Southwest Florida red tide bloom revives memories of 2017-19 devastation
(The Center Square) – A red tide bloom befouled Southwest Florida’s Gulf Coast for 15 months before fading in early 2019, littering bays and beaches with dead fish, choking waterways in fetid stench and costing the region’s economy billions when hotels and beachfront businesses saw dramatic declines in patronage.
With intensifying red tide outbreaks again plaguing Southwest Florida, state Agricultural Commissioner Nikki Fried is lobbying Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency while U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan, R-Sarasota, is calling on Florida to enforce its own regulations to reduce nutrients flowing into estuarial waterways.
“We’ve got to do a better job being more aggressive about knocking (nutrient content) down,” Buchanan said during a Monday roundtable in Sarasota. “Red tide has wreaked havoc on marine life, our waters and the many businesses that rely on Florida’s tourism-based economy. We must take immediate action to combat red tide.”
Buchanan said regulatory and financial assets are in place to address red tide and called for stricter enforcement of existing Florida regulations rather than drafting new ones.
“Let’s enforce the ones we’ve got first and then we’ll go from there,” Buchanan said. Florida’s regulations “aren’t being enforced as aggressively.”
As Buchanan was addressing the roundtable Monday, Fried was touring Sarasota Bay with Sarasota Mayor Hagen Brody.
Fried, Florida’s only statewide-elected Democrat and one of the three hopefuls seeking the party’s nod to challenge DeSantis in 2022, agreed resources are in place to address red tide, but didn’t endorse his contention that enforcing existing regulations is all that’s needed.
“Yes and no,” she said, “it’s a mixed bag.”
DEP Deputy Secretary for Ecosystems Restoration Adam Blalock said existing regulations “are really starting to move the needle on water quality,” citing as an example 2020’s Senate Bill 712, which directs the DEP to update stormwater rules.
“I think regulations are in place,” he said, noting Florida is dedicating an additional $500 million in federal stimulus funds to water quality.
Fried concurred the state has upgraded its water quality regulations, but agreed with environmental advocates that state water quality regulations, including those drafted under SB 712, fail to reduce nutrients in stormwater runoff, agriculture runoff and in seepage from aging septic systems.
Under new regulations, for instance, the state’s Department of Agriculture can gather information through on-site visits and refer evidence of noncompliance to water quality regulations to the DEP, which is a good thing, she said, noting 6,600 cases have been referred the agency but little action taken.
“If the enforcement arm is not utilizing its strength, then the program has no teeth to it, has no effectiveness,” Fried said,
Fried, in Tampa on Tuesday, reiterated her call for DeSantis to declare a state of emergency to lessen the financial impact of red tide cleanup on local communities.
“You can smell the toxics. You can see the water, you can see the dead fish, it’s that bad,” she said. “And minimizing it is almost going to be a slap in the face to all of our local businesses who are being directly impacted.”
During a Tuesday tour of Mote Marine Laboratory, DeSantis said he’s “happy about the progress” of Florida’s red tide mitigation effort, but cautioned results will take time.
“So, I think that this was a really good investment. And I think it’s going to pay dividends,” he said, “Of course, red tide naturally occurs. We can’t tell people there’s not going to be any. But if you have successful mitigation strategies and technologies, you really make it to where this is not going to have the impact that it had in 2018.”
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