity and frequency of algae blooms in Florida waterways.
“Most of (the recommendations) unfortunately have not been implemented," said Haley Busch is the Outreach Director for 1000 Friends of Florida. "Only about 25% of all the recommendations have been implemented and most of those have been about issuing more money towards studying and monitoring but not so much on addressing the source of the pollution.”
Among the most important recommendations was a proposal to incorporate changing demographic numbers into so called B-maps, which are the framework for water quality restoration planning.
“The biggest problem with B-maps is that they don’t account for the fact that a thousand people move to Florida every single day," said Attorney Jen Lomberk, the Executive Director of the Matanzas Riverkeeper. " We’re building up more, and we’re losing eco-system services in natural areas. And so one of the task force’s recommendation is that B-Maps need to account for those changes, otherwise they’re destined to fail.”
The Task Force also recommended requiring inspections of old septic systems. “The main focus that the technical advisory committee came up with was making sure that new systems going into the ground were enhanced nutrient reduction systems," said Lomberk. "But if you’re not addressing the older failing systems, that’s still an increase in nutrients.”
Another recommendation was to require the State Department of Environmental Protection to adopt water quality standards for cyanotoxins, the scientific name for blue-green algae. “The state explicitly declined to do that," said Lomberk. "They said if they were able to get their nutrients loading under control then that would take care of the cyanotoxins. Unfortunately, you they can’t seem to get that nutrient loading under control.”
The Blue Green algae task for did its jobs and made important recommendations said Friends of the Everglades Policy Director Gil Smart but, for a variety reasons, they political will is lacking.
“There have been bills filed to adopt all the other suggestions out of the Blue-Green Algae Task Force," said Smart. "But there is absolutely no appetite in the Legislature to pursue this. Unfortunately, it’s going to take another crisis before people go WOW, maybe we should have done that.”