The city of Port St. Lucie will spend $1.3 million treating a lake in the Sawgrass Lakes community to battle blue-green algal blooms that have led to massive fish kills, including one in the past two weeks that killed hundreds of bass.
The City Council agreed June 22 to pay the $1.3 million to Fort Myers-based Solitude Lake Management over the next three years to treat the lake with TryMarine, an eco-friendly water-treatment product specifically designed to break down muck and convert it into usable nutrients, naturally processing pollutants, according to Solitude Lake Management.
The ongoing fish kills and algal blooms in the Sawgrass Lakes Community lake could be attributed to nitrogen, phosphorus and other nutrients built up in the muck and sediment, city officials said. TryMarine boosts dissolved oxygen in bottom sediments, which discourages algae and weeds from thriving.
The plan is to treat the lake every two weeks for the first four to six weeks as part of lake-restoration and then reduce the treatments and just maintain the lake to keep harmful, and possibly toxic, algal blooms from occurring, according to Solitude Lake Management.
Algal blooms and fish kills plague Florida lake
Algal blooms and fish kills started occurring in the Sawgrass Lakes lake in December 2020, said Bob Shonce, president of the North Panther Trace homeowners association and vice president of Sawgrass Lakes master homeowners associations.
A fish kill in the past two two weeks killed hundreds of bass, Shonce said. The algal blooms and fish kills are impacting residents’ quality of life and keeping people from fishing in and enjoying the lake, Shonce said. Shonce has recommended people not eat fish from the lake.
“It’s definitely affecting us,” Shonce said. “I used to see two or three people out there fishing and enjoying themselves a day, and now you don’t see anyone out there.”
Officials reported 2,980 tilapia and other species of fish have been dead in a lake in the Sawgrass Lakes community and in storm drains in that community between Aug. 14 and Aug. 25, 2025. The lake is near the Westport Wastewater Treatment Facility on Southwest Darwin Boulevard.
Florida DEP urges people to report algae blooms
After analyzing samples from Sawgrass Lakes, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission believes “low dissolved oxygen levels in the water are the likely cause of the fish kill,” Port St. Lucie city spokesperson Scott Samples said in an Aug. 26 news release.
The FWC noted that algae, summer temperatures and other factors could have contributed to low dissolved oxygen levels and the algae bloom, Samples stated. The nature of the stormwater tract and existing environmental conditions added to stagnant water, contributed to forming of algae bloom.
“(TryMarine) should solve our problem, or at least help a lot,” Shonce told TCPalm following the meeting.
What do I do if I see an algal bloom?
Tim O’Hara is TCPalm’s St. Lucie watchdog, environment and fisheries reporter. Contact him at tim.ohara@tcpalm.com.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Florida city to spend $1.3 million tackling algal blooms, fish kills
Reporting by Timothy O’Hara, Treasure Coast Newspapers / Treasure Coast Newspapers
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Timothy O'Hara, Treasure Coast Newspapers | USA TODAY Network
