For a lot of the summer season, Lake Okeechobee suffocates below poisonous, blue-green algae blooms fed by fertilizer runoff from farms. The blooms just lately subsided, however Hurricane Idalia might trigger additional cycles of progress and decay.
That’s as a result of storms can ship extra fertilizer runoff down the Kissimmee River and different waterways, fire up air pollution from the lake backside and kill aquatic vegetation — all of which encourage the expansion of algae.
The blue-green blooms, additionally referred to as cyanobacteria, can kill wildlife. For people, long-term publicity — by way of pores and skin contact, consuming water, consuming contaminated meals, or respiration airborne particles — could cause liver injury and neurological illness.
As of Tuesday morning, the water degree in Lake Okeechobee was simply over 15 ft above sea degree, a few foot beneath the place it might endanger the encompassing dike. If rain from Idalia threatens to boost the extent to 16.5 ft, the United States Army Corps of Engineers will very seemingly launch water by way of canals towards Fort Myers and Stuart.
The Army Corps of Engineers didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark, however officers mentioned throughout a briefing on Friday that they might most likely look forward to Idalia to go earlier than deciding whether or not to launch water.
If a whole lot of rain falls, lake water and algae might additionally movement south to the Everglades, an vital reservoir of biodiversity, although releases to the east and west are extra seemingly.
“We’ve really been on edge,” mentioned Eve Samples, govt director of Friends of the Everglades, primarily based in Stuart. “We’ve been bracing ourselves for a storm to emerge and make things dire.”
Source: www.nytimes.com