Sign the petition: Florida’s Right to Clean Water

Sign the petition: Florida’s Right to Clean Water

by | May 3, 2022 | Blog, News and Press Releases, Take Action

SIGN THE PETITION

On Earth Day, April 22nd, your Lake Worth Waterkeeper, Reinaldo Diaz, joined fellow environmental groups and activists for an important virtual press conference.

Standing knee deep in the beautiful yet fragile waters around Munyon Cove, he helped to launch the Florida’s Right to Clean Water petition drive for signatures. The petition calls for a new amendment to the Florida constitution stating that clean water is a right of all citizens in Florida.

The man behind the newest push in the rights for nature movement is Joseph Bonasia, a retired English teacher living in Cape Coral. After an attempt to add rights of nature to the Florida constitution didn’t succeed in 2021, Bonasia created the Florida Right to Clean Water organization. He hopes to get the 900,000 signatures needed to qualify for the 2024 ballot. The wording may have changed for this new amendment, but the message remains the same: the people of Florida have a constitutional right to clean water!

“In a new study examining water quality across the U.S., Florida ranked first for the highest total acres of lakes too polluted for swimming or healthy aquatic life,” WLRN-FM reported last month. “That means water can have high levels of fecal matter and other bacteria that can sicken people or low levels of oxygen or other pollution that can harm fish and other aquatic life.”

– April 28th, 2022 article by Craig Pittman

Join us in this grassroots effort to ensure Floridian’s rights to clean water. We need 900,000 signatures to qualify for the 2024 ballot.

This campaign’s mission is to take this to Florida’s voters; to educate them, to collect their petitions, and to ensure their voice is heard.

Will you help us in this fight for our right to clean water?

SIGN THE PETITION

Raise Your Voice: Tell your commissioners defend our communities!

Raise Your Voice: Tell your commissioners defend our communities!

by | May 5, 2021 | Blog, Cyanobacteria, News and Press Releases, Take Action

RAISE YOUR VOICE

Call YOUR town's commissioner. Tell them that cyanobacteria blooms will effect all of us in PBC, and all commissioners should come together to defend their citizens.
Find Your City Government Contact Info

“A blue-green algae bloom was identified in water discharging to the Lake Worth Lagoon last month with toxin levels high enough to trigger the posting of multiple warning signs at Spillway Park, a popular fishing spot”

-The Palm Beach Post

Towns all over the Lake Worth Lagoon watershed are being subjected to a toxic cyanobacteria bloom that fills the air with a poisonous stench. Humans breathing cyanotoxins have an increased risk of neurodegenerative diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and prion diseases –and all are incurable. Pets can be mortally sickened. From the Glades to Palm Beach, we should all RAISE OUR VOICE.

If enough of us take action quickly, our Commissioners should attend the Army Corp of Engineers’ LOSOM meeting on Friday from 9am to 3pm and fight effectively for us.

You can email your comment or testify during public comment period by clicking the button below.

Make A Public Comment
Lake Worth Waterkeeper Cyanpbacteria Pahokee Marina 1
Lake Worth Waterkeeper Cyanpbacteria Pahokee Marina 2

Toxic Coffee

Toxic Coffee

by | May 4, 2021 | Blog, Cyanobacteria, News and Press Releases

The Lake Okeechobee cyanobacteria bloom has unfortunately been gaining momentum toward bringing us another lost summer.

Since we first reported on the Pahokee Marina there’s been a big focus there. The usual parade of photo ops soon followed, with quite a few attempts to explain the situation thrown in. Many groups incorrectly assumed that the marina is the only place hit with a major bloom right now.

When we first reported the Pahokee Marina bloom we were also quietly monitoring and reporting the total extent of the bloom throughout our watershed. The cyanobacteria bloom goes far beyond the marina, it covers half of Palm Beach County.

Alligator struggling to swim through cyanobacteria bloom in Pahokee Marina, taken April 23, 2021.

First Stop, The Pahokee Marina

Disappointedly even some of the well-intentioned environmental or conservationist groups incorrectly suggested that the Pahokee Marina was a relative newcomer to the cyanobacteria problem. Compared to the other northern estuaries, the Lake Worth Lagoon watershed – specifically throughout the Glades communities – is consistently hit hard on an annual basis often for months at a time. The Pahokee Marina has merely become a canary in the mine. When conditions are ripe for a super bloom in Lake O the marina’s design merely encourages the cyanobacteria to float toward the surface and reproduce into a major bloom there first.

The South Florida Water Management brought a response of vacuuming out the cyanobacteria from inside the marina. A temporary reprieve at best. The conditions throughout the area are still favorable for a super bloom, and it doesn’t look like we’ll have much of a break anytime soon. Serious consideration needs to be made to redesign the walls and docks of the marina to allow better water flow. This wouldn’t solve the cyanobacteria issue of course, but it would help give a little bit of a break to the marina and those that stay there in these early phases of the Lake O super blooms.

Restoring the historic south flow of the Greater Everglades, bringing back habitat to Lake O by keeping its level low, and connecting Lake O to the lower Everglades remains the best answer to fixing the cyanobacteria blooms.

Big Sugar’s PR Campaign of Excuses

The usual cast of Big Sugar defending astroturf groups offered up their own explanation for the bloom here. For example, Scott Martin of Anglers for Lake Okeechobee – a predictable denier of the severity of cyanobacteria blooms – has offered his excuse that the bloom in the marina is the result of the boats pumping out their wastewater into the marina. He even shared a video of how the bloom is “only visible inside the marina walls”, and in his willfully ignorant understanding of science offers that as proof. Reality is, as mentioned in the previous paragraph, the bloom was dispersed throughout the lake (difficult to see on camera but visible in person) and only collects inside in the marina due to the design of the docks and walls that impede water flow there.

Lake O cyanobacteria bloom caught up in the Pahokee Marina in areas where water flow is hindered, taken April 23, 2021.

Katrina Elsken, editor and publisher of Big Sugar propaganda rag Lake Okeechobee News, also offered the same excuse. Throughout social media, she has also claimed that the cyanobacteria could be influenced by the draft of air from airplanes flying high overhead. No, just no.

Martin, Elsken, and others that are part of the Big Sugar paid PR machine have historically claimed all kinds of red herring excuses for the blooms: from septic tanks to overdevelopment, they rely on half-truths to draw the blame from the real culprit of industrial agriculture runoff and industry driven political corruption. All of which should only draw eye rolls were it not for the serious consequences their claims have by distracting the community from the information needed, and by using their influence to seriously hinder Everglades restoration progress.

Map of Lake Worth Lagoon watershed with highlighted cyanobacteria bloom areas mentioned in this post.

The Lake Worth Lagoon Watershed

The cause of Lake O’s cyanobacteria blooms comes down to environmental conditions (hot and dry) working with the surplus of legacy nutrient pollution (phosphorus, nitrogen, herbicides and other chemicals) already in the lake, and new nutrient pollution coming into the lake as runoff.

The Lake Worth Lagoon watershed is the clearest example that shows polluted Lake O water as the common denominator for cyanobacteria blooms.

Lake O’s super blooms are easily visible by satellite, that imagery has been crucial to our understanding of how the blooms take over the lake. But the true extent of the bloom outside the lake and throughout our watershed can only be mapped out with fieldwork and an understanding of our watershed and how it works.

The Lake Worth Lagoon’s only connection to Lake O is via the C-51 Canal (the big canal along Southern Boulevard), the eastern half of the watershed (east of SR-7/441) uses the C-51 to handle runoff from all the large communities along the canal from Wellington, West Palm, Lake Clarke Shores, Lake Worth, etc. This side of the watershed is of course heavily developed, with no shortage of septic tanks and old sewer systems. Yet this side of the watershed will only get a serious cyanobacteria bloom when it takes Lake O water through discharging.

The western half of the watershed (west of SR-7/441) consists mostly of less developed agriculture, especially the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) which is dominated by at least half a million acres of massive industrial monoculture farms where sugar is by far the biggest crop. It is in this half where we find the Glades communities. It is this western half of our watershed that is persistently hit hard with cyanobacteria blooms among other serious environmental crises.

Cyanobacteria Throughout Our Watershed

Understanding the agriculture operation of the EAA is the first step to understanding how toxic Lake O water makes its way throughout the Lake Worth Lagoon watershed. The EAA and its historic agriculture operation is the reason behind the need for Everglades restoration. The EAA is the hindrance of waterflow from Lake O to the lower Everglades and eventually Florida Bay.

There’s a need for a massive reservoir that would help move water south. But the real reason behind its need is because the government through the South Florida Water Management District gives too much water for consumption and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection fails to save water from overuse. So now we are forced to use nearly a billion dollars of our taxpayer money for a reservoir project that will likely not be able to fulfill its mission. Big Sugar and their machine prevented an adequate reservoir design by getting in the way of land acquisition and forcing a smaller reservoir design, thereby limiting the amount of Lake O water that would be cleaned. The reservoir is supposed to be for dry season flows, but now as cyanobacteria blooms become more prominent and longstanding, that contaminated water likely will get in the way of the reservoir’s operation. Lake O’s water quality must be addressed, habitat needs to be brought back, but that brings about a massive cost that our government is unwilling to provide. Largely because working on proven fixes to Lake O’s environmental woes would entail calling out Big Sugar as the cause of most of it, and they fund the majority of politicians’ campaigns to make sure that doesn’t happen and to protect their interest in future water rights.

Bottom line is Big Sugar has first dibs on the water leaving Lake O and flowing through our watershed in the EAA. Three canals bring Lake O water to the C-51 Canal, where the water can either actually flow south toward the lower Everglades, or it heads east where it is discharged into the Lake Worth Lagoon. The best example of this is the L-10 Canal, the middle canal that splits the EAA which begins with the S-352 Spillway on Lake O. Typically, when the latter happens we get cyanobacteria blooms carried in with the Lake O water.
Cyanobacteria polluted Lake O water is being moved throughout the EAA and toward the Lake Worth Lagoon. Perhaps most concerning, is that along the way this water is being used to irrigate the sugar fields. It’s important to understand how the fields are irrigated here. The big overhead sprinklers that we often see on tv and movies used on farms is not what’s used here. Instead, water from the main canals that connect Lake O to the C-51 is diverted into many small canals crossing the EAA. These smaller canals are then sent into the fields, where they are flooded to saturate the soil. This adds to the nutrient pollution problem, because all the soil amendments and chemicals that the farmers sprayed onto the fields are washed back into the main canals when they pull the water off the fields. Then that nutrient pollution is sent throughout the rest of the watershed.
Traveling with this water, is of course the cyanobacteria itself. Like the Pahokee Marina it makes itself really visible in places where water slows down, such as at the irrigation control structures the farmers use to irrigate their field. We’ve documented and reported this throughout the L-10 canal, which is the main canal connecting Lake O to the C-51 canal. Cyanobacteria can be seen along the entire length of the L-10 canal. Water from which is being used for irrigation. So think about that as you put sugar into your morning coffee.

Cyanobacteria bloom in the L-10 Canal, just beyond the S-352 Spillway on Lake O. Here the cyanobacteria is hard to see in the photo because it is dispersed throughout the water column since the water is flowing through here quickly, but cyanobacteria is visible on the rocks along the shore, taken April 26, 2021.

Cyanobacteria bloom in the L-10 Canal, at one of the many structures that sends water for agriculture irrigation, taken April 26, 2021.

Cyanobacteria bloom in the L-10 Canal, at one of the many structures that sends water for agriculture irrigation, taken April 26, 2021.

Cyanobacteria bloom at one of the many structures that sends water for agriculture irrigation off the L-10 canal, sugar fields seen in the background including a recently harvested field with a small fire still going in the background, taken April 26, 2021.

Overhead look at the same structure, cyanobacteria is on both sides of the structure, more so on the upstream side (the right) and on the left cyanobacteria can be seen along the banks of the canal, taken April 26, 2021.

Further down the watershed, cyanobacteria can be seen in the C-51 canal, especially in the area where the water is sent truly south into the Water Conservation Area 1 (the Refuge) before being sent to the lower Everglades. This is across Southern Boulevard near Arden in Wellington.

As Lake O water makes its way through the watershed, so does the cyanobacteria.

Another notable – and very concerning – part of the watershed where we reported the bloom is in Loxahatchee at the M Canal. The M Canal is a canal that connects the L-8 Canal (which in itself is connected to Lake O and joins the L-10 at the C-51 Canal) to Grassy Waters Preserve. This is especially concerning because not only is the Preserve and area of critically important habitat, but the Preserve also serves as one of the few surface drinking water sources for our watershed. For some time now we and fellow Waterkeepers have been lobbying to get cyanotoxins onto the Regulated Substance List. No cyanotoxins are listed here, this list would require agencies like municipal water to test for cyanotoxins. So right now, it’s not legally required.

Cyanobacteria bloom in the M Canal in Loxahatchee, the water flows toward the right through a culvert and into Grassy Waters Preserve, taken May 1, 2021.

Just Another Year for the Lake Worth Lagoon

This situation is not unfamiliar to us. Unfortunately for us, the Lake Worth Lagoon is often ignored in discussions of the Northern Estuaries of the Greater Everglades. This is the result of various reasons, one example is the Northern Everglades and Estuary Protection Plan (NEEPP) legislation passed in 2007 that intended to expand the existing Lake Okeechobee Protection Act (LOPA) to the Northern Estuaries of the Everglades. But there’s one glaring problem, NEEPP specifically excludes the Lake Worth Lagoon as a defined northern estuary. This is ridiculous, by all scientific and common sense definitions the Lake Worth Lagoon is a northern estuary of the Greater Everglades Ecosystem so why would law and government not reflect that? Could it be to protect polluter interest?

This glaring omission and other similar policy opens the door for the government to abuse the Lake Worth Lagoon. Our watershed is overlooked in important decision making processes, such as the current changes being made to the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual (LOSOM) which is coming towards the end of its process. This policy dictates how Lake O water is managed, especially in regards to it being discharged to the northern estuaries. If the LOSOM Project Delivery Team continues their current path we are looking at more polluted Lake O water being sent our way, with even more cyanobacteria blooms to come along with it.

In other words, the cyanobacteria situation is going to get worse for Lake O and the Lake Worth Lagoon. But we do have options, our communities need to take the lead and stand up to this abuse. We can participate in policy changes like LOSOM, where traditionally the other northern estuaries have had adequate but ineffective representation. But we stand a better chance, as explained before, our watershed is the clear example of the real causes to the environmental issues we’re facing. It is our watershed that proves we need real solutions of habitat restoration, a lower Lake O, and a reconnection of that flow of Lake O water to the lower Everglades. We cannot vacuum this problem away and we cannot afford to argue about red herring distractions anymore.

In the meantime: don’t worry about Big Sugar, their fields will be perfectly irrigated using our tax dollars… Might be a good time to move away from the morning sugar in your coffee habit.

The Cyanobacteria Saga

The Cyanobacteria Saga

by | Apr 29, 2021 | Cyanobacteria, News and Press Releases

There was a notable inspiration behind the forming of Lake Worth Waterkeeper: the lost summer of 2016.

That summer the Lake Okeechobee cyanobacteria bloom made it all the way to the Lake Worth Lagoon, the bloom stopped right at the S-155 Spillway one of my favorite fishing spots.

Then I could confidently claim that there was no vocal advocate devoted to the Lake Worth Lagoon, especially when it came to the ever important Everglades restoration and Lake Okeechobee issues. The other northern estuaries were well covered, but the Lake Worth Lagoon left a void that needed to be filled. That summer I was inspired to take my environmentalism to the next level and to fill that void.

Three years ago during the summer/cyanobacteria season after Lake Worth Waterkeeper’s formation I did this news piece where I pointed out the Lake Okeechobee bloom was blooming again, and that the water was destined to be sent our way soon

Read the CBS12 news piece
At the time, there were limitations on sending Lake O water our way. But those limitations were temporary, and – as I pointed out then – if we’re not attentive to the process we are in danger of taking on even more toxic Lake Okeechobee discharges.

We’re at a pivotal moment with that process right now. The Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual (LOSOM) is being updated. This policy determines Lake Okeechobee’s management, specifically how its water is moved throughout the Greater Everglades ecosystem. Right now the changes being made are suggesting a move toward more Lake O discharges into the Lake Worth Lagoon.

Since my start as your Lake Worth Waterkeeper I have spent much of my effort in calling attention to the environmental plight of the western half of the lagoon’s watershed, the Glades. The communities here are hurt the most by environmental and public health problems in the state. Yet, little attention was given to this plight. Tragic for the communities affected and detrimental to the Everglades movement as a whole, because solving the environmental problems in the Glades would have very real and long standing effects throughout all of the Greater Everglades. Largely because environmental work here calls attention to the true culprit of most of our environmental problems – Big Sugar.

Recently our work has been gaining so much momentum. Unfortunately this summer is looking like it’ll be a bad one for Lake O. But we certainly appreciate the sudden increase in attention being given to the Glades community and our watershed on this issue. Pahokee Marina is being hit hard right now with the worst part of Lake O’s cyanobacteria bloom so far.

Lake Worth Waterkeeper Cyanpbacteria Pahokee Marina 1

Cyanobacteria bloom overtaking Pahokee Marina (taken 4/23/2021).

With all eyes on our area – from the media, other environmental groups, and especially other communities in our neighboring northern estuaries – we are looking forward to carrying this momentum forward, because if we work together to help the Glades we certainly will be working for a better Greater Everglades.

Lake Worth Waterkeeper Cyanpbacteria Pahokee Marina 2
Cyanobacteria bloom in Pahokee Marina, large alligator struggling to swim through the worst of it (taken 4/23/2021).
Lake Worth Waterkeeper Cyanpbacteria Pahokee Marina 3
Young alligator of about 2 years old in aquatic vegetation covered in cyanobacteria (taken 4/23/2021).

Blue-green algae discharged into Lake Worth Lagoon – again.

Blue-green algae discharged into Lake Worth Lagoon – again.

by | Apr 13, 2021 | Cyanobacteria, News and Press Releases

Toxin-laced blue-green algae discharged into Lake Worth Lagoon, raising water concerns

A blue-green algae bloom was identified in water discharging to the Lake Worth Lagoon last month with toxin levels high enough to trigger the posting of multiple warning signs at Spillway Park, a popular fishing spot.

Original article: The Palm Beach Post
Florida Department of Environmental Protection officials notified the state health department in Palm Beach County on March 22 that water samples taken in the C-51 canal upstream of where the releases reach the lagoon were tainted with the toxin microcystin.

The lagoon is receiving a mix of water that includes discharges from Lake Okeechobee, according to the South Florida Water Management District. The Army Corps of Engineers said Friday it was halting those discharges because of lake-level concerns.

A freshwater infusion was requested by the county because salinity levels in the brackish estuary were getting as high as the ocean, but it asked that the delivery not include lake water that can carry the ingredients for a harmful blue-green algae bloom.

MORE: Why four nesting shorebirds had Palm Beach County officials jumping for joy

RELATED: Islands near at hand in the Lake Worth Lagoon

“Of course, that’s not what we ended up getting. We took Lake Okeechobee water and with that came a cyanobacteria bloom,” said Reinaldo Diaz, founder of Lake Worth Waterkeeper, a lagoon advocacy group.

(Signs posted last month at the spillway between Lake Worth and West Palm Beach warn of blue green algae that was found in water being discharged into the Lake Worth Lagoon. )

The level of toxins measured last month were trace amounts and below what the EPA considers unsafe, but Diaz is concerned dangerous toxin levels could follow as longer days and warmer temperatures encourage cyanobacteria growth.

“If I know there is ANY microcystin in the water, I stay away,” said Florida Atlantic University research professor J. William Louda in an email about the toxin measurement. “Exposure to even low levels, over time, can lead to health problems.”

Florida Department of Environmental Protection officials did not respond to a question about when the water at the spillway would be tested again.

The EPA says toxin levels over 8 parts per billion, or ppb, are unsafe. Tests of the water going into the lagoon that triggered the warning signs were under 1 ppb.

On March 29, similar toxin levels under 1 ppb were found in Lake Okeechobee water near the Port Mayaca Lock and Dam where lake water was being discharged into the St. Lucie estuary. That test triggered a health alert from Martin County. On April 5, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, asked in a letter with state Sen. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, and state Rep. Toby Overdorf, R-Palm City, that the Army Corps of Engineers end all releases from Lake Okeechobee to the St. Lucie estuary.

Trying to avoid another ‘lost summer’

“All of our constituents who have lived through a lost summer thanks to discharges from Lake Okeechobee can viscerally remember the look of guacamole thick algal blooms in our waterways and the scent of rotten eggs that accompanied the algae,” the lawmakers wrote.

The Army Corps of Engineers announced Friday it was ending releases to the St. Lucie and reducing releases to the Caloosahatchee after the lake dropped to 14.19 feet this week. That’s about a foot lower than a month ago and within a range the Corps is comfortable with as the rainy season begins May 15.

Col. Andrew Kelly, commander of the Corps’ Jacksonville District, said the lake level, not concerns over algae, was the reason releases were stopped.

Spongy chunks of algae clogged canals on the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries in 2016 and 2018. The Lake Worth Lagoon also suffered a noticeable bloom in 2016 that temporarily closed Peanut Island near the July Fourth weekend.

(Green algae blankets Summa Beach Park in West Palm Beach on June 21, 2016.
HANDOUT)

The Corps releases water from Lake Okeechobee into the northern estuaries when lake levels get too high. While the Caloosahatchee and Lake Worth Lagoon require some freshwater to maintain their estuarine habitat, the St. Lucie is less needy.

This year, water managers struggled with too much water from a prolific and lengthy wet season that stressed the vegetation in treatment areas that take nutrients out of water before it goes into the Everglades.

Bloom can come and go

Diaz said the algae bloom is no longer visible at the spillway between Lake Worth and West Palm Beach.

“But if this was a mid-summer bloom and they sent that water it would have been noticeably worse,” he said.

Concerns about the lagoon’s health were raised again Thursday at the South Florida Water Management District’s governing board meeting.

Jeremy McBryan, Palm Beach County’s water resources manager, lamented during public comment that the Lake Worth Lagoon was not getting the same attention when it comes to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. The plan, signed in 2000, had components removed or amended that would have helped the lagoon, McBryan said.

Everglades Law Center Executive Director Lisa Interlandi agreed.

“The Lake Worth Lagoon is one part of the system where there is not even any kind of water quality treatment being planned or discussed,” she said.

Kmiller@pbpost.com

@Kmillerweather

365 Days of Environmental Racism

365 Days of Environmental Racism

by | Apr 10, 2021 | Blog, Cyanobacteria, News and Press Releases

Lately it seems like Florida has been attacked from every side

when it comes to environmental destruction at the hands of a corrupt government. At the heart of Florida is a community that seems to never get any reprieve from terrible environmental and public health risks driven by deliberately ignorant policy: the Glades.

It’s early April and Lake Okeechobee’s cyanobacteria bloom is already under way. Along the west side of the lake the bloom is visible by satellite, but here on the east side the bloom so far seems to be the worst around Pahokee. At the Pahokee Marina the bloom is already gathering on the surface in areas of stagnant and slow moving water.

Environmental racism is at play here. Although the cyanobacteria itself doesn’t discriminate, broken policy dictates that particular communities are hurt more than others. It’s been a constant argument with the Florida Department of Health to get adequate warning signs and information out to harmed communities.

We take up every opportunity we get to push for a statewide standard on harmful algal bloom warning signs. An idea that our state refuses to acknowledge so far. We report our cyanobacteria data to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, it goes to Tallahassee, then they are supposed to notify the Department of Health. Right now without a statewide standard it is up to each county’s Department of Health office to choose the sign type and decide location and timing of posting signs.
The result is that some communities are better served than others. Unsurprisingly, black and brown communities such as Belle Glade, Canal Point, and Pahokee are seriously underserved despite being the most hard hit.

The waters here are often subjected to cyanobacteria blooms for 4-5 months out of the year. Yet, these blooms rarely get the media coverage as smaller blooms would get in other communities, especially affluent white communities. This lack of attention likely gives the Department of Health the excuse to choose to do the bare minimum here. These are communities where locals are sustenance fishing. Unlike many communities elsewhere, the locals here are filling up their buckets and coolers with cyanobacteria-contaminated fish for dinner. The poverty here offers no recourse. Hence why the lack of a statewide warning sign standard is environmental racism.

Warning signs were posted throughout the marina last year, all but one of them has since been removed. The sign that remains is faded and barely legible.

At another spot, even more fishermen were catching crappie at the S-352 Spillway in Canal Point. This is one of the most popular sustenance fishing spots this side of the lake, on any given day – cyanobacteria or not – you can find half a dozen people here filling their coolers. We regularly document the annual months-long cyanobacteria blooms that get stuck on a feedback loop here. Today, cyanobacteria wasn’t visible in the water here, likely because it was dissipated throughout the water column due to the significant waterflow of the current Lake Okeechobee discharging toward Lake Worth Lagoon.
Last year over the summer we convinced the Palm Beach County Department of Health to post warning signs here. It was the first time signs have ever been posted. We of course had to settle for the poorly designed signs printed on laminated computer paper, that were stapled to a small wooden post. It took about a week for one of the signs to be run over by a lawnmower. The rest eventually faded, and have since been removed. Last year the Department admitted they knew this was a bad design, but they told us that they were only “temporary” and the more durable, and permanent metal signs were “on order”.
You better believe we haven’t forgotten about those signs.
All this happens in the shadow of perhaps the clearest example of environmental racism, pre-harvest sugar field burning. Big Sugar burns their fields before harvesting sugar cane in order to remove the leaf litter so that more cane can fit onto their trucks, thereby saving some fuel money. This is by choice. Green harvesting exists, meaning cane and leaf litter would fit onto the trucks, however that means less cane per truck and therefore more fuel being used on transport. You don’t have to travel far to see this practice, around the Wal-Mart in Clewiston pre-harvest burning does not happen due to policy. Hence why it is another, and perhaps more on-its-face example of environmental racism.

To learn more about this practice please visit our friend’s website at: http://stopsugarburning.org

During the spring through summer months the glades communities are subjected to poor water quality from cyanobacteria blooms, some of the most toxic organisms on the planet. Then starting in the fall, the baton of environmental and serious public health risk is passed to the sugar fields burning until the next spring – 365 days of environmental racism.