Why weren’t toxic algae health alerts publicized until this month? May was plenty toxic

Why weren’t toxic algae health alerts publicized until this month? May was plenty toxic

Health alerts warning of dangerous blue-green algae toxins in Palm Beach County waterways have come rapid fire this month with eight issued in the first three weeks from areas as far west as Lake Okeechobee to the C-51 spillway into the Lake Worth Lagoon. 

But locations that tested positive for even higher levels of microcystin poison in May received no formal alerts from the Department of Health as internal policies tried to catch up with the algae spread. 

Temporary 12-by-18-inch signs were posted in many locations, including at public parks, boat ramps and canal banks, but boaters said signs along the C-51 Canal were too small to be seen from the water, and because they were two-sided — one warning that toxins were present, the other saying toxins may be present — the message was unclear.

Pamela McAfee, whose 8-year-old dog Bella died May 25 after coming into contact with toxic blue-green algae, told West Palm Beach commissioners this week that two water samples taken May 6 and May 20 near her home on the C-51 Canal tested positive for microcystin toxins.

Bella, an 8-year-old dog belonging to Pamela McAfee, died after being exposed to toxic blue-green algae on the C-51 Canal in West Palm Beach.

Contributed by Pamela McAfee

 

“The public was not aware of this, I was not aware of this,” McAfee said at the June 14 council meeting. “My dog weighed 78 pounds, and what concerns me is there are children that weigh much less than her on these canals, skiing, wakeboarding, and the waterways aren’t safe, our waterways are toxic.”

The May 20 sample taken upstream from McAfee’s house was nearly three times higher than the 8 parts-per-billion (ppb) considered harmful to humans during recreational activities. A May 18 test at the boat ramp in Lake Clarke Shores had a microcystin reading of 6 ppb, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Algae Bloom Dashboard.

A two-sided sign warning of algae has a caution message on one side and a health alert on the other.

Florida Department of Health

 

Florida Department of Health Communications Director Weesam Khoury said the state’s public notification process changed on May 26 and was initiated May 27 — a move that triggered the more public process of issuing health alerts this month. 

“We are also working through updating our public website and will add all notification locations, as well as any local press releases,” she said.

Frankel, colleagues want 90-day extension considered in decision on managing Lake Okeechobee

Frankel, colleagues want 90-day extension considered in decision on managing Lake Okeechobee

A handful of Florida congressional members, including Lois Frankel, are asking the Army Corps to consider a request for a 90-day extension on a decision about how Lake Okeechobee will be managed for at least the next decade.

Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, along with Republicans Mario Diaz-Balart, Gregory Steube and Daniel Webster, sent a letter Friday to the Army Corps urging it to heed an appeal by Palm Beach, Hendry, Okeechobee and Glades counties to give them more time to evaluate five models being considered for how Lake Okeechobee levels and discharges to estuaries will be handled.

The models were released late on June 9 with a tentative timeline that would choose one model July 16 followed by a final decision Aug. 4.

“With a lake schedule that will likely be in place for 10 years, we desperately need additional time to understand the science behind the alternatives and how they will affect our communities,” wrote City of West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James in a June 9 letter to Frankel that was undersigned by eight mayors, including Danielle Moore of Palm Beach and Bernice Fischer of South Palm Beach. “We depend on the lake for our drinking water, irrigation, navigation, fishing, and cultural and recreational resources.”

Battle over Lake O: County officials join private meeting about most important resource in Florida

Battle over Lake O: County officials join private meeting about most important resource in Florida

A decision on how the most vital freshwater resource in the state will be managed for at least the next decade is imminent

with Palm Beach County officials mustering a fight to protect its water supply and environmental gems such as the Lake Worth Lagoon.

In an off-the-books meeting Thursday with U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D – West Palm Beach, about 40 municipal and county representatives discussed concerns about how Lake Okeechobee will be handled under a new plan called the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual, or LOSOM.

As early as today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could release modeling for five options to choose from that will include details on preferred lake levels and when water is released to the northern estuaries and south to the Everglades.

Erica Skolte, a public affairs specialist for the Corps, said a tentative timeline includes choosing one of the options – or an alternative that could combine parts of multiple options – on July 16. A final decision would be announced Aug. 4.

Thursday’s virtual meeting, which was not open to the public, was hosted by City of West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James. City spokeswoman Kathleen Walter said the main intent of the meeting was to ask for support in getting more time to respond to the options developed by the Corps after the models are released.

In very simplified terms, the manual would, for example, tell the Corps to release water from the lake to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries when Lake Okeechobee gets to a certain level and depending on whether it’s the dry or wet season. The Corps has been following a schedule approved in 2008 after it was recognized that the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee was in danger of failing at certain water levels.

More than a decade of repairs to the dike are expected to finish next year, triggering the Lake O management rewrite. 

“Everybody is picking their horse before it’s even run a race and in a way that’s good because it means people are coming to understand the regulation schedule,” said Lake Worth Drainage District Executive Director Tommy Strowd, who participated in Thursday’s meeting. “We want to make sure we have enough time to dig into the performance summaries and understand what the models are doing.”

What’s at stake under the new management plan is the water supply to farms, homes and businesses that rely on Lake Okeechobee as either a primary or backup provider, recharge of groundwater coffers, and environmental concerns including funneling clean water south to the Everglades and away from the estuaries.

Lake Worth Lagoon Waterkeeper Reinaldo Diaz and Everglades Law Center Executive Director Lisa Interlandi pleaded their case to the Palm Beach Town Council on Tuesday, asking it to support a letter from environmental groups.

“We want the town to weigh in on our simple message to protect our estuaries and the Lake Worth Lagoon, and send water south to restore the Everglades,” Interlandi said. “This is non-controversial and the same message coming from the State of Florida.”

But many environmental groups are critical of farms in the Everglades Agricultural Area that have lobbied to keep Lake Okeechobee at higher levels to ensure they have water for their crops.

County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay, who represents the Glades area and was also on Thursday’s call, said it’s not just farmers who rely on the water.

“For us, the lake is [a] backup water supply. It’s backup for Broward and Miami Dade. For Okeechobee, it is their water supply,” said McKinlay, who expects letters from lake-bordering counties and lake-reliant cities will be penned in the next 48 hours asking for more time to review the project.

Greg Lovett/palmbeachpost.com

Tom MacVicar, a water resources consultant and former deputy director for the South Florida Water Management District, is representing lakeside communities in reviewing the proposed lake management option. He was listed as a speaker on an agenda for Thursday’s meeting.

For West Palm Beach, which also uses Lake Okeechobee water as a backup to buoy Grassy Waters Preserve, the discussion is timely. The city had to shut down its feed of lake water after toxic algae was found in the canal that brings water to the preserve – its main source of water. City officials believe that caused a chain reaction that eventually led to the cyanobacteria cylindrospermopsis to grow and release a toxin into the drinking water supply, which also serves Palm Beach and South Palm Beach.

Grassy Waters Preserve — a remnant of the Everglades — also sends water to the Northwest Fork of the Loxahatchee River, which is South Florida’s only federally designated wild and scenic river.

One thing all sides in Palm Beach County agree on is protecting the Lake Worth Lagoon from harmful discharges that flood in from the C-51 canal and can carry Lake Okeechobee water, as well as runoff from a 350,000-acre watershed.

Diaz said when water releases to the Lake Worth Lagoon are described in official documents, it’s often in terms of water moving from Lake Okeechobee through the L-8 canal “to tide” – a description he said dismisses the impacts on the lagoon.

The C-51 discharges to an area that is 8 miles from the Boynton Beach Inlet and 10 miles from the Lake Worth Inlet, which is also referred to as the Palm Beach Inlet. That distance limits flushing of the sediment and nutrient laden discharges.

An April 30 letter to the Corps from County Water Resources Manager Jeremy McBryan notes that $88 million in county and state money has been spent to restore the lagoon only to have Lake Okeechobee releases “wreak havoc” on the investments.

“We don’t have the headline-grabbing events that we see in other estuaries,” said Palm Beach County Director of Environmental Resources Deborah Drum during a February presentation on the lagoon. “We are lucky for that, but it makes us suffer a more insidious demise of death by a thousand papercuts. It’s more quietly degrading.”

The South Florida Water Management District has a workshop on the new Lake Okeechobee management plan scheduled for 10 a.m. June 29. For more information, go to www.sfwmd.gov/calendar/month.

Kmiller@pbpost.com

@Kmillerweather

Toxins upstream of popular Spillway Park double level considered harmful to humans

Toxins upstream of popular Spillway Park double level considered harmful to humans

The Florida Department of Health flagged three areas in the C-51 canal Monday with an alert after the waters tested positive for microcystin toxins. 

A reading double what is considered harmful to human health was found upstream of Spillway Park, a popular fishing spot between Lake Worth Beach and West Palm Beach where water from the C-51 empties into the Lake Worth Lagoon. 

The other two areas were in the C-51 canal near the bridge at Southern Boulevard and Military Trail, and near the bridge at Forest Hill Boulevard and I-95. 

MORE: West Palm Beach finds testing for toxins in water complex 

RELATED: Toxin at Pahokee marina 100X higher than what is considered harmful

Microcystin is a toxin created by the microcystis cyanobacteria, also called blue-green algae. 

Teenagers fish at Spillway Park on June 7, 2021 after tests for the microcystin toxin came in at twice the level of what's considered harmful to humans.

KIMBERLY MILLER/Palm Beach Post

 

People are advised not to drink, swim or use personal watercraft in areas where there is a visible blue-green algae bloom, which can appear as stringy green tendrils in the water or thick cake-like mats. 

The advisory also notes to keep pets away from the areas testing positive for microcystin and wash skin and clothing that comes into contact with an algae bloom or “discolored or stinky water.” 

At Spillway Park, where multiple signs warned of algae and instructed that fish caught should have the filets rinsed with freshwater, the level of microcystin was 16 parts per billion (ppb) when the Environmental Protection Agency considers levels of 8 ppb or higher harmful to human health.

The water at Southern and Military tested at 2 ppb, while the water at Forest Hill and 95 was .36 ppb. 

Blue-green algae floats in the C-51 canal beside Big Blue Trace and Southern Blvd., in Wellington, Florida on May 10, 2021. GREG LOVETT/PALM BEACH POST

GREG LOVETT/Palm Beach Post

 

“Right now it’s not terrible, but, really, anything above zero is bad,” said Lake Worth Waterkeeper Reinaldo Diaz. “There is a little bit of an ‘oh crap’ moment happening where we know the conditions are ripe for blooms all around.” 

Longer summer days, heat and nutrients washed into waterways during the rainy seasons are all ingredients for a blue-green algae bloom. 

Ed O’Hara, an Ocala resident staying in Palm Beach County for the summer, was fishing for snook at the park with his sons Monday afternoon. 

But he had no plans to eat anything they caught. 

“We’re just doing catch and release,” he said. “I haven’t seen any of that green stuff yet and we’ve been fishing all over the place.” 

But blue-green algae has been popping up in multiple Palm Beach County waterways. When the toxin levels are high, it has triggered the closure of gates that fill canals with Lake Okeechobee water and the shutdown of a feed from Lake O into Grassy Waters Preserve. Grassy Waters is the main source of water for West Palm Beach, Palm Beach and South Palm Beach. 

The blooms can be fleeting. The water samples that triggered Monday’s release were taken June 2. There was no bloom visible at Spillway Park on Monday. 

Microcystin toxins can cause serious health problems including liver failure in people and animals who swim in or drink tainted water. 

Rashes, respiratory problems and nausea also are linked to the microcystin toxin. 

Kmiller@pbpost.com

@Kmillerweather 

Algae spotted on M canal in western Palm Beach County as blooms continue

Algae spotted on M canal in western Palm Beach County as blooms continue

Algae has been spotted on the M canal, which feeds into the West Palm Beach watershed.

It’s unclear if the algae is toxic, but signs were spotted warning the public of the dangers.

The algae slick was spotted over the weekend 25 miles west of West Palm Beach by Lake Worth Waterkeeper, an environmental group.

“M canal is sitting pretty stagnant now because we’re at the tail end of the dry season. Eventually, it’s going to start raining, and when that happens, we suspect the M canal, just like all the other canals, will start filling up, and water will start flowing again,” said Reinaldo Diaz of Lake Worth Waterkeeper.

The algae issues continue in area waterways after an advisory was in place for nearly a week in West Palm Beach.

That advisory was lifted Friday morning after officials said all customers can now safely drink the city’s tap water.

Dr. Poonam Kalkat, West Palm Beach’s utilities director, said the city is now drawing water from underground aquifers and closely monitoring surface water that reaches the treatment plant.

“If we see any algal growth, we immediately isolate that area and treat it so we don’t have chances of it coming to the plant,” Kalkat said Friday as water restrictions over algae were lifted.

 

Health Alert in Palm Beach County

The latest round of testing of the C-51 canal led the Florida Health Department in Palm Beach County to issue a health alert for blue-green algae Monday.

The department said tests on June 2 discovered the algae in the canal at Southern Boulevard and Military Trail and at Forest Hill Boulevard and Interstate 95.

The public is urged to avoid coming into contact with the water.

Health alert sign posted at Lake Worth Beach park because of algae concerns

Health alert sign posted at Lake Worth Beach park because of algae concerns

In past years, algae has mostly been a problem that has impacted Martin County and other parts of the Treasure Coast.

However, residents in Palm Beach County are seeing the green slime show up in some waterways with summer still about a month away.

Algae was spotted Friday in the C-51 canal near Summit Boulevard north of the town of Lake Clark Shores.