Governor Scott declares state of emergency over algae bloom on Fla. west coast

Editor’s note: This is caused by Big Sugar and Big Oil.

They cannot sue me for stating this, because they know it’s true.

I am a long time Florida full time resident. If you buy bleached sugar, and if we stay dependent on oil, this is going to continue to happen.

We power our 2 bedroom house with solar. I’ve driven a solar car starting in 2005 on a shoestring budget.

It’s not hard. It’s not “smug” and it’s affordable.

If you want to stop being dependent on bleached processed sugar, AND big oil, I can show you how for pennies a day.

For you, your children, the marine and wildlife, and our planet.

Following his tour of the Caloosahatchee River algae blooms in Cape Coral this morning, reports say that Gov. Rick Scott plans to declare a state of emergency which would include Martin and Lee counties. (The governor had “previously issued an emergency order to move water south rather than inflicting it on the long-suffering coastal areas.”¹)

Scott, who apparently loves to blame and does so frequently, the federal government, said the Army Corps had been too slow in their completion of Everglades restoration projects:

“If they had funded all the projects that should be funded like the state has been doing over the last seven-and-a-half years, some of these events might not have happened.” ¹

However, environmentalists quickly countered Scott’s statement:

“No matter what he says today, the facts remain — as governor, Rick Scott has done nothing to actually help the algae bloom problem,’ John Capece of the Florida Democratic Environmental Caucus said in statement Monday.”¹

Rick Scott’s Florida has spent $240M on Lawyers to Defend Their Agendas

The Army Corps normally limits the lake’s water level to keep pressure off its aging dike but announced on June 21st that it would reduce water through the two rivers. Also in June, the South Florida Water Management District (who control the region’s major drainage canals) announced a series of measures to help combat the problem that included “the installation of temporary pumps to rush water through the Everglades regions of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties so the lake’s excess water could be moved south.”¹

Noah Valenstein, secretary of the Florida Department of Environment Protection, says the state plans to set up new water monitoring stations in the Caloosahatchee.

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U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted on Sunday about the issue, asking the White House to order the Army Corps to re-evaluate water flows from the lake:

I have been talking to White House today asking that @POTUS order the @USACEHQ to conduct emergency re-evaluation of water flows from #LakeOkeechobee currently entering the #CaloosahatcheeRiver & delay tomorrows scheduled discharges to #StLucieRiver #Sayfie
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 8, 2018

Last week, the Army Corps’ office in Jacksonville said that $514.2 million was earmarked to repair the Herbert Hoover Dike and that an overall sum of $17.4 billion in funding included additional money for “beach restoration and coastal flood control in Florida.”¹

“The repairs are considered an essential step in allowing the lake to hold more water, which would reduce the need for discharges into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee river estuaries to the east and west. Residents on both coasts blame polluted water releases from the lake for what has become an annual summer outbreak of toxic algae blooms in the rivers.”¹