By: Anthony Piel, Treasure Coast Newspapers
Citizens of Florida's Treasure Coast have been increasingly affected by periodic, massive and nauseating blue-green algae blooms caused by cyanobacteria leaked from polluted Lake Okeechobee into Florida’s waterways, including the southern Indian River Lagoon.
Journalists at TCPalm/Treasure Coast Newspapers have been on this story for years.
Although the principal sources of the pollution include industrial and agricultural runoff of excessive fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, a significant portion comes from defective residential septic systems leaking infected human fecal matter into our groundwater, rivers and coastal waterways…