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Is Southwest Florida water quality better this summer?

Posted at 7:55 PM, Jul 05, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-06 07:06:30-04

Back in 2016, Southwest Florida had issues with clean water due to heavy rainfall in our area, which caused overflowing discharges from Lake Okeechobee.

The water appeared murky and brown which affected people coming to the beach.

"It was stained. You couldn't really see anything. We take people up in the air and even they would come down and say, 'Hey we can't see anything in the water," said Joey.

The water quality has improved this year and there are hopes that it will continue to.

"It's a positive thing that our water is beautiful again, but it's not permanent.  At any moment, we can be right back in the same situation we were in last year," said Chris Whittman, who is the co-founder of Captains for Clean Water.

Long term, the water needs to remain clean and clear for people to enjoy, but also to maintain a steady economy. 

<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif, Helvetica, EmojiFont, " apple="" color="" emoji",="" "segoe="" ui="" notocoloremoji,="" symbol",="" "android="" emojisymbols;"="">Captain Joey Berg said, "We make our living off of people coming down out of state to visit us and it's important to keep it nice."