Satellite imagery shows Lake Okeechobee is about half covered with algae bloom

Summer is blue-green algae season, and the potentially toxic mess is starting to show up in various places around south Florida and in the Lake Okeechobee system.

From the heart of the Everglades to Cape Coral canals, blue-green algae is being reported in typical locations and at moderate levels, but water advocates are concerned the bloom could grow into a damaging event.

Blue-green algae can turn toxic and take over the Fort Myers-Cape Coral region, as it did in the summer of 2018.

Water from Lake Okeechobee flows through the W.P. Franklin Lock in Alva during lake releases in 2020. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started releasing water from the lake to the Caloosahatchee River recently.

"There are both freshwater and brackish blooms to be found, but most of what I've seen popping up are in the tidal canals in Southeast Cape (Coral)," said Calusa Waterkeeper volunteer Jason Pim, who lives in Cape Coral. "Is it local rainfall and stormwater runoff or just the hot, long, still days triggering all the nutrients?"

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection said on July 2 that approximately 50% of Lake Okeechobee's surface showed bloom conditions.

That DEP report is typically issued weekly, but no report was available for July 9 as of Friday afternoon.