Fertlizer Runoff Poisoning Florida Waters

Sanibel, Florida used to have crystal clear blue waters when DailyKos diarist CAHughes was a child. Now it is plagued by toxic algae blooms that turn the waters green and black, making tourists and residents sick and killing marine life. The city spent thousands of dollars removing tons of dead fish and a whale shark in the last two years. Beaches on the east and west coast of the Caloosahatchee river have been impacted the most by nutrient pollution from agricultural corporations that lobby heavily to weaken water protections in Florida.

CAHughes says that elected officials need to say 'No' to Big Sugar and talks about his personal experience:  “My family first moved to Florida in the 1970s. We lived on Fort Myers Beach. I remember when the waters were blue and clear and full of life. A year later we moved to Cape Coral where I still have my home today. I remember when our dock walls were full of hundreds of crabs. I remember visiting friends who lived along the clear teal-colored waters in the Cape throughout the '80s. My father won the Tarpon Tournament at Cape Coral Yacht Club. His tarpon and award hang in the Cape Coral Museum."

"Life by the water was happiness, until now.  When I returned to Florida, I noticed something was very wrong with our local waters.  When Lake Okeechobee was being released to prevent the dike from bursting, black nutrient- laden polluted water flowed into our canal, killing everything - dead fish, dead manatees, dead dolphins; the fallout these past couple years.  When I last took my mother to the beach, there was a toxic algae bloom and she could not breathe.  Tourists don't realize their health is at risk when they swim in these waters or eat the fish, which have been turning up with tumors.  When I was a kid, we NEVER had toxic algae blooms here. Sanibel's waters used to be crystal clear sparkling blue every day.  Think about it.  In his 2005 book The Swamp, author Michael Grunwald describes how the Everglades were contaminated by sugar growers.”