LEE COUNTY — A company says it has a solution for Southwest Florida's blue green algae issues, and Governor DeSantis is listening.
He was at the Franklin Lock Thursday watching the Blue Green Water Technologies deploy its product. It's called "Lake Guard Oxy" and is a hydrogen peroxide-based algaecide that looks like a white powder.
The company has been deploying it all week along the Caloosahatchee, and it said it's seen a lot of progress, including at the Franklin Lock.
The company did a demonstration for Governor DeSantis both along the shoreline and by boat. DeSantis said he first met the company on a trade mission to Israel in 2019.
"It’s pretty interesting that that trip has led to this, and it seems like the homeowners, when you get rid of this, get rid of the smell, get rid of everything, they were very happy with that," said DeSantis.
Fox 4 has been following the company all week, treating water at the Davis boat ramp, and in canals along the Caloosahatchee.
"The product is completely safe, you can touch it no problem. We’ve been using it extensively all over the world," said Blue Green Water Technologies CEO Eyal Harel.
Harel said their product floats to the surface and only kills the algae. He said it's worked well in the canals, but he's got his eyes on the bigger issue.
"Ultimately, the idea is really to treat Lake Okeechobee. With the Lake Guard Oxy, it can be done," said Harel.
We talked with the Southwest Florida Water Management District, and they said they're still testing several products like Lake Guard Oxy to see which one works best.
"Theirs is unique in that it seems to spread out and go for the algae directly itself, which is very encouraging, but we’re still looking at the data and still monitoring the effectiveness of it," said Executive Director Drew Bartlett.
We asked the Governor to clarify how committed the state is right now to using this product on a larger scale.
"It could potentially be part of the long-term solution, but as you know, the long term solution is having that water infrastructure built so that the water's cleaned before it's moved into the estuaries," said DeSantis.
The Water Management District told us it has purchased about 20 tons of Lake Guard Oxy at this point to try it out on waterways. They told us the State could make a decision on using it on more waterways by the end of next week.
