We can reduce the amount of waste products and litter we produce. We can also support the EPA's Clean Water Action. The Clean Water Action urges Florida's decision-makers to ensure that the public is not forced to bear the costs of a cleanup while private industries take all the financial gains. Some adversaries of the EPA are big oil and gas companies, who have threatened "legal warfare." Coal companies, which are dumping the waste from their mining into mountain streams, don't want these streams protected by the Clean Water Act. The U.S. House voted to stop the EPA from closing the clean water loopholes, and the polluters want the U.S. Senate to vote to prevent the EPA from ever closing the loopholes that allow them to continue their harmful practices. Support the EPA and the Clean Water Act.
Algae blooms, caused by the pollution, can damage local economies. The U.S. Department of Commerce estimates that commercial fishing generates $5.6 billion in in-state sales and creates over 108,000 Florida jobs annually. This success depends directly on healthy fish populations. Over the past five years, dangerous algal blooms have led to inedible fish populations in the St. Johns, St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers, causing fishing industries to shut down for months at a time. This loss of revenue and jobs contributes to poverty. Decreased water quality can also leave people without water if the situation continues to worsen, and it is already happening in some other places.
Externalities are the costs or benefits to third parties. This issue is a part of the misuse of free resources. Free resources refer to productive ingredients that exist in quantities greater than people need or want for production. Free resources are not unlimited or invaluable. Water is a free resource. When factories dump their waste products into the water, the water becomes polluted and harms humans and ocean life. Waste water from residents, agricultural operations, and other facilities dispose of their waste in the ocean, which also contributes to pollution. Pesticides and fertilizers are another part of the problem. Disposing of waste into the water creates poor water quality for residents and ocean life, it hurts tourism because people visit Florida to see blue beaches, not green, dirty water, and fishing industries, who wouldn't be able to catch healthy fish from polluted waters.
Pollution is affecting our waterways. Blue-green algal blooms are appearing Florida's waterways and causing an unpleasant odor. Nutrient pollutants like nitrogen and phosphorous are invading Florida's waterways and causing these dangerous outbreaks. Toxic algae can cause serious harm to living beings and create negative impacts to our state's fishing and tourism economies. Over the years, high levels of nitrogen and have had terrible impacts on Florida's commercial fishing economy. These pollutants come from urban and industrial sources, and heavily-used fertilizers and pesticides are to blame. Residents, agricultural operations, large-scale industrial and municipal waste water treatment plants all send untreated pollution into our rivers and streams.
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Works Cited
"Devastating Photos Of Florida Pollution Will Fill You With Rage." Huffington Post. HuffingtonPost. 2 October 2013. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/02/lake-okeechobee-pollution_n_4031154.html "FLA Water Brochure." Florida Water Coalition. FloridaWaterCoalition.org. Retrieved from http://floridawatercoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/FLA-Water-Brochure.pdf "Nutrient Pollution in Florida." Clean Water Action. Clean Water Action. Retrieved from http://www.cleanwateraction.org/feature/nutrient-pollution-florida "Protect Florida's Waters." Environment Florida. EnvironmentFlorida.org. Retrieved from http://www.environmentflorida.org/programs/fle/protect-floridas-waters Warrick, Joby and Fears, Darryl. "In Florida, a water-pollution warning that glows at night." The Washingont Post. The Washington Post. 26 October 2014. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/in-florida-a-water-pollution-warning-that-glows-at-night/2014/10/26/402cb636-5bba-11e4-8264-deed989ae9a2_story.html Posted by Angelica Scott
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