![]() ![]() And each hurricane’s strong winds riled up Lake Okeechobee. Hurricanes Ian and Irma share far more than their first letter. The similarities between Hurricane Ian in 2022 and Category 3 Hurricane Irma in 2017 are driving both anxiety over harmful algal blooms like red tide that have already happened, and anticipation of a massive blue-green algae outbreak on Lake Okeechobee this summer. “We cannot afford another summer of slime.” Fish and wildlife died,” VoteWater’s Smart said. If the water in the lake has got to go, and there is an active algae outbreak on the surface, the harmful bacteria goes with it as happened last time the lake was covered with putrid blue-green algae in 2018. The lake’s release valves are the Caloosahatchee River to the west and to the St. The Army Corps of Engineers decides when to let water out of Lake Okeechobee, both to protect the integrity of the Herbert Hoover Dike that rings the shoreline and to try and restore something close to the water flow nature intended. “We've seen both federal and state water managers sound the alarm about the potential for this.” “What you have is a perfect storm of possibility for blue-green algae blooms that are going to feed off those nutrients,” said Gil Smart, the director of VoteWater, a nonprofit working to stop algae-laden discharges from Lake Okeechobee. Last fall’s Category 4 storm whipped up waves on Lake Okeechobee and churned up the bottom, where accumulated layers of phosphorus and nitrogen that washed off nearby industrial-scale farms and settled long ago were stirred up into the water column. ![]() Stronger tropical cyclones caused by warming ocean waters due to rising temperatures worldwide are tilting environmental conditions in favor of worsening natural disasters, and that includes harmful algae blooms such as blue-green algae and red tide. But the key ingredient for any harmful algae bloom in the lake - nutrients - are usually stuck down in the muck.īut what is “usual” has changed in South Florida since Hurricane Ian. ![]() Warm water, ample sunlight, and calm weather is what blue-green algae needs to flourish, and those conditions are present in South Florida every summer. The surface of Lake Okeechobee is expected to turn the wrong color this summer as all the elements for a huge outbreak of blue-green algae are in place. ![]()
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