Algae is making canals "glow green" in Southeast Cape Coral and an expert in harmful algal blooms at FGCU says the water from Lake Okeechobee has nothing to do with it.
Neighbors on Tiffany and Sunset courts say they started noticing caked-up gunk at the end of their canals over the last week. By Tuesday, most of the algae was broken up into little particles but the top of the water in several surrounding canals appeared murky and fluorescent-colored.
"It’s glowing!" said Dan Bathey, who lives on Tamiami Court. "It's greener than it normally is. It kind of looks like my yard."
Bathey, owner of Sublime Pool and Spa recalls the hideous algae blooms that plagued other streets in past years during his service appointments. For the first time, he's seeing green from his dock.
"For years we haven't used fertilizer because they asked us not to," he said. "Now that we're experiencing it, I think it's only going to get worse."
"In my mind, it's a critical thing that needs to be addressed at a quicker pace," said Tony Adinolfi on Tiffany Court, who also had green water in his canal. "It takes a couple of months of no discharging and you can actually see the bottom in the canal."
NBC2 took a sample of the water in their canals to Dr. Barry Rosen, an expert in harmful algal blooms at FGCU's Water School. He looked at the stuff under a microscope and detected a coiled type of Cyanobacteria, also known as Blue-Green Algae.
He told NBC2 the organism is naturally occurring but is being fueled by nutrient runoff from our local watershed, and not pollutants from "Lake O."
"Those nutrients wouldn't make it this far," said Rosen. "Look at how long the distance would be, The watershed puts more nutrients in it and especially this time of year than Lake Okeechobee, and there's so little water coming out of the lake right now."
He says more rain could possibly flush the algae out, or make matters worse combined with the summer heat.
Without more testing, he told us he wouldn't be able to tell if the Cyanobacteria was producing any toxins Tuesday, but our NBC2 news crew didn't notice fish kills or other obvious indicators of HABs.
He said it's best to play it safe anytime you see algae in your canal by keeping your pets away from it and making sure you always wash your hands if you touch any of it.
The City of Cape Coral has a ban on fertilizer containing phosphorus or nitrogen from June 1 until September 30, to try and cut down on excess nutrients in local waterways.