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I am in Florida and attest to that! he ramps about how he saving people from paying taxes-- not people corporations - while the rest suffer. In this case the FED should NOT pay for the beaches- and loss of tourist. Whose runoff it is-- let them pay-
Continuing to pay for clean ups and declaring emergencies does not make sense, they need to fix the problem once and for all. Its the same story every year. I think they are waiting for a hurricane to destroy the dyke, and then they'll get the government to rebuild it.
In regards to this and the topic at hand. I live in NW Ohio and an algae bloom in 2014 caused us not to be able to drink or bathe in the water for about 3 days and it affected about 500k people in this area.
Algae blooms can affect major sources of clean drinking water - like Lake Erie, which is affected by this every year, is a HUGE issue being that algae causes toxins that can cause people illnesses or death to the very young or old or with compromised immune systems. There are multiple toxins in algae that many water treatment facilities cannot remove. Our area in undergoing a multi-million dollar upgrade based solely on this issue of our water treatment plant.
Algae blooms have not "always" happened. They are a result of sewage and fertilizer runoff into our fresh water systems and they are indicative of extreme pollution from various sources and most pointedly fertilizer run-offs.
Fertilizer is a naturally occurring event. If you have a low rain season and then get a lot of rain, it will wash into the rivers, lakes and ponds. Do we make it worse? Sure. In many ways.
No one said it was, but finger pointing won't resolve the problem. If the State, or DC had the political will to resolve it, it would have been resolved a long time ago.
Not likely. At least at best it would cause other problems. Any time we mess with the natural flow of things, there will be consequences. Allow the water to freely flow and we will likely have more floods. Restrict irrigation and we will have shortages of food.
The best we can do is find the best medium outcome possible or live with the consequences.
True about older developments, but not so about newer developments (since the 80's at least). They now must pre-treat and retain water to pre-development flows into natural or existing channels.
Most of this algae comes from all the agricultural run-off (lots of cattle farming around here).
They had an opportunity to purchase 5000 acres of sugar plantations but they felt the cost was too high, this may not have cured the entire problem but it sure would have cleaned up the water. The dam is just a band aid and now they don't have the money to replace it not to mention that it would take years to build.
Yes agriculture is part of the problem, sugar cane accounts for a large part of the phosphorus destroying the Everglades but pays a fraction of the cost but development also adds fertilizer into the system reduces run-off into the ground. More roads, more houses and less water going into the ground.
Funny how some people didn't care if it impacted the Everglades, out of sight out of mind but now they have their attention.
Fertilizer is a naturally occurring event. If you have a low rain season and then get a lot of rain, it will wash into the rivers, lakes and ponds. Do we make it worse? Sure. In many ways.
The "fertilizer" that causes algae blooms is basically poop, which is naturally occurring but it does not naturally occur in our water ways in such a large amount.
The algae in my area is primarily caused by sewage run-off. Sewage is not a natural thing to have in our water ways. If sewage wasn't running into the rivers and lakes, we wouldn't have these blooms.
Again, not sure about FL, but I know that in NW Ohio and with the Ohio River sewage is the primary culprit, even though people usually try to single out "fertilizer" and blame it on the farmers. Their fertilizers do contribute to the issue, but city/municipal/county/state governments and water treatment facilities (whereas sewage systems during heavy rains reach full capacity in storage tanks and overflow is released into our rivers/streams) contribute more to this sort of thing occurring than farmers.
And again, these sorts of blooms are not "natural." If they were, then they would have been occurring for hundreds of years to the extent that the Ohio River did last year (it was over 500 miles of toxic algae, it was unprecedented at the time).
The "fertilizer" that causes algae blooms is basically poop, which is naturally occurring but it does not naturally occur in our water ways in such a large amount.
As I said, we make it worse.
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The algae in my area is primarily caused by sewage run-off. Sewage is not a natural thing to have in our water ways. If sewage wasn't running into the rivers and lakes, we wouldn't have these blooms.
It is natural. Fish, reptiles and animals have always done their things in and around the water. We just make it worse.
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Again, not sure about FL, but I know that in NW Ohio and with the Ohio River sewage is the primary culprit, even though people usually try to single out "fertilizer" and blame it on the farmers. Their fertilizers do contribute to the issue, but city/municipal/county/state governments and water treatment facilities (whereas sewage systems during heavy rains reach full capacity in storage tanks and overflow is released into our rivers/streams) contribute more to this sort of thing occurring than farmers.
And again, these sorts of blooms are not "natural." If they were, then they would have been occurring for hundreds of years to the extent that the Ohio River did last year (it was over 500 miles of toxic algae, it was unprecedented at the time).
There is a difference in never occurring and "occurring to the extent". We make it worse in many ways. We could quit eating or simply allowing the water to go where it wants to.
It is natural. Fish, reptiles and animals have always done their things in and around the water. We just make it worse.
There is a difference in never occurring and "occurring to the extent". We make it worse in many ways. We could quit eating or simply allowing the water to go where it wants to.
On this, the sewage run-off is not a natural amount of poop. Fish, reptiles, and other animals also eat different things than we eat so the level of phosphorous in their poop, which is the primary ingredient needed for these blooms, never reached the levels we see today naturally.
It happens. It has always happened. We had an algea bloom on the Ohio River last year. Authorities were screaming like the world was ending.
It quit and nothing really actually happened. This isn't some new phenomenon.
You're absolutely right! This is big news because the entire coastline of Florida is loaded with beach resorts that stand to lose millions of dollars from this algae mess. The reputation of Florida's beaches will also suffer. It's not so much whether an algae bloom occurs. It's a whole lot more important where it occurs.
I gotta wonder, exactly what should have been done differently?
You're absolutely right! This is big news because the entire coastline of Florida is loaded with beach resorts that stand to lose millions of dollars from this algae mess. The reputation of Florida's beaches will also suffer. It's not so much whether an algae bloom occurs. It's a whole lot more important where it occurs.
I gotta wonder, exactly what should have been done differently?
IMO they should not have released the dirty water into the FL waterways without first releasing it into the swampy everglades in order to cleanse the water. The swamps/everglades would have naturally cleansed the water of the phosphorous and it would not have had such an effect on the tourism industry there if that had occurred.
Also, I will note that GA, FL, and AL frequently fight over water. I lived in GA for quite some time and GA and AL fight over federally controlled water in order to have it for drinking water. FL fights over it in regards to environmental issues regarding endangered species. The feds control many lakes in GA and FL due to this.
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