Researchers, students meet to promote solutions to Florida water quality problems
LEE COUNTY — It was a packed house at Florida Gulf Coast University on Friday (Jan. 25th) at the 28th Annual Southwest Florida Water Resource Conference. Around a hundred students met with some of the leading experts in water quality to share ideas and increase awareness of the state's water issues, such as red tide and blue-green algae.
"This type of event is so important in cultivating these leaders of the future to solve our water crisis," said Jennifer Hecker, executive director of the Charlotte Harbor National Estuary Program. "This is something that's going to likely go on for a generation or two. We're not going to solve this problem overnight."
2018 was a particularly tough year for red tide in Southwest Florida waters, resulting in massive fish kills along the beaches. Blue-green algae also choked many canals in Cape Coral and elsewhere, likely a result of nutrients in water released by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee River.