STUART , FLORIDA — The flavour run into me as shortly as I opened my car door — like rancid milk mixed with dog poop . I gasped for breath as humid tune descend , filling my pores with the putrid olfactory sensation .
“ It ’s been like this for three calendar week , ” Mary , the unhappy attendant at the abandoned Central Marine boat dealer say me . “ Last hebdomad it smell like a dead fauna . Today — I do n’t even have it away . ”
“ Be careful out there , ” she supply as I head off to the docks .
Image: Maddie Stone
The reason for her monition was presently clear : at the weewee ’s edge , the stench of the fly - covered slime was almost impossible to stick out . middle and lung singe , I walked up and down the harbour snapping picture . The air ’s predilection was as spoiled as its feeling .
This was my warm welcome to Stuart , Florida , whose St. Lucie estuary is presently suffocating under a vast , alimentary - fuel alga bloom . The St. Lucie is no unknown to algae , but this summertime ’s goo is fouler and more far-flung than anything locals have ever seen .
Not only does the water expect and smell like a gutter , it ’s potentially a serious health fortune . The Department of Environmental Protectionhas begin detecting microcystins , cyanobacteria toxins which if ingested can cause nausea , vomit , and liver unsuccessful person . local exposed to the membership odor of “ guacamole thick ” algae matshave complainedof rashes , centre and skin irritation . Tourismis taking a nosedive .
Image: Maddie Stone
It could get worse before it gets better .
And this is no accident . What ’s bechance to the St. Lucie is the latest symptom of a problem that can be traced 35 miles west to Lake Okeechobee , where old age of mismanagement and intrench agricultural interests have precipitated one ecological crisis after another .
“ This is absolutely , positively a Lake Okeechobee issue , ” oceanographer Zack Jud told me when I arrive at Florida ’s Oceanographic Society a few naut mi away to study what the blaze was going on . “ That ’s where the whole crux of this problem lies . ”
Image: Maddie Stone
The second enceinte fresh water lake located entirely within the continental US , Okeechobee used to be the shell heart of the Everglades , link up freshwater from the Kissimmee river in the Second Earl of Guilford to the sawgrass prairies stretching more than 100 nautical mile south . That all exchange in the 1930s , when the US Army Corps of Engineers erected the a vast dike system around the lake for drain lands for settlement and culture . It was the first of many decisions that would forever alter the hydrology and environmental science of the Everglades .
But urine was still insert the lake from the north , and it had to go somewhere . So the Army Corps drag two canals — one Mae West , to the Caloosahatchee river , another Orient to the St. Lucie . Today , these man - made flow route are Lake Okeechobee ’s runoff valves .
“ ab initio , this was n’t a trouble , ” Jud said . “ It becomes a job when you look at how the lake is managed . ”
When the Army Corps first girdled the lake , flood bar was the central motivating factor . ( In 1928 , thousands of people drownedafter a major hurricanecaused Lake Okeechobee to overflow . ) implosion therapy remains a major concern today , but for a slightly different reason : large , politically powerful boodle companies , which own most of the land due to the south of the lake .
Sugar farm count on Lake Okeechobee ’s dike arrangement to keep their subject field from becoming swamp . But they also rely on the lake as an irrigation reservoir . “ These are two completely infringe uses , and they help oneself position up this year ’s catastrophic algae heyday , ” Jud articulate .
The problem started last fall , with the attack of strong El Niño conditions that brought carload of rain to central Florida . Instead of keeping Lake Okeechobee depression , the state allowed the lake to take up to ensure there was plentiful water to water farms throughout what is commonly a ironical winter . Only this year — thanks once again to El Niño — it turned out to be a very plastered winter .
The event is that by early spring , Lake Okeechobee was becoming dangerously full . Fearing a ruinous dyke breach , the Army Corps began clear billions of gallon of water a mean solar day through its canal , turning the St. Lucie estuary into a freshwater ecosystem overnight .
This alone would have harmed the huitre , seagrass , and other brine - adjust organisms living there . But it was n’t on the button outflow water insert the ecosystem . The discharges were fill with atomic number 7 and morning star - laden fertilizer , which seeps into Lake Okeechobee from farm to the north . This stuff and nonsense was algae fuel .
And sure as shooting enough , as summer ignite up , the gook came . First , algae bloom seem on Lake Okeechobee itself , but neon greenish filaments were soon spotted flowing down canal and into the St. Lucie estuary . The algae blossom startedmaking national headlinesseveral weeks back , after Governor Rick Scottdeclared land of emergencyin four afflict Florida county , and presently before NASA unloosen stunningsatellite imagesdepicting the scale of the problem . As of last hebdomad , the bloom encompassed over 200 substantial miles on Lake Okeechobee itself .
Coastal resident are fed up , and they have a right to be . summertime algae blooms like this have been a even mass on the St. Lucie since 2011 , and many feel that the state is ignoring a common - sense solution : restoring the natural flow of impertinent water from Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades .
“ We have too much fresh water flowing to the Orient and west , and not enough to the south , ” Julie Hill - Gabriel , director of Everglades policy for Audubon Florida , told me over breakfast in Coral Gables . “ This year was the ultimate depiction of Lake Okeechobee ’s problems . ”
For long time , environmentalist like Hill - Gabriel have been calling for the state to purchase large parcels of demesne to the south of Lake Okeechobee that can be converted into “ remediation wetlands , ” which would clean fertilizer - foul water before sending it into Everglades National Park . Not only would this take some pressure off the nutrient - loaded St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee , it ’d bring extra freshwater to Florida Bay , where hypersaline stipulation have ensue inan enormous seagrass dice - off .
Two old age back , Floridians voted overpoweringly in supportof a constitutional amendmentwhich reserve 100 of millions of taxpayer dollar to purchase land for exactly this function . Instead , the state used the money to buy anything and everything else in the name of conservation . Environmentalists blame the sugar lobby , which oppose the land leverage and has helpedbankroll the careersof outstanding Florida politicians , including Governor Scott and Senator Marco Rubio .
Now , the United States Department of State has an environmental and PR crisis on its hands . Governor Scott , who recentlygutted the province ’s water policyof pollution regulation , is tryingto blame the Obama administrationfor conk out to repair Okeechobee ’s aging dike scheme , andto paint infected tanks , not agriculture , as the cause of the efflorescence .
Meanwhile , in answer to public recoil the Army Corpssaysit’ll begin restricting the flow of contaminated piss out of Lake Okeechobee July 15 . But as Army Corps voice Jenn Miller told Gizmodo , the situation is workweek - by - workweek . “ It ’s all conditions - dependent , ” she said , noting that the lake is currently 14.73 understructure high . If lumbering rain hit and the water level rises above 16 feet , the channels will have to be reopen to foreclose an even bigger disaster .
Miller said that sending more water supply to the south is “ perfectly ” part of the long - term solution .
“ My concern is that we have not seen the uncollectible , ” Jud said . “ With 200 satisfying knot of algae blossom on the lake , and conditions bring more and more well-disposed for algae growth , and the potential for rain to require additional discharge , I opine we have the potency for thing to get much worse before they get undecomposed . ”
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