CAPE CORAL, Fla. -- Florida Senator Bill Nelson called for action, Friday, after an eye-opening visit to Southwest Florida.
Senator Nelson got a first-hand look at the concerning conditions of Southwest Florida's waterways. Potentially toxic blue-green algae has been seen in Cape Coral all week and Fox 4 got a chance to tour the waterways by boat Friday. "You can come back here in two weeks and this place will be filled with complete bloom I'd imagine," said Brett Cox, a leader at the SWFL Clean Water Movement.
The green goop continues to build up in Cape Coral, and Cox said effects are evident, as we saw fish belly up in the water. "Obviously you see the dead fish here too, which is making me a a fisherman more and more angry each day."
Senator Nelson was also fired up about the issue. He held a press conference in Fort Myers, where he said state lawmakers should buy land South of "Lake O" to store and filter water, as voters told them to do with a constitutional amendment. "I want to encourage you all to encourage your legislators to appropriate the money for what the constitution calls for," Nelson said.
Nelson and others said if the state doesn't find another place to let the water flow and filter, our water ways will get worse. Cox told Fox 4 that after a bloom forms, people's health could be seriously compromised. "That's the dead algae which in turn gives you the toxins, then that stuff actually turns black..which if you breathe into your lungs, could be fatal."
