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Palm Beach County farmer shows what he does to prevent pollution

Posted at 6:54 PM, Aug 16, 2018
and last updated 2018-10-02 11:41:35-04

With an ongoing algae crisis on both coasts, some tend to blame runoff from farms mixing with water in Lake Okeechobee as the source of the blooms.

Along State Road 80 you'll find Paul Allen of RC Hatton Farms.

"This farm here is a 480-acre farm," said Allen.

Allen wanted to show how he says all farmers use best practices to prevent nutrients from getting into local canals or even Lake Okeechobee.

"Monitoring device that measures phosphorous loads," said Allen.

He also pointed out to a rain gauge.

"Can't start our pumps unless there's one inch of rain," said Allen. "Filtered before it gets into the ditch."

"Stuff we do to prevent polluted water," said Jonathan Allen.

According to the South Florida Water Management District, more than 95 percent of the inflows into the lake are coming from the north.

A very small percentage is coming from back pumping south of Lake Okeechobee.