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| Green algae along southwest Florida coast, Jason Pim, Facebook, 7/11/2018 |
Last September, Hurricane Irma churned up farm nutrients that lay at the bottom of Lake Okeechobee. These nutrients had accumulated over decades and were now floating more freely in the Lake. Then in May, it rained. It was one of the wettest Mays ever. Rising water levels put too much pressure on the dikes, and the Army Corp of Engineers decided to lower the water levels. Over the last couple of months, the Army Corps dumped billions of gallons of polluted lake water into the St. Lucie estuary to the east and the Caloosahatchee River to the west. And the green algae bloom is enormous.
Florida's coasts are now under the dual onslaught of toxic green algae and red tide blooms. Beaches
