Toxic algae may overtake Lake O; and that’s good news?

It’s toxic algae season — the least wonderful time of the year!

At last week’s South Florida Water Management District Governing Board meeting, District Director of Water Resources Lawrence Glenn reported that algae blooms on Lake Okeechobee are beginning to heat up. But that, he said, could actually be a good thing.

Specifically: It’s now typical to see blooms earlier in the season along the periphery of the lake, where the water is shallower and heats up faster. Blooms are starting to proliferate and “there is toxin in the water but it’s not extremely high,” Glenn said.

That situation will worsen, he predicted — but as it does the algae will feed on dissolved inorganic oxygen in the water. And the amount of dissolved nitrogen in the water at this time of year is less than it’s been for at least four years.

So with little submerged aquatic vegetation on the periphery of the lake (most of it died off because the lake was so high for so long), there’s less competition for that nitrogen. That means the blooms will “take off,” Glenn said — but could burn themselves out relatively quickly.

“We will see a full lake bloom,” Glenn said, but if the algae consumes all or most of the nitrogen, “we won’t see a full lake bloom throughout the summer.”

This could still be a concern for those on the west coast, if the "beneficial" releases to the Caloosahatchee now underway are increasingly full of algae. But if or by the time Mother Nature starts pounding Florida with summer storms, blooms on the lake may have dissipated — and any discharges to the coasts would at least be relatively algae-free. Theoretically.

That's good news, we suppose. But it would be better news if Florida would crack down on pollution coming into the lake, and starve the blooms of the nutrients they need to explode in the first place.

How Big Sugar can make you cough

A new study shows that the smoke from Big Sugar’s pre-harvest fires is harming people in the Glades communities.

Our friends at Friends of the Everglades asked Dr. Michée Lachaud, an agricultural, environmental and resource economist associated with Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, to investigate health effects caused by the industry’s practice of burning the cane fields to facilitate harvest. 

The state won’t issue burn permits when the wind is blowing toward wealthy coastal communities, but does issue permits when the wind blows toward low-income, predominantly black communities in the Glades region.

Lachaud’s study links the burning to a 10.8% increase in physician-diagnosed asthma cases in those communities. The findings are statistically significant — and may understate the problem, as it’s possible many people exhibiting asthma symptoms opt to self-treat with over-the-counter inhalers rather than seeking a doctor’s advice.

“Dr. Lachaud’s independent, painstaking work reveals the human toll of pollution caused by industrial sugarcane growers,” said Eve Samples, executive director of Friends of the Everglades. “The state of Florida has failed for decades to crack down on Big Sugar’s pollution — and this is a galvanizing moment when that must change.”

And you can help facilitate that change, by signing Friends’ “Sugar Reform Now” petition. Click here to sign the petition — and click here to read more about how Big Sugar’s smoke is a public health menace.

Need a Right to Clean Water petition? Stop by our office

If you need a copy of the petition to get an amendment guaranteeing an enforceable, fundamental right to clean water on the 2026 ballot, stop by the VoteWater office at 3727 SE Ocean Boulevard in Sewall's Point, Martin County, and we can help you out.

Quote of the week

From Sharon E. Garland of Hobe Sound, who wrote a letter to the editor of TCPalm/The Stuart News after hearing Executive Director Gil Smart speak about VoteWater's "Dirty Money Project" in Stuart:

"Dirty money to dirty politicians equals dirty and poisonous water releases on the east and west coasts of Florida."

That's exactly right — thanks Sharon!