We had a fairly good run in not having discharges from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie River in 2019 and the summer of 2020.

That run of luck may be over now that the Army Corps of Engineers began releasing water last week. The Corps waited until the lake tipped at over 16 feet. We have not had an algae bloom in Stuart since the disastrous 2018 year. Will we have one now? It is not clear yet.

This week in TC Palm, it was reported that “Microcystin, a common toxin found in cyanobacteria, commonly called ‘blue-green algae,’ can linger in the air for 2 hours and travel up to 10 miles on gentle breezes of 4-7 mph, according to a new study by a team of scientists at the University of Florida.” Is that in our future?

Fingers are already being pointed at the Corps and SFWMD. Yet what good will finger pointing do to alleviate this problem? We have had one wet rainy season without a hurricane. The Lake acts as the reservoir for the agricultural lands to the south. It is full and, at least for the time being, those farms will not require much water. It is likely we will have releases for a while.

Is it all bad news? No, it isn’t. The C-44 reservoir and STA will hold 50,600-acre feet of water captured from local runoff and if necessary, from Lake Okeechobee. Jacquie Thurlow Lippisch, our representative to SFWMD, told me that STA can treat 46 billion gallons of water each year and remove more than 45,000 pounds of phosphorous.

I do not want to see from our local officials any more finger pointing, threats of lawsuits, or other failed tactics of division. As a state, a region, and a county, our elected officials need to be allocating and pushing for money. Money to build and finish the projects needed to stop our ecological disaster.

We keep hearing about the federal government finally getting serious about infrastructure spending. Florida water projects are infrastructure. They are more important to us than roadways, airports, or bridges. Without a resolution to our environmental problems, our future is bleak.

It doesn’t matter how much you want development; it is not possible without a solution to this problem. If you want to keep Florida with open spaces, you can not have that either without a solution. The Corps, District, and State of Florida want this problem solved as much as we in Martin County do and that is true of the people who live and work north, south, and west of the lake.

Now is the time to pull together to seek billions of dollars to make Florida livable into the future. Along with climate change and resiliency, we must address this issue together. If we alienate potential allies in this fight, the war for our future may be lost.