water quality

As red tide continues to plague Florida’s west coast, it also seems to continue expanding north.

Communities receiving program grants hope improvements to their infrastructure will attract more businesses to their area.

The beaches along Pinellas County should be mostly clear this weekend, officials reported, but a health alert was issued for Picnic Island and Davis Islands in Hillsborough.

State wildlife officials say in their mid-week report that toxic red tide blooms, which originally started in Southwest Florida, continue to spread north.

Even though recent water quality tests have not been detecting nutrients of the Piney Point wastewater spill, researchers believe current red tide and cyanobacteria blooms across Tampa Bay are likely being exacerbated by the nutrients which still exist in the bay's ecosystems.

During a two-year study to investigate water quality and algae, University of Florida researchers found dense concentrations of microplastics in southern Biscayne Bay and northeastern Florida Bay.

Many of Florida’s springs are at risk, largely from a combination of reduced water flow and increased pollution.

Data on nitrates and phosphate will be important when determining the spill’s effect on Tampa Bay.

Officials say the wastewater being released into Tampa Bay is not radioactive, but it does contain a lot of nutrients that can fuel algal blooms. Scientists say it will take time to see if damage occurred.

The main concern at Piney Point right now is to stop the south pond from collapsing, according to one expert. If it does, that could potentially release heavy metals and slightly radioactive material from two surrounding ponds into Tampa Bay.

Scientists say a chemical commonly used to kill weeds is increasingly being found in the blood of Florida's threatened manatees. The concentration of glyphosate detected in their systems has increased from 2009 to 2019.

Two young activists from the Tampa area were named 2020 International Young Eco-Heroes by Action for Nature, a global non-profit based in California.