by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The current heat wave isn’t just sending folks inside and electric bills up. It’s aiding and abetting the “Green Monster” — the massive algae bloom that nearly choked the entire lower basin of the St. Johns River two years ago.
Dr. Gerard Pinto of JU recently flew over the river where St. Johns, Duval and Clay counties meet and Thursday told the Jacksonville Waterways Commission he spotted and photographed evidence that the bloom has returned.
“It’s at the mouth of Doctors Lake in the tri-county area, converging into Julington Creek,” said Pinto. “With this heat, it will definitely develop.”
According to Dr. Quinton White of JU, the likelihood the algae bloom will grow and spread north into the Downtown area and beyond is high. The bloom is a toxic algae that can cause respiratory problems for humans and severely damage submerged marine life to include vegetation and animals.
“It’s an indicator of stress on the river,” said White, adding that right now the problem is “nowhere near as bad as in 2005. It’s close to shore around the State Road 13 bridge. It’s always tricky to predict, but we’ll probably see it up this way in a couple of weeks.”
White says the recent weather conditions combined with effluence of waste water from water treatment plants is making for ideal algae bloom conditions. The searing heat and high humidity have created higher than normal local inland water temperatures, which is the perfect recipe for the nitrogen-rich bloom.
“The water temperature has been skyrocketing and until we get some relief, it will get worse,” he said.
Logic says rain would slow down the bloom. That’s true, said White, if the rain is local. The problem, he said, is most of the recent rains have been south of Jacksonville and because the St. Johns flows north, the bloom will develop and naturally push towards the mouth of the river. Cooler weather, said White, is the only thing that will really help.
“It (the bloom) will use up the nutrients over the next four to six weeks,” said White. “How far north it spreads depends on the weather and the rainfall.”
White said there’s no way to treat the toxic bloom.
“There are billions of gallons of water in the river. That wouldn’t be practical,” he said. “The long term solution is to treat the water before it gets into the river. This is definitely a man-caused event.”