Cape reports water quality ‘headway’
As another week of fighting toxic water events across Lee County passes, some progress has been reported for canal waters due to increased mitigation efforts from Cape Coral and county officials.
At the same time, the worst red tide outbreak Southwest Florida has seen is still lingering on beach fronts up and down the Gulf Coast.
Now, after more than two months of feeling the effects of these toxic water events, the question residents are asking is is it getting any better?
In Cape Coral, the answer may be yes.
“We’re making headway,” said Cape Coral Utilities Director Jeff Pearson. “We’re combating it on a daily basis.”
He said there are no longer areas with big, thick mats of algae in canals, and that, in reviewing a recent fly-over of the Cape done by the county, they saw only five to six canals that still have poor conditions.
He even mentioned a great reduction in the awful smell that had been wafting off local waters.
A pilot program funded with a grant awarded to the county has continued as crews were in Cape Coral this week, vacuuming up cyanobacteria from canals.
“We’re attacking the worst areas first,” Pearson said.
This project will come to an end today, as the vendor has collected 402,500 gallons from 23 sites, with another 15,000 gallons anticipated to be collected by the end of the day.
County staff and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection also will continue to explore other types of cleanup technology, said Betsy Clayton, Lee County spokesperson, in an email.
Since early August, FDEP has provided $2,010,000 in funds to Lee County to help battle algae blooms.
As things seem to be headed in a positive direction for Cape canals, Pearson said with the tides coming in and out, a canal may look great one day, then show signs of algae the next.
“In order to keep it at bay, we need to remove the nutrients from the water,” Pearson said. “When we vacuum out the thick mats of algae, we are getting those nutrients out, and not letting them get to the bottom.”
A second test project currently under way in the Cabot Canal in the Cape is treatment of the water by Ecological Labs Inc.
They are using their Micro-Lift product that has seen success in other Florida fresh water environments, and is used to treat bodies of water such as lakes, rivers, ponds and more over their 40 years in business.
This project is a six-month trial that will wrap up in February of ’19.
A third test project saw canal waters for the first time Thursday morning, as a booming operation started, which is designed to stop large piles of floating debris from entering canals.
“Partial booming is taking place at the Palaco Grande and Nassau Canals,” said city spokesperson Maureen Buice. “The purpose of this effort is to determine whether booming can effectively keep most of the harmful algae out of the city’s saltwater canal system.”
They are called containment booms, used in events such as oil spills.
It floats on the surface with a short curtain underneath.
They have been lined with lights and flotation devices, so that boats may be aware of their presence-the ones being installed in Cape Coral are partial booms, so that boats and marine life can pass through.
The Cape Coral Fire Department, along with the Public Works Department, own these booms already, said Buice.
It has cost the city $7,000 to equip them with lights and flotation devices.
They will be in place for 90 days, and will be evaluated for effectiveness.
The city is also moving forward with the bubble curtain project.
This curtain will be placed at the mouth of the Mandolin Canal, near the Cape Coral Bridge, because it requires electricity to operate.
Buice said they will power it from the Chamber of Commerce building nearby, as it is placed at the bottom of the canal and will shoot air bubbles upward, to keep out large pieces of debris, similar to the booms.
These are effective, but more costly due to electricity, as the air bubbles will easily to let boats and marine life pass through.
As we move into the dry season, which is usually from November to May, the hope is that the releases from Lake O will slow down drastically.
A decrease in temperature over the next few months will also help curb the algae problem as the cells thrive in warm climates, officials said.
“We’re doing the best we can,” Pearson said of the city’s efforts. “We think residents will continue to see improvements in canals in the coming weeks.”
He also mentioned that the Florida Department of Health will be conducting air sampling in the coming weeks, to see if there are any effects from breathing in air surrounding the toxic water.
As for the red tide, the most recent chart from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, as of Sept. 26, shows continual high levels of the red tide organism, Karenia-brevis.
“In Southwest Florida, reports of fish kills were received for multiple locations in and/or offshore of Pinellas, Manatee, Sarasota, Charlotte, Lee and Collier counties,” said the online update.
Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation Marine Laboratory Director, Dr. Eric Milbrandt, gave his insight on the red tide events along Fort Myers Beach and the islands of Sanibel and Captiva.
“Cell counts are still medium to high on Sanibel,” he said of the red tide testing. “FWC reporting from Sept. 21 indicates that there are still large patches of Karenia in Southwest Florida in the Gulf. The interior waters of San Carlos Bay and Pine Island Sound Matlacha Pass are low to background.”
He said the zero oxygen zone is a big reason why we are finding fish, crabs and other marine life washing up on shores.
“Now we are dealing with the effects of the massive mortality of marine life. Many artificial reefs -some that I’ve scuba dived on last Thursday -are completely devoid of fish and invertebrates,” Milbrandt said. “This is because of large hypoxic zone (zero oxygen) deeper than 15 feet in the lower water column. This layer has unknown size but will not support fish. The mortality caused by the red tide toxin resulted in a lot of dead marine life and consequently, a lot of decomposition and oxygen depletion. Algae blooms on their own can cause oxygen depletion as well. We continue to sample in the Gulf using dissolved oxygen sensors that measure the entire water column and we’ve measured this layer from Blind Pass to the middle of Estero Island out 10 miles. Other researchers from FGCU are sampling from the Florida Institute of Oceanography research ship this week to help determine the overall size of the hypoxic dead zone.”
Will Lee County continue to see drastic fish kills on its shores in the coming months because of the red tide and “dead zones?”
“Difficult to predict,” Mildrandt said. “We observed dead fish near the Sanibel lighthouse on Thursday. The red tide events typically occur this time of year until a strong cold front mixes the Gulf of Mexico. The fronts are typically in November-February. If you mean drastic as in large numbers like July, I think the initial event killed most of the fish that couldn’t move away. When conditions improve, they will move back or juveniles will be ‘seeded’ from other areas in the Gulf.”
A positive aspect of the most recent developments is that shallow waters have seen a reduction in the red tide organism, while places on Sanibel are showing little to no Karenia brevis.
“Actually the shallow waters have been lower to background this week,” said Milbrandt. “We’ve looked at samples in Ding Darling NWR (Sanibel) and there are few to no Karenia, while the samples from the Beach (Fort Myers Beach) remain medium to high.”
The next red tide update by the FWC will be available today.
-Connect with this reporter on Twitter: @haddad_cj