Toxic algae poisoning diagnosed in Matlacha
Water safety and sustainability problems should not be solved by the public, according to environmentalist islanders Sue Dahod and Susan McGuire, who say, unfortunately this is what it’s come to.
Dahod, a Calusa Waterkeeper Ranger, teamed up with the Matlacha/Pine Island Fire Department to test the water in Matlacha, after complaints from residents who said they were getting sick due to marine toxicity surrounding their homes.
Carmen Driscoll of Carmen’s Kayaks in Matlacha said she is one such victim. After ruling out a possible stroke, due to her symptoms, Driscoll said her condition was diagnosed as toxic algae poisoning.
Being an avid kayaker, she finds herself very close to local waters on a regular basis, that is, until recently. Driscoll has had to leave the island because of her symptoms, including double vision, tracers, confusion, headaches and shortness of breath, all of which she attributes to the algae on the water in Matlacha.
Not only has this condition affected her business, but her normal, everyday routine has become anything but that, she says.
“I was so confused while I was driving, I had to pull my car over to figure out where I was,” Driscoll said. “That scared me.”
Driscoll recalls her vision issues being the first indicator that something was very wrong. Feeling as though there might be a piece of cotton lodged in her eye, Driscoll assumed she could solve the issue with eye drops. After experiencing several other symptoms, she headed to the doctor only to find out she might be being poisoned by toxins in local waters.
She was cautioned by her doctor to remove herself from the island immediately.
“This was after Florida Department of Health and Poison Control told me to leave, too,” said Driscoll. “They said it will only get worse if you have that toxin in your body.”
According to John Cassani, Calusa Waterkeeper, this problem is nothing new, as Matlacha Pass was verified impaired for nutrient pollution in 2015. These waters have also had known issues with eco-bacteria.
“The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is in charge of closing shellfish harvesting,” Cassani said, adding that his belief is that it’s currently closed as a result of the recent rainfall. The verification of impairment is something done by the FDEP, Cassani said. This means the water body in question no longer meets its designated uses. At some point there is supposed to be a restoration program put in place, but Cassani says the state is having trouble keeping up with the requirement to restore these water-bodies.
“Matlacha Pass is a state aquatic preserve,” said Cassani. “It’s also deemed an outstanding Florida water. All the islands in Matlacha Pass are designated wildlife refuge. It’s a special waterway, entitled to the most protection the state can give, but here it is, impaired for nutrient pollution.”
The FDEP, he said, mostly covers fresh water, and Matlacha Pass is mostly marine water, which makes it difficult to get a definitive answer to this problem, which he says is both an eco-system and a human health issue.
“We tested for saxitoxin in April and again in June,” said Cassani, “and we got detectable levels both times. There is some toxic element to the cyanobacteria out there.”
“There’s a big algae bloom that’s been going on in Matlacha Pass for over a month,” said Dahod. “People are sick. People have moved off-island and we haven’t gotten to the root cause of the problem. The source of the toxin may not be the algae directly, it may be the bacteria consuming the algae that are making something called hydrogen sulfide, which is itself, very toxic. The Department of Health is essentially doing nothing, the county is doing nothing, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection is doing nothing.”
Attempts to get comments from the FDEP and FDOH were not successful.
According to Dahod, the only help, so far, has come from Calusa Waterkeeper, by way of sampling to get to the cause of the toxins, as well as Matlacha/Pine Island Fire Chief Ben Mickuleit who lent a hand.
After a boat trip through Matlacha with Mickuleit, Dahod said, they found evidence of dead algae at Matlacha Park and on May Street where Driscoll lives.
“We’re crowd-sourcing public health,” said Dahod. “The citizens of the island are having to do this ourselves.”
Rainy season seems a welcome relief from some of the reported toxicity in the air that may be contributing to respiratory, as well as other issues. Local rains, according to Dahod, are scrubbing the hydrogen sulfide out of the air. Although it is being re-distributed into the water, she said, at least people are not breathing it in directly.
“My advocacy,” Dahod said, “is to try to get some change in policy.”
She attributes the underlying cause of these problems to polluted waterways, identifying Matlacha Pass as an impaired waterway.
“I’m currently pulling data for work being done by other organizations,” Dahod said, “I’m looking at the water quality data around Pine Island at sampling stations that already exist and I’ve looked at one in Matlacha Pass — it has total nitrogen values that are above the limit about half the time. It’s failing the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s standards for water quality. It’s been failing for years and we haven’t gotten a handle on making it better.”
McGuire, a fellow ROAR member and activist, agrees that the problem needs to be solved at a broader level, saying although the island is blessed with doctors and scientists, the island has had to take the clean water issue into its own hands.
“As residents, we’re beginning to feel like getting a constitutional amendment on the ballot might be our best chance at bringing about change.”
A constitutional amendment gives residents more control, rather than waiting for someone to respond to the plea for clean water, she said.
“The water is putrid,” said McGuire. “Why are we the ones testing it? We’re the taxpayers.”
Although being accused of being too political in her quest for solutions is nothing new for McGuire, water and public safety, she says, are non-partisan issues, adding that islanders are not going to get a better reaction until they have a higher level of awareness.
“We can’t blame people for what they don’t know,” McGuire said. “Clean water is a necessity, not a radical idea.”