SWFL groups tackle algae problems together

Reporter: Jolena Esperto Writer: Paul Dolan
Published: Updated:

Algae isn’t just a problem in Cape Coral or Fort Myers, it’s a problem throughout Southwest Florida. On Wednesday, several groups came together to fight the water crisis in our area.

Captains for Clean Water and the Everglades Foundation came together to push for more funding.

They believe nobody should ignore what’s happening in Southwest Florida’s water. If not, we risk jeopardizing what attracted so many people to live in in the area to begin with.

Water is vital to the economy and lifestyle Floridians desire. There’s tourism, fishing, beaches and plenty more.

“This is a fight that’s been fought by environmental groups for over 30 years now, and unfortunately, the stakeholders, the people that were impacted, most, myself included, hadn’t gotten involved in that fight, and that’s why we hadn’t seen a lot of progress,” said Daniel Andrews, cofounder and executive director of Captains for Clean Water.

If that doesn’t change, environmental leaders say our economy will be at risk.

“Those conversations were not happening years ago,” said Holly Smith, City of Sanibel Councilwoman and Governor appointee for the ecosystem task force. “Everybody might be had their own bucket. The East Coast was worried about the East Coast, North is worrying about the Northwest coasts, while we were kind of not being listened to at all because we weren’t at the table. We’re at the table now.”

Chief science director of the Everglades Foundation, Steve Davis, told WINK News if there’s another water crisis like the one in 2018, it will be a disaster.

“All it’s going to take is one storm event,” said Davis.

For all those reasons, the Everglades Foundation wants Congress to send Florida $425 million as a down payment in Florida’s future.

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