Big Sugar & Florida’s Blue-Green Algae Crisis
Algae blooms are creating major economic problems
The once pristine marine waters off the Southeast and Southwest coasts of the State of Florida are experiencing high levels of poor water quality. During periods of heavy rain, a toxic sludge creeps out of Lake Okeechobee flowing through man-made connections into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers and eventually to the east and west coastlines of South Florida. The polluted water flowing out of the lake contains phosphates that accelerate the growth of a blue-green algae. The phosphate is introduced into the floodwater through the fertilizer runoff from the sugar cane farms that surround Lake Okeechobee.
The environmental problems that are created by the degradation of marine environments in the southern part of the state are widespread. These problems include the extinction of the near and inshore seagrass beds and coral reef systems. The loss of these marine ecosystems forces the relocation, and worst case scenario, the death of the fish and shellfish species that once thrived in these areas. The once thriving coral reef system system under the water of Miami’s Biscayne Bay is no longer a colorful underwater playground full of life, instead it is now a vast white wasteland of coral skeletons.
Originally, overflow from Lake Okeechobee flowed south through the vast area of the Florida Everglades. The Florida Everglades acted as a massive natural filtration system that treated floodwater as it flowed south into Florida Bay (The Everglades is the largest wetland of its kind in North America, but it`s been under assault for generations by residential development, 2017). As the population of Florida grew throughout the twentieth century, flood control measures such as canals, dikes and levees were constructed to drain large portions of the Everglades for farming, residential and commercial land development. These flood control measures are directly responsible for the current water crisis the State is experiencing.
The environmental problems associated with these algae blooms are creating major economic problems that are strangling Florida’s tourism and fishing industries. During a large algae bloom, the beautiful white beaches that define the State’s tourism industry become a smelly and uninviting graveyard covered with dead fish.
The hospitality and fishing industries are directly affected by an unfortunate situation that has been perpetuated and exacerbated by decades of manipulation of state environmental policy by the “Big Sugar” political lobby and the overdevelopment of land around Lake Okeechobee without proper attention being given to the fragile Everglades ecosystem.
U.S. Sugar owns and operates farms on approximately 300,000 acres of land in the counties surrounding the southern end of Lake Okeechobee. These sugar cane farms produce approximately 50% of all the sugar in the U.S. As one can imagine, the sugar industry has amassed a strong lobby to combat any environmental regulations that may negatively affect their operations.
The local economies of the affected communities rely on these the tourism and fishing industries to provide jobs for residents and the vitality of these communities is in jeopardy due to this water crisis. The stakeholders affected by the South Florida water crisis are seeking help from lawmakers in Tallahassee (Florida’s water crisis 2018: Lessons learned from a year of bad water, 2018); however, these lobbies are a David to “Big Sugar’s” Goliath.
In 2000, the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) was passed by the U.S. Congress to “restore, preserve, and protect the south Florida ecosystem while providing for other water-related needs of the region, including water supply and flood protection.” (Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), 2019). The CERP proposed 68 restoration and water management projects at a cost of over $10.5 billion to be completed within a 35 year time period (Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), 2019). However, Congress has not initiated funding for the CERP and the project is drowning in a political swamp (Florida’s water crisis 2018: Lessons learned from a year of bad water, 2018).
Captains for Clean Water is an organization that was established in 2016 and has become a major advocate in the State of Florida in pressuring lawmakers to address this water crisis (Florida’s water crisis 2018: Lessons learned from a year of bad water, 2018). This group was founded by Florida fishing guides who decided to take action to protect the state’s fragile ecosystems that have been devastated by decades of poor agricultural and development practices.
Since 2016, during every election cycle, candidates for state offices have been met by large groups of concerned Florida citizens forcing them to address the state’s water issues. In 2020, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis purchased 20,000 acres of wetlands within the Everglades Restoration Area in Broward County which represents the largest acquisition of wetlands by the state in over ten years (Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Agreement for Acquisition of 20,000 Acres of Critical Everglades Wetlands, 2020). Governor DeSantis has also initiated legislation that will provide $625 million annually to continue Everglades restoration and maintenance projects(Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Agreement for Acquisition of 20,000 Acres of Critical Everglades Wetlands, 2020).
Governor DeSantis has pledged to keep the restoration of the Florida Everglades on the forefront of his environmental agenda and fully understands the importance of maintaining the state’s fragile ecosystems. This is very good news to all the citizens of Florida, because if the current environmental conditions persist, the very elements of the state that attract people to visit and live in Florida will disappear.
This is just a very brief overview of the issues the State of Florida has with water quality in the southern part of the state. For more in depth information on the problem, a good place to start is captainsforcleanwater.org. This organization is leading the charge in the fight for initiating environmental awareness and change to the management of Florida’s natural resources.
Works Cited
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). (2019, May 8). Retrieved from nps.gov: https://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/cerp.htm
Florida’s water crisis 2018: Lessons learned from a year of bad water. (2018). Retrieved from captainsforcleanwater.org: https://captainsforcleanwater.org/floridas-water-crisis-2018/
Governor Ron DeSantis Announces Agreement for Acquisition of 20,000 Acres of Critical Everglades Wetlands. (2020, January 15). Retrieved from flgov.com: https://www.flgov.com/2020/01/15/governor-ron-desantis-announces-agreement-for-acquisition-of-20000-acres-of-critical-everglades-wetlands/
The Everglades is the largest wetland of its kind in North America, but it`s been under assault for generations by residential development. (2017, May 26). Retrieved from CBS This Morning: https://link-gale-com.libproxy.troy.edu/apps/doc/A493429661/ITOF?u=troy25957&sid=ITOF&xid=40a860ab
