An unsightly outbreak of green goo is blooming in the “Venice of America,” but city officials said it will clear up soon.
Residents along the Las Olas Isles — the picturesque, pricey “finger islands” jutting off the city’s premier boulevard — complained Thursday that the green algae has reached their waters. Earlier this week, the Himmarshee Canal that runs through downtown turned green.
City officials are reporting the conditions to the state, which already has done some testing. There is no easy remedy, but the waters should return to normal in October or November when temperatures cool, a city official said in an email to a resident.
Yachts are floating in the green slime.
“It’s basically fluorescent green. It’s really thick,” said Michael Muscarella, who works at a yacht company off Las Olas Boulevard. “It sits right at the surface. I’ve never seen it this bad.”
Residents are complaining in emails to City Hall. Some say the algae stinks.
“What is happening to our canal?” resident Jerry Jordan said in an email to City Hall and to other property owners. “I wonder if the mullet fish will be jumping in the canal when they spawn around Halloween, like in the past?”
“Our canals surrounding multi-million dollar homes and yachts look worse than many 3rd world waterways .… and I have seen/visited plenty of those,” resident Donna Gilbert said in an email that was forwarded to city officials. She said the “green gunk” smelled like a rotting animal.
Mayor Dean Trantalis said he’s “concerned that we’re not addressing it as seriously as we need to.”
Algae outbreaks have turned off tourists and bothered residents all over the state recently. But they’re not all related.
Fort Lauderdale’s blue-green algae blooms have nothing to do with the “red tide” algae plaguing Florida’s west coast.
The blue-green algae, called cyanobacteria, is often referred to as “pond scum,” the state Department of Environmental Protection noted. It can be green, red, purple or rust-colored, and can emit a stench.
It is the same type of algae blooming in counties around Lake Okeechobee. But releases of Lake Okeechobee water are unlikely to be a culprit in Fort Lauderdale’s bloom, Broward County Chief Resiliency Officer Jennifer Jurado said.
“Only if we were receiving direct discharges of [Lake Okeechobee] water or if coastal waters were carrying a large plume south would I suggest a relationship,” she said in an email. “I don’t see that either of these conditions exist.”
To bloom, she said, algae needs three things: a source of nutrients, like animal waste or fertilizer; longer “residence time,” when water stagnates and doesn’t freely flow; and higher growth rates, from extra nutrients or warm water.
In Fort Lauderdale, there are several likely causes, city officials say, including runoff of lawn fertilizer and pet waste, and discarding of lawn cuttings or landscaping debris.
The green blooms alarmed residents last September, as well. County environmental experts at the time found human sewage in the Las Olas Isles waterways, contributing to the suspicion that the city’s leaky sewer pipes were partly to blame.
City spokesman Chaz Adams said the blooms this year were not caused by spilled sewage.
“Since the City started to detect blooms in early August, there have been no sewage spills in the Las Olas Isles, nor have there been any that have impacted the local waterways in this area,” he said in an email.
Some Fort Lauderdale waterways have been fouled by construction contractors recently. The New River was soiled with dirt, sand and mud from several construction projects. The Himmarshee Canal became cloudy when it was inundated with water from a ruptured water main.
Jurado said there appears to be an increase in algae complaints in the last two years, and the county is investigating potential reasons.
Adams, the city spokesman, said the blooms are appearing in a pattern similar to last year, but “our environmental inspectors are reporting that they are seeing more areas impacted by algal blooms than in the past.”
Interim Deputy Public Works Director Nancy Gassman said in an email to one resident that the algae bloom was not at a toxic level when tested by the state.
“Algal blooms are currently happening throughout Fort Lauderdale,” she said in the email. “This is a season occurrence and as temperatures cool the blooms should dissipate (end of October, early November).“
Algae blooms can be reported to the state Department of Environmental Protection by calling 855-305-3903 or by clicking here: https://floridadep.gov/AlgalBloom
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