Hundreds of square miles of Florida’s largest lake is again blanketed in toxic, blue-green algae.
Fueling the algae are blazing summer temperatures, still waters and agricultural runoff packed with nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus from too much fertilizer use. The nutrient pollution is a long time in the making, and nobody has come up with a feasible solution to get rid of it.
Every summer, Florida pays the price.
‘It’s a pretty bad one’
Pilot Ralph Arwood flies over Lake Okeechobee in July and August, filming what he sees. Recently, it was mile after mile of bright-green streaks and patches.
That, or the water wasn't green but still didn’t look like it should.
“More than half the lake is covered with the bloom. It's scattered all over. It's a pretty bad one, pretty close to the worst,” Arwood said “The rest of the lake that's not green is not looking particularly healthy, but at least it's not green. It doesn't look like clean water. It's just kind of dirty looking.”
An blue-green algae bloom produces toxins that can sicken people and kill animals.
Larger blooms close lakes and boat ramps. They collapse fisheries. And turn some of Southwest Florida’s treasured waterways into ecological disaster zones.
Big bloom, big effects
Local clean-water nonprofits commissioned an economic study that found a major algae bloom like the one in 2019 would, today, cost the region $5.2 billion in economic losses and 43,000 jobs.
The 2019 mega-bloom began in Lake Okeechobee and made its way down the Caloosahatchee River.
Once in the Gulf, it collided with a red tide, grew a large harmful algae bloom, and decimated coastal waters through the region for more than a year.
While the blue-green algae in the lake is worse than the typical annual bloom, there's no indication it's going to lead to a regional repeat of 2019.
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a nonprofit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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