Vero Beach and the barrier island have been spared the flood of toxic green algae that has ruined the summer and hurt waterfront businesses in Stuart and other parts of Martin and St. Lucie counties, but brown algae blooms have started cropping up in the lagoon here, infesting small bays and canals.
The twice daily tidal influx and outflow at the Fort Pierce inlet insulates Indian River County from the effects of contaminated Lake Okeechobee discharges that plague the counties south of Vero, but ongoing pollution from septic tanks, fertilizer and other sources make waterways here susceptible to harmful algae growth.
Island resident Judy Orcutt told Vero Beach 32963 that on the morning of Sunday, July 31, there was a yellowish brown color in the water of Pebble Bay behind the home she shares with her husband, John Orcutt.
“Upon closer inspection from the dock, I was shocked to see a thick layer of oily looking algae on the surface of the water. It covered approximately a third of Pebble Bay and had a foul odor that still persists. We have lived here for 20 years and I have never seen an algae bloom here [before].”
Orcutt said there have been blooms each morning since July 31.
After Orcutt notified the Florida Department of Environmental Protection about the bloom, “FDEP employees came by boat on the afternoon on Monday, Aug. 1. By that time of the day, most of the bloom had settled to the bottom but they were able to gather some samples.”
FDEP personnel told Orcutt the algae was not “toxic to breathe” but that it is “unhealthy to swim” when the algae is present. They left Pebble Bay to take samples near Seminole Lane where a similar bloom was reported, according to Orcutt. “There has also been a bloom of similar looking algae in the Bethel Creek area.”
The results of the tests are not yet posted on the FDEP website.
Even though it is not toxic, brown algae is destructive to the environment because it consumes oxygen and cuts off sunlight aquatic plants need to survive, smothering sea life. Unprecedented brown algae blooms that began in Brevard County extended to Vero Beach in 2011 and 2012, killing most of the seagrass north of the 17th Bridge.
Seagrass is the foundation of the lagoon ecology and the waterway has not recovered from those infestations.
Human sewage leaking from outdated septic systems and fertilizer loaded with nitrogen and phosphorus serve as food for algae, triggering and sustaining blooms when conditions are right.
Vero Beach has launched an ambitious program to get homes near the water off of septic systems and onto sanitary sewers, but the county to date has done little to deal with the more than 30,000 septic systems in its territory, allowing pollution to flow continuously into the lagoon.
“The Indian River Lagoon is an extremely fragile estuary that has been negatively impacted by humans for more than 50 years,” Orcutt commented to Vero Beach 32963.
“We have altered the natural drainage basin and added pollutants from agriculture, roads, parking lots, septic systems, reuse water and landscaping. These pollutants did not accumulate overnight. It is going to take time, money and the consistent effort of everyone to reverse the input of nutrients. We must all be willing to make sacrifices, to change the way we live and think and to be more sensitive to our environment.”
