- Florida’s Lake Okeechobee is already half-filled with toxic algae, and the flowers are only getting bigger.
- Smoke from algae can cause several health complications such as lung infections.
- Experts say warming climate and runoff of pollutants from nearby crops are helping the plant thrive.
Florida’s largest freshwater lake is busy with fishing and boating in the summer, but it won’t be crowded this year.
That’s because Lake Okeechobee is already half-filled with bright green toxic algae, which researchers say will only grow until the algae season lasts into the summer. Algae can cause several health complications, including lung infections, organ damage, and neuropathy. The New York Times reported.
Experts told The Times that the intensity of flowering this year is largely due to increased rainfall from a warming climate and higher levels of carbon dioxide, which algae feed on. Algae also thrive in manure and manure that flows into the lake from nearby crops.
This is nothing new for Florida. In 2018, former Governor Rick Scott Declared It issued a state of emergency in seven counties to combat the same toxic algae on Lake Okeechobee that was flooding nearby rivers.
Finding a solution to this toxic bloom is difficult.
Florida plans to build reservoirs to keep algae from flowing out of the lake into other bodies of water, but The Times reports that depleting just six inches of Okeechobee could fill up the reservoirs.
Environmentalists are also calling on Florida to introduce regulations to limit the runoff of pollutants from nearby crops that feed on the algae, The Times reported.
It will take decades for the policy to have a significant effect, as the lake already has phosphorus-rich sediments.