Also Directing DEP & FWC to Mitigate Spread of Algal Blooms 
 
 TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Today, Governor Rick Scott issued Executive Order 16-155 declaring a state of emergency in Martin and St. Lucie Counties following the presence of algal blooms in local waterways. The Executive Order will allow state and local governmental agencies to take swift action to mitigate the spread of algal blooms in the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries by redirecting the flow of water in and out of Lake Okeechobee. Governor Scott is also directing the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) to take specific actions to address the issues caused by blooms. To view Executive Order 16-155, click HERE. 
 
 Governor Rick Scott said, “Today, I am declaring a state of emergency in Martin and St. Lucie Counties to expedite water storage projects to alleviate the proliferation of algal blooms. The order also allows the South Florida Water Management District to reduce the flow of water into Lake Okeechobee through additional water storage projects. In addition to our Executive Order, I am calling on the federal government to speedily approve permits for our dispersed water management programs. I am also asking DEP and FWC to take actions to address the issues caused by algal blooms in South Florida waterways, including developing a hotline for residents to report algal blooms and deploying teams of additional staff to more rapidly survey and sample areas impacted by blooms. 
 
 “Florida’s waterways, wildlife and families have been severely impacted by the inaction and negligence of the federal government not making the needed repairs to the Herbert Hoover Dike and Florida can no longer afford to wait. Because the Obama Administration has failed to act on this issue, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers continues to discharge millions of gallons of water into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries resulting in the growth of blue-green algae which is now entering residential waterways in South Florida. Although the President has failed to do what is needed to address this growing issue, the State of Florida will devote every available resource to find solutions for the families and businesses in this area.” 
 
 Gov. Scott is directing DEP to take the following actions: 
 
 Deploy teams of additional staff to more rapidly survey and sample areas impacted by algal blooms. 
 
 Purchase On-Site Microsystin Testing Kits which allow field staff to perform faster, preliminary tests for toxins on site. These kits will provide information about the sampled algae more quickly and allow preliminary health advisories to be issued. 
 
 Launch a Bloom Reporting Hotline. DEP will be establishishing a hotline for citizens to call to report algal blooms, allowing staff to quickly respond to areas with a suspected bloom. 
 
 Gov. Scott is directing FWC to take the following action: 
 
 Continue deploying FWC Research Institute staff to survey and sample any suspected blooms offshore. At this time, no offshore blooms have been confirmed. 
 
 Gov. Scott is directing the South Florida Water Management District take the following actions: 
 
 Store additional water north of Lake Okeechobee in the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes. 
 
 Work with state and community partners to explore every opportunity to increase water flowing south from Lake Okeechobee. 
 
 Store additional water through dispersed water storage projects. 
 
 Florida has invested more than $688 million in Everglades restoration over the past five years and will continue to invest up to $200 million a year under the Legacy Florida bill which Governor Scott signed into law this year. The State of Florida has invested nearly $2 billion in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) and $1.8 billion in providing clean water to the Everglades. To date, the federal government is $880 million behind in its share of CERP funding. 
 
 Senate President Andy Gardiner said, “We want to make sure our coastal communities know we are doing everything possible to help mitigate the environmental and resulting economic impacts of this algae. I applaud the Governor’s leadership and am grateful for his dedication to our environment.” 
 
 Speaker of the House Steve Crisafulli said, “I applaud Governor Scott for cutting through red tape in order to expedite the construction of crucial water storage projects in Martin County and St. Lucie County that the Legislature funded this Session. We know that storing water north, east, and west of Lake Okeechobee is the key to reducing damaging discharges. I am confident that the South Florida Water Management District will be able to bring these projects to fruition. It will take time, but thanks to Governor Scott and the District, we will not have to needlessly wait for relief.” 
 
 Senate President-Designate Joe Negron said, “I want to thank Governor Scott for recognizing the catastrophic impact this blue-green algae is having on our community. Our beaches and water are polluted and our way of life has been dramatically impacted. The Governor’s quick action today reflects his commitment to making certain our community has the resources we need to address this disaster as quickly as possible.” 
 
 ### ||||| Story Highlights Algae blooms take over waters on Treasure Coast. Gov. Rick Scott has added two counties to his state of emergency declaration. 
 
 Florida Gov. Rick Scott Thursday added two counties to the state of emergency declared over bright blue-green algae blooms that are taking over waterways and beaches on Florida's Treasure Coast. 
 
 Scott issued Executive Order 16-155 declaring an emergency in Martin and St. Lucie counties Wednesday, according to a statement, but added Lee and Plam Beach counties a day later. The executive order allows state and local governments to take action against the spread of the algal blooms by redirecting the water flow in and out of Lake Okeechobee, which many believe are to blame for the foul-smelling algae that one resident described to the Associated Press as "guacamole-thick." 
 
 Friday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Jacksonville District began reducing the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee, according to a release. 
 
 “It has been a challenging year for south Florida,” U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District Commander Col. Jason Kirk said in the release. “Our water managers have dealt with such large quantities of rain and runoff entering the lake that it would cover the entire state of Delaware in two feet of water. However, after visiting with local elected officials in Martin County yesterday and viewing the algae first hand, we felt compelled to take action, even though we need to remain vigilant in managing the level of Lake Okeechobee.” 
 
 Scott placed the blame for the algae squarely on the Federal government. 
 
 "The state, as you know, doesn't have any control over Lake Okeechobee," he told WPTV on Tuesday. "The federal government has got to put the money in to be able to hold more water there when we have a rainy year like we have now." 
 
 The algae forced Treasure Coast officials to close some beaches in Martin County this week, just days before the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the Palm Beach Post reports, and has been spotted in waterways and canals across much of South Florida. 
 
 (MORE: Report: Pollution, Climate Change Destroying Florida's Coastal Environments) 
 
 "It's just been incubating and growing and growing," Matt Athan, who lives near the St. Lucie River in Stuart, told WPBF. “And you can see how thick it is. And the smell is just atrocious." 
 
 "It has been observed in a good deal of the district already," Randy Smith, a spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District, told the paper. "Some of it moves around fairly rapidly. You might see it in one area, and then it dissipates and you don’t see it again." 
 
 Water managers discovered a 33-square mile algae bloom in Lake Okeechobee last month, the Post reports. Algae samples taken June 14-15 from the lake contained more than 20 times the amount of toxins considered hazardous by the World Health Organization, TC Palm reports. 
 
 The Corps of Engineers frequently releases water downstream into the St. Lucie River, to manage water levels at the lake. The Corps is stuck between a rock and a hard place, spokesperson John Campbell told WPTV, and that releasing the water from Lake Okeechobee is the "lesser of two evils." 
 
 "Holding the water back in the lake accelerates the rise and puts us in a position that the people that live and work around the lake face an increased flood risk," he said. 
 
 But releasing water also means consequences downstream. 
 
 "It's heartbreaking for all of us who live, work and play along the lagoon to see how the quality of the water has declined," environmental non-profit Balance For Earth said in video on Facebook, which shows a blanket of algae spreading from the river into a canal, lapping against docks and the sides of boats, thick and goopy. 
 
 A thickening bloom is not a good sign, Ed Philips, an algae expert and professor at the University of Florida, told TC Palm. It means that some cells within the algae are starting to die, releasing any toxins they may hold into the water. 
 
 Besides tinting area waterways unnatural shades of blue and green, dying algae blooms can kill fish and other aquatic life, putting a strain on the thousands of residents who turn to the coasts natural resources for their livelihood. 
 
 "Out on the lake, the algae goes on as far as the eye can see," Mike Conner, a fishing guide and member of the BullSugar.org activist group, told TC Palm. "And on the C-44 it's shoreline to shoreline, the length of the canal." 
 
 (MORE: Stormwater Runoff Leads to Spread of Deadly Pathogen in Florida) 
 
 Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, told WPTV, he was disappointed with the governor's handling of the crisis. 
 
 "The governor kept mentioning 'We have the Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Protection on it. They're monitoring it.' Like they're on top of the situation. I personally know that the agencies are not on top of the situation." 
 
 MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Beautiful Landscapes of Florida ||||| Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter 
 
 STUART (CBSMiami) – Florida’s Treasure Coast is known for its beautiful beaches that resemble post cards. 
 
 Recently it has become known for something much different though. 
 
 Foul smelling algae blooms from nutrient rich water released from Lake Okeechobee are dirtying waters and stinking up the air. 
 
 “The only way to describe how it smells is like a hundred dead animals that have been sitting in the street for weeks,” said John Skinner with Central Marine Stuart. “And that’s probably still an understatement.” 
 
 Aside from the putrid smell, algae has caused beaches to close. 
 
 Bathtub Reef Beach on Hutchinson Island is currently open, but you can hardly tell by looking. 
 
 To see just a few people out here is really sad,” said beachgoer Tory Osborne. “This beach is usually packed with lots of families and kids because the water’s so shallow. 
 
 It’s running off tourists too, like at Ohana Surf Shop in Stuart. 
 
 “It’ a ghost town here in Stuart,” said Jordan Schwartz with Ohana Surf Shop. “The discharge has affected our tourism it’s the height of 4th of July weekend and we should be packed in here.” 
 
 Senator Bill Nelson got a firsthand look at the situation. 
 
 He said for the moment, the lake should not accept any more water from the north and any water released should go into canals and holding areas to the south where there is more room. 
 
 The Army Corp of engineers has now announced it will reduce flow from the lake to the east and west. 
 
 “The idea is to put into these water storage areas and then into water restoration areas where the grasses in there cleanse the nutrients out of the water before you send it further south,” said Senator Nelson. 
 
 Aside from Senator Nelson, Senator Marco Rubio is coming to Stuart on Friday to get a good look at all this algae that’s blooming in the area, and it’s not done yet. 
 
 After that, local residents plan on holding a rally on the beach on Saturday. ||||| Florida Gov. Rick Scott added two more counties on Thursday to the state of emergency declared over a "guacamole-thick" algae bloom affecting a stretch of beaches promoted as the state's "Treasure Coast." 
 
 Scott signed the amended executive order to add adding Lee and Palm Beach counties to Wednesday's emergency declaration for Martin and St. Lucie counties. Palm Beach County is directly south of the existing emergency area, while Lee County is on Florida's Gulf coast. 
 
 The blue-green algae is the latest contaminant featured in arguments stretching over years involving water flowing from Lake Okeechobee, which is critical to South Florida's water supply and flood control systems. 
 
 At Central Marine boat docks in Stuart on Thursday, pea-green and brown algae coated the water and smelled strongly like cow manure. Blooms that started last week in the St. Lucie River continue to spread, threatening Atlantic beaches expecting crowds of families for the holiday weekend. 
 
 Sarah Chaney, a receptionist at Central Marine, told the Associated Press that boaters and fisherman are canceling reservations after seeing reports of the algae, which she called "horrible and disgusting." 
 
 "I would describe them as guacamole-thick. And it stinks," said Gabriella Ferrero, spokeswoman for Martin County. 
 
 Chris Mascia Palas, a resident of Stuart, Fla., posted videos to her Facebook showing manatees struggling to get through the thick algae in a canal behind their house. 
 
 “The water is like thick pea soup and has blue color in it as well. It stinks like a dead rotting something! .. (The manatee was) clearly was in search of fresh water as well as struggling to clear its airways,” she wrote. 
 
 Florida's U.S. senators, Republican Marco Rubio and Democrat Bill Nelson, have joined Martin County commissioners in calling for the Army Corps of Engineers to stop the flow of water between the river and Lake Okeechobee. Residents and business owners blame the algae on pollutants streaming from the lake. 
 
 After touring the St. Lucie River as it passes through downtown Stuart, Nelson said the problems can be traced to Florida's history of diverting water to the ocean. 
 
 "We need to repair 75 years of diking and draining, but that takes time," he said. He called on the Florida Legislature to spend money approved by state voters for environmental projects such as purchasing land around Lake Okeechobee for water storage instead of diverting the funds to pay for administrative costs. Rubio is scheduled to visit the area Friday. 
 
 When Scott declared a state emergency for the area Wednesday, he blamed the federal government for neglecting repairs to the lake's aging dike that's considered one of the country's most at-risk for imminent failure. 
 
 Some residents blamed Scott instead on Thursday. He hasn't done enough to curb pollution from farms north of the lake or purchase land farther south where lake waters could be stored and cleaned, said Irene Gomes, owner of the Driftwood Motel in Jensen Beach. 
 
 The algae has rapidly grown from a beach nuisance to a health concern, as one customer made plans to leave early if the algae triggered breathing issues, said Gomes, whose family has owned the motel's turquoise-colored cabins since 1958. 
 
 "At one point, I could say to my customers, 'Come down, it's not at all the beaches,' because it wasn't toxic. Now we're talking about health issues," Gomes said. 
 
 Chaney, the Central Marine receptionist, said Scott should visit the area, even if he gets criticized. 
 
 "He needs to come see it himself and stop being a coward," she said. 
 
 Lake Okeechobee is the largest in Florida and the second largest body of freshwater in the contiguous United States. Flooding there after a major hurricane in 1928 killed at least 2,500 people in surrounding communities of mostly poor, black farmworkers. It inspired the storm central to Zora Neale Hurston's novel "Their Eyes Were Watching God." 
 
 To reduce the risk of a breach in the dike built after that hurricane, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tries to keep lake water levels between 12.5 feet and 15.5 feet above sea level. Shoring up the dike will take years. In the meantime freshwater is released east and west of the lake into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers. 
 
 State water managers have said local stormwater runoff and septic tanks also fuel algae blooms. They're working to direct more water south of Lake Okeechobee into the parched Everglades, but federal regulations, conservation mandates and stalled restoration projects complicate those efforts. 
 
 In neighboring St. Lucie County, home to the troubled Indian River Lagoon, officials have prohibited homeowners from using fertilizer during the summer and begun working with the state to test waterways for pollution that might be linked to septic tanks. 
 
 "A lot of people want to blame Lake Okeechobee, it's an easy target, but there are a lot of factors that contribute to the health of the lagoon," said St. Lucie County spokesman Erick Gill. 
 
 Murky waters on southwest Florida's Gulf Coast also are blamed on the lake's discharges. Fort Myers-area lawmakers said Thursday that Scott should extend the state of emergency to Lee County because of water issues in the Caloosahatchee River. 
 
 The Associated Press contributed to this report. 
 
 Click for more from Fox 29. ||||| Algae found May 31 at Shepard Park in Stuart. (MOLLY BARTELS/TREASURE COAST NEWSPAPERS) 
 
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 By Tyler Treadway of TCPalm 
 
 Algae blooms in the St. Lucie River are getting more numerous, and a massive bloom in Lake Okeechobee apparently is getting more toxic. 
 
 Blue-green algae samples taken June 14 and 15 from Lake O contained more than 20 times the amount of toxins considered hazardous by the World Health Organization. 
 
 MORE | Follow our Lake Okeechobee discharge meter for daily updates. 
 
 Water tested June 14 at the St. Lucie Lock and Dam, where discharged lake water enters the river, didn't contain blue-green algae, according to Florida Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller. The DEP surveyed other sites in the river, but didn't see any more blooms. 
 
 Algae blooms are being reported throughout the C-44 Canal connecting the lake and river, as well as throughout the river from Palm City, along the Stuart waterfront and nearly to the St. Lucie Inlet. 
 
 "Out on the lake, the algae goes on as far as the eye can see," said Mike Conner, a fishing guide and member of the BullSugar.org activist group. "And on the C-44 it's shoreline to shoreline, the length of the canal." 
 
 Thick as paint 
 
 The DEP tested algae in the river Monday at Leighton Park in Palm City, said David Whiting, DEP's biology program administrator, and results are expected later this week. More tests will be done this week, Miller said. 
 
 After a rash of blooms were reported in early June, sightings dwindled for a couple of weeks. They came back with a vengeance over the weekend. 
 
 An algae bloom along the Harborage Marina in Stuart was "so thick the water looked like paint," said Matt Reynolds, owner/operator of the Hammerhead Dive Services boat hull cleaning company. 
 
 A thickening bloom is not a good sign: It means some cells are starting to die, said Ed Phlips, an algae expert and professor at the University of Florida. 
 
 When blue-green algae cells die, they release any toxins they have into the water. Dead algae can lead to fish kills because bacteria eating dead cells suck oxygen out of the water. 
 
 "I can't give figures for the likelihood of a fish kill," said Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart, "but as long as conditions stay the same — long, sunny days; lots of nutrients in the water; and low salinity — it could happen." 
 
 No end in sight 
 
 Those conditions are likely to remain because Lake O discharges, which bring nutrients and lower salinity to the St. Lucie, are likely to continue. The lake is about 2½ feet higher than the Army Corps of Engineers, which decides when and how much water is discharged, would like it to be at this time of year. 
 
 "As long as the discharges continue, you're going to have algae blooms," Phlips said. 
 
 Bays and backwaters along the river are the most likely to see fish kills because they have stagnant water. Moving water tends to break up blooms. 
 
 Smaller fish are more likely to die than large fish, which can swim away from the affected areas. But not all of them. 
 
 Stuart resident Mike Berger sent Treasure Coast Newspapers a photo of a dead catfish he saw floating in an algae bloom along the Riverwalk in downtown Stuart Tuesday. 
 
 "If it can kill a catfish, it can kill just about anything," Berger said. 
 
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– Beaches are closed in South Florida, where a massive algae bloom has caused water to turn bright green and Gov. Rick Scott to declare a state of emergency in four counties—Martin, St. Lucie, Lee, and Palm Beach—over Wednesday and Thursday, reports Weather.com. Health officials are telling people to stay out of the water if they notice discoloration and not to use tainted water to water their lawns. And tainted it is, according to one resident who tells CBS Miami, "The only way to describe how it smells is like a hundred dead animals that have been sitting in the street for weeks." What some blame for the toxic turmoil: a water release from Lake Okeechobee, found last month to have more than 20 times the level of toxins deemed safe by the WHO, per TCPalm.com. Exposure to these toxins can cause skin rashes, vomiting, and respiratory issues, and aquatic life could be sickened and killed. One video posted to Facebook by a Martin County resident shows a manatee struggling to work its way through what a county rep calls "guacamole-thick" algae, Fox News reports. The US Army Corps of Engineers is planning on decreasing the flow Friday from the lake, opened for release because water levels were straining the lake's levee and posing a flooding risk. Gov. Scott, who blames the feds for not repairing that dike, has instructed the state DEP and fish and wildlife commission to address issues caused by the hazardous situation. But some are blaming Scott himself, saying he hasn't done enough to curtail pollution happening on farms near the lake.