State’s algae task force to discuss managing farm runoff at meeting
An advisory board tasked with making recommendations to clean up Florida’s ailing waters is meeting Tuesday in Live Oak to talk about managing nutrients flowing off farm fields.
And the timing couldn’t be better as toxic blue-green algae outbreaks have already been documented in Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River this year.
Summer is the time of year when blue-green algae is typically found here as the bacteria prefer warm conditions.
One way state leaders have tried to battle these outbreaks is through the use of best management practices, or BMPs, where nutrient pollution is largely managed by assuming that landowners and farming are following the regulations meant to clean up Florida’s polluted waterways.
Florida’s Blue-Green Algae Task Force was created by Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2019, and the group meets regularly throughout the year.
Task force members make recommendations to lawmakers, who in the past have largely ignored task force input, critics say.
Their work eventually goes to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, which is tasked with cleaning up Floria’s waters and keeping them clean.
Retention systems too expensive for developers
At a meeting this January, John Coates, director of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s division of water resource management, talked about the state’s new stormwater retention rule, and he told the group that the old rule would call for too many retention ponds and stormwater features for future development.
He said these water treatment systems — which some scientists say aren’t fully working now — simply cost too much for developers.
Landowners no longer have to do actual water quality measurements as it takes too much time and resources, Coates told the group.
Is the task force helping clean Florida’s ailing waters?
These types of moves are what has caused some in the environmental community to question the importance of the task force: are state leaders serious about cleaning up Florida’s ailing waters?
Septic tanks were a big issue for the task force in 2022, although not much has happened on the regulation or policy side since.
Florida has nearly 3 million septic tanks, and that number keeps growing as rural areas develop and builders continue to install septic tanks to pass on the eventual cost of connecting to a sewage utility to the home buyer.
This week’s meeting will also include discussions about the workings of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Community Services and Florida’s Institute of Food and Agriculture.