TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — As summer heats up, Florida's waterways are also warming up, so a new state task force dedicated to finding solutions for blue-green algae is getting down to business.
- Officials: Not much algae in the Tampa Bay area so far
- $1 billion worth of water projects far from complete
- Environmentalists ask leaders to step up regulation of septic tanks
The blue-green algae task force met Wednesday to see where things stand and where they could be heading.
The good news so far: There's not much algae in the Bay area, not even in Lake Okeechobee, which officials say is the source of toxic algae blooms that have been popping up for the past few years.
However, the group says more than $1 billion worth of water projects aimed at capturing polluted runoff to prevent those blooms are far from complete.
In the meantime, the state is working to keep that runoff at a minimum. Gov. Ron DeSantis has made solving the algae problem a top priority.
“The causes of our blue-green algae problems are well understood,” said Julie Wraithmell of Audubon Florida. “At this point, we need folks who are going to scour the science and look at our regulatory structure and draft a bold prescription for how to get us out of the problems that we're facing.”
Some environmentalists are pressuring state leaders to step up regulation of the state's 2.5 million septic tanks. They say too many of them are leaking and contributing to the algae blooms.