Florida spent $1 million removing toxic algae from Pahokee Marina, Caloosahatchee River

Florida spent about $250,000 removing highly toxic algae from the Pahokee Marina using high-tech devices: ultrasonic bubble-blowers, circulator pumps and algaecide.

The state also spent about $750,000 to kill toxic algae at the W.P. Franklin Lock in the Caloosahatchee River. Six tons of a hydrogen peroxide-based algaecide, called Lake Guard Oxy, were applied there in June. Another 12½ tons were stored away.

The marina and river no longer are choked with dense concentrations of algae, which in the marina was 100 times more toxic than what the federal government deems unsafe. But the foundational problems remain and need to be addressed, said Everglades Foundation CEO Eric Eikenberg.

Toxic algae blooms — and the high cost of responding to them — will continue "unless you address the disease," Eikenberg told TCPalm Thursday. "The disease is the amount of nutrients and the amount of pollution that's coming into the lake."