Private company hired to remove green algae from Cape Coral canals

The City of Cape Coral hired a private company to remove the green algae from its waterways.

The city hired Solitude Lake Management and they’ve been cleaning up the green algae all day.

WINK News was live at one of the clean-up sites in Cape Coral.

Crews loaded up at Horton Park and clean-up efforts started bright and early on Aug. 8 around 6:30 a.m.

Solitude Lake Management is harvesting the green algae, which eliminated the blooms on the surface.

Now one year later the blooms are back and the environmental consultant is here to help.

Bill Kurth, District Manager of Solitude Lake Management said, “I don’t think it’s that different. When I originally looked started looking at these sites about a week ago, it was significantly less than what we were looking at last year. But by the time we got to this week, it’s pretty equal.”

The good news is that the green algae isn’t harmful but it does sometimes stink.

“We started out this morning on the canal that had the worst accumulation of algae, and we’re already done. Because we have predominantly east winds, it’s only the western canal ins that are loading up. So we’re looking at a total of six sites,” Kurth said.

Kurth said it’s a freshwater species of algae that thrives during the summer thanks to rainfall.

“You’re in the middle of rainy season, you’re getting a lot of nutrient loading off the lawns, and everything else going on,” Kurth said.

Kruth said it’s important to follow the city’s fertilizer rules.

Crews will be cleaning up again tomorrow. The work is expected to end on Aug.12.