$10 Million to Whom Solves the Algae Crisis

Is it enough to focus just on phosphorous and ignore nitrogen?

Eric Eikenberg, CEO of Everglades Foundation, announced the Foundation is offering a $10 million reward to anyone who can rid fresh water of phosphorus and "help us get rid of the toxic algae."

The Foundation is calling on scientists, engineers and anyone who is interested to come up with breakthrough technology 

"If the technique can be done in a cost-effective way, both in Florida and in Canada, $10 million is going to be awarded to the winner," the story reads. The Foundation will launch the worldwide contest July 21.

Eikenberg, says the technology "must remove phosphorus from fresh water," but neither he nor WPTV mentions a word about nitrogen. Not one.

I'm going to take this so-called contest as a flashy show of the Foundation's muscle and a clever way to keep their faithful worshipping bad science and staging those lucrative fundraisers. 

Eikenberg - the same Eikenberg who was chief of staff for Gov. Charlie Crist, then Crist's Senate campaign manager - will never have to pay out a dime. 

A $10 million reward for making toxic algae disappear by removing only phosphorus from fresh water? Impossible!  The days of limiting pollution to a single source are over! BOTH phosphorus and nitrogen need to be controlled. 

At the University of Florida, IFAS Extension, Karl Havens and Thomas Frazer wrote a paper, "Rethinking the Role of Nitrogen and Phosphorus in the Eutrophication of Aquatic Ecosystems." They write, "For many years, environmental agencies have sought to improve the water quality of lakes and estuaries by reducing inputs of phosphorus. New research indicates that we must reduce both phosphorus and nitrogen to reverse eutrophication symptoms."

The whole world, not just South Florida, could benefit from an honest campaign to develop technology that might rid all lakes and rivers of toxic algae. However, here are my reasons to doubt the ingenuity of the contest:

1. The fact that the Foundation employs "scientists" who discredit nitrogen because much of it comes from urban runoff and fecal coliform rather than fertilizer from some sugar farm makes me distrust their objectivity.
2. The fact that these scientists STILL want to run "fresh" water instead of clean water -- water cleaned of nitrogen -- into Florida Bay makes me distrust them. Scientists have shown over and over again that increased freshwater flows and nitrogen loading to central and western Florida Bay are what caused the massive blue-green algae blooms that developed in the Bay during the 1990s and polished off 40 percent of the coral reef.
3. The fact that the Foundation misled hundreds of thousands of people on either side of Lake Okeechobee makes me distrust them. They conveniently failed to point out how much dirty water makes its way into the lake from the North, and that even though algae is blooming in Lake O, the sources of the nutrients aren't all from the lake.
4. They make me fear for completion of the Central Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), particularly if they get their way. I believe the reservoir(s) they want to build south of the lake amount to a pointless land grab that will require massive replumbing and further delay to the CERP timetable.

Source: Sunshine State News

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Taxonomy

• Algae
• Pollution
• Algae Treatment