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STUART, Fla.-- 2019 has been a different, and better, season so far for fishing guide Ed Zyak.
"We don't have the algae blooms. I feel a little safer on the water. Business is better. People are coming back to fish with us," said Zyak.
Captain Zyak was in Stuart Monday to support Congressman Brian Mast’s efforts to require the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to prioritize public health when deciding whether to discharge water from Lake Okeechobee east and west.
“We don’t know whether God is going to send us no hurricanes or five hurricanes this summer. But we’re saying we’re trying to do everything we can to manage the lake," said Mast, a Palm City Republican.
The new measure, the PROTECT Florida Act, is a modified version of a bill the congressman filed last year. That bill stalled because some in Congress objected to making health and safety the number one priority when it came to managing lake levels.
Toxic blue-green algae blooms have been spotted on Lake Okeechobee,but the Port Mayaca Lock and Dam remains closed.
A lake algae sample taken last week by the state contained low levels of microcystin, a toxin in blue-green algae. It measured at 1.08 parts per billion. The World Health Organization says water with up to 1 part per billion of microcystin is safe to drink.
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Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency determined that microcystin levels over 8 parts per billion were not safe to touch.
“It doesn’t seem right to me that my kids should be genuinely concerned for my health and safety on the water every day when I go to work," said Zyak.
Florida Sportsman publisher Blair Wickstrom moved his Stuart offices after employees were getting sick last summer. Subsequently, 70 employees were found to have detectable levels of the toxin microcystin in their noses. The results from more detailed health screenings haven’t been released.
“Clearly being a fishing and boating magazine being on the water has a lot of advantages… but not if it’s toxic water," said Wickstrom.
A spokesman for the Army Corps of Engineers told me it does not comment on legislative proposals.