Gov. Rick Scott’s budget vetoes included $2,062,000 to help further develop nutrient control technology in Lee County.
Kurt Harclerode, the county’s Natural Resources Operations Manager, said the vetoed funds would have been used to continue a pilot project investigating the removal of excess nitrogen from the water using “Algal Turf Scrubbing”.
“We were actually taking algal turf and growing it and running water through that to remove the nutrients,” he said. “It would have been a great objective to remove more nutrients, to get that money in, to do innovative technologies.”
Nutrient overloads cause harmful algal blooms in the region’s already stressed marine estuaries. Harclerode said the county will continue its efforts to control algal blooms using existing technology and partnering with other agencies.
