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The Jupiter Courier (Jupiter, FL)

May 24, 1998, Sunday

SECTION: A Section; Pg. A7

LENGTH: 568 words

HEADLINE: ALGAE PROBLEMS ATTRACT ATTENTION IN WASHINGTON

BYLINE: Jennifer Maddox Special to The Jupiter Courier

BODY:

Almost all of Florida's gulf coast and waterways off its Atlantic coast >near Jacksonville, around the Indian River and in Biscayne Bay have been >affected by some form of harmful algae ...

WASHINGTON - As the national media focused on 50,000 lesioned fish that floated to the top of Chesapeake Bay estuaries last summer, 14 million fish >died in a virtually ignored red tide off the coast of Texas.

Meanwhile, 7,000 square miles of water off Louisiana's coast were >rendered a "dead zone," an annual occurrence in which oxygen is almost completely >depleted because of too much algae. That lifeless area is twice the size of Chesapeake Bay and equal to the size of New Jersey.

At work are toxic "algal blooms" being reported with alarming regularity >off America's coasts, according to testimony before a Senate panel Wednesday.

Almost all of Florida's gulf coast and waterways off its Atlantic coast >near Jacksonville, around the Indian River and in Biscayne Bay have been >affected by some form of harmful algae, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Congress is trying to fund more resources to study the problem so it can be

eradicated.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, has introduced a bill to allocate almost $ 100 million over three years to study, control and prevent the blooms.

"This is no longer a localized problem. It affects every coastline in the United States and it's not abating," Snowe said Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Oceans and Fisheries. She is chairwoman of the committee.

"In each case, the result is economic losses in the millions of dollars, serious threats to public health and damage to the marine environment," Snowe said.

Studies show annual economic impacts of algal blooms range from $ 35 >million to $ 65 million nationwide. In Florida, each event of red tide costs the >state up to $ 20 million in economic losses, according to the NOAA.

Scientists have identified nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus as contributors to the phenomenon. They end up in waterways as a result of human waste, agricultural runoff and air pollution, said Suzanne Schwartz, >director of the oceans and coastal protection division of the Environmental Protection Agency.

"We need to create a systematic and formal response to these outbreaks," >she said.

JoAnn Burkholder of North Carolina State University in Raleigh said legislation should mandate a federal "gatekeeper" to monitor reports of blooms and assign a rapid response as they are reported. She is considered one of the nation's top experts on toxic algae Pfiesteria.

Another scientist, Donald Anderson of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, suggested public programs to control algal bloom outbreaks, address their public health impacts and coordinate public >education.

Some progress has been made in identifying when harmful algae is present, Burkholder said.

Scientists think they soon will perfect a new test to detect algae in water samples within three hours. Present methods entail extensive testing of fish that have been harmed by the algae; those tests can take up to nine weeks.

The goal is to "tweak (the algae) genetically a little bit so they stop making toxins, but we can't do that right now," Burkholder said after the hearing.

(Jennifer Maddox is the Washington correspondent for The Stuart News.)

LOAD-DATE: May 25, 1998