Algal blooms cost Florida $17.3 million in emergency funding last year

Officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission say efforts to put down pollution in Lake Okeechobee will help lessen algae blooms.

But it’s unlikely, they warn, the natural nuisance will ever go away.

“We will not get rid of red tide,” said Gil McRae, director of FWC’s Fish and Wildlife Research Institute

State officials provided an update on algae to the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee.

The toxic trouble created political turmoil in 2018 as blue-green algae blooms prompted then-Gov. Rick Scott to call a state of emergency in July. Then red tide prompted another emergency declaration in August.

The crisis prompted the state to budget an extra $19 million to research and response efforts. The bulk of the funding, $14.6 million went to cleaning up areas plagued by red tide, mostly removing redfish piled on shores. Millions more went to sampling and sucking blue-green algae that took over the Caloosahatchee and St Lucie rivers and connected water systems.

In total, about $17.3 million was spent in 12 counties from the now-expired executive orders.