The new president of the Florida senate is saying the best way to prevent another algae crisis on the Treasure Coast is to buy land south of Lake Okeechobee and make it a reservoir to clean water before it heads to the Everglades.
Joe Negron, a Republican whose state senate district includes, Martin and St. Lucie counties and the Glades area in Palm Beach County, says discharges from Lake Okeechobee helped lead to toxic algae blooms in the St. Lucie River two years ago.
But much of the agriculture community in the Glades is fighting the plan to take farm land for a reservoir.
I asked Senator Negron about that opposition today.
"No area of the state - whether it's east, west, central - has the right to engage in activities that hurt another part of the state, so there should be shared adversity," he said.
A Glades community group says it would rather see money spent on improving the dike around the lake, but that offers no guarantee that lake water won't still be moved east and west.
You can see my complete interview with the Florida Senate President on To The Point, Sunday at 10 a.m., on NewsChannel Five.
