Where are the algae blooms? The answer's ecologically simple — but politically complicated
Here's a stupid question, and I've got a million of 'em:
Last year at this time we were seeing the first blue-green algae blooms along the South Fork of the St. Lucie River in Martin County. It only got worse from there.
By August we were reporting the blooms were 10 times too toxic to touch; several local dogs that ingested the green gunk died — and everyone began to wonder what the foul goo might be doing to them.
Fast forward to this year. A blue-green algae bloom covers parts of Lake Okeechobee, and earlier this week reports came in showing it was toxic.
But so far we haven't seen any blue-green algae blooms on the St. Lucie,
So here comes my stupid question: Why?
There's an obvious answer: The gates at the Port Mayaca Lock and Dam have been closed for months. "We haven't had large devastating lake discharges (from Lake Okeechobee) that carry toxic algae biomass and high nutrient loads (into the river) and lower the salinity to a range that the toxic algae can flourish, said Dr. Gary Goforth, a Stuart-based environmental engineer with more than three decades of experience in water resource management in Florida.
So, duh. No discharges, no algae.
How can that be?
Maybe that's another stupid question. But in recent years we've been admonished time and again that the nightmarish algae blooms in recent years were homegrown problems.
That is, some have latched ontoresearch showing local pollutants such as farm runoff and above all leaky septic systems were the "cause" of these algae crises. It's not the lake, went this line of "reasoning" — it's us.
Curious, that. Because if it was truly the case that homegrown pollution was causing the blooms — well, where are they?
Shouldn't we be seeing blooms on the St. Lucie at this very moment, regardless of whether discharges are happening?
That we're not tells us something both ecological — and political.
As you're well aware, there's been a big debate going on in recent months over how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers should best manage the water level in Lake O. On one side are we "coastal elites" (ahem) who want to keep the lake level lower in order to reduce the need for summer discharges.
Mary Radabaugh, manager of Central Marine Stuart, shares a summary of the marina's frequent fight with toxic algae-filled summers. Leah Voss, email@example.com
Congressman Brian Mast, the Palm City Republican, has been a warrior on this issue — though he got maybe too cheeky on Facebook recently when he ripped the "conspiracy theorists who are trying to profit off convincing people that Lake O discharges don't cause algal blooms on the Treasure Coast."
The "central premise of their deception" was unraveling, Mast said; with the lake so much lower than it was last year, we aren't getting the discharges.
And "this goes to prove not only that discharges are the primary cause of toxic algal blooms on the Treasure Coast but also that operational changes like what the Army Corps did this dry season (drawing down the water level in the lake) can make a huge difference," said Mast.
Well. That prompted an outraged response from Scott Watson, owner of the Indiantown Marina, who took to the pages of the Martin County Currents publication demanding to know: Just who are these "conspiracy theorists?'
But note what this response and others like it didn't do: dispute the central premise of what Mast is saying.
Now, here's where your disclaimers pile up. Algae could pop up on the St. Lucie tomorrow. Just because it's never happened in the past doesn't mean it will never happen in the future.
Homegrown pollutants remain a huge issue and likely contribute mightily to the way blooms explode when they hit our waters. We have to do something — many things — about that.
Moreover, given the regularity of blooms on Lake Okeechobee points to what may be an even bigger problem: Lake O is sick and may be getting sicker.
So the likes of Glades Lives Matter and others who talk about the need for storage north of the lake have a point. There needs to be a holistic solution to our sick waters, whether they're rushing down the canal headed our way or sitting, coagulating, on the Lake in years when there are no discharges.
This issue is bigger than we "coastal elites"; it's bigger than the folks who live around the lake. It's bigger, even, than the sugar interests which work so hard and spend so much money to defend their prerogatives and sometimes thwart progress.
And yet, when our coastal community has been hit by three algae crises in six years, when you've got dogs dying and toxins in the algae linked to maladies like ALS and Alzheimers, the problem becomes a little more acute.
Yes, we need long-term fixes. But we need short-term solutions too.
So for those who would thwart the latter by claiming that local pollution and not algae from the lake caused recent crises, I've really got to put my stupid question to them directly:
If you're right, where are the blooms?
For as the saying goes, the proof is in the pudding.
Or in this case, not.
Gil Smart is a TCPalm columnist and a member of the Editorial Board. His columns reflect his opinion. Readers may reach him at firstname.lastname@example.org, by phone at 772-223-4741 or via Twitter at @TCPalmGilSmart.