A public health & economic emergency on our water — sewage, algae toxins, and now the air.
Live sewage-spill alerts for the people who work Florida's coast — seawall crews, charter captains, marinas, dive shops and waterfront contractors — from Tampa Bay through the Keys and up the Atlantic to Jupiter. Free text + email the moment a spill hits your water.
Most of what reaches Fort Myers starts upstream. When Lake Okeechobee is released west, nutrient-loaded water moves down the Caloosahatchee through three gates before it hits the estuary and the Gulf — feeding the algae and red tide that follow. These are live readings at each gate, so you can see it coming.
State lab results from the Caloosahatchee, Lake Okeechobee and the surrounding basin — where blooms were seen, what species, and whether toxins like microcystin were detected. This is the same sampling behind the DEP algal bloom dashboard, filtered to our water.
A 2026 peer-reviewed study sampled the air along the lower Caloosahatchee River and Matlacha Preserve — our water — and detected cyanobacterial toxins in the majority of samples, even when no bloom was visible. You don't have to touch the water, or even see green, to be breathing it in.
Microcystin, anatoxin-a, cylindrospermopsin, saxitoxin and BMAA turned up in most air and water samples collected — despite almost no visible surface blooms during the study period.
Toxin-laden aerosol from Lake Okeechobee releases and bloom water can ride coastal winds more than 30 kilometers inland — carrying exposure far from the shoreline, into neighborhoods that never see the water.
At rest an adult inhales roughly 500 liters of air an hour. Even low airborne concentrations become chronic, involuntary exposure — and there is no routine air monitoring for any of it.
Microcystin taken in through the nose showed about ten times the availability and toxicity of the same dose swallowed. Brevetoxin from red tide was also detected in the air — the exposure route with the least oversight may be the most dangerous.
Polluted water is not a partisan argument. It sends people to the emergency room, it kills pets, and it takes billions out of the local economy — the same coast, the same businesses, the same families, regardless of who anyone votes for.
Statewide losses to hotels, restaurants and coastal businesses from the 2018 bloom — about $1.27B of it in Southwest Florida.
A 2024 economic study estimated a single harmful algal bloom could cost Lee County up to $5.3 billion in lost outdoor recreation and quality of life.
Peer-reviewed research documents increased emergency room admissions for respiratory illness during Florida red tides, with measurable effects on asthmatics after as little as one hour at the beach.
Dogs drink while swimming, then swallow a second dose grooming dried algae off their coat — at a fraction of a person's body weight. Anatoxin-a can cause seizures and respiratory arrest within minutes. Keep pets out of the water and away from scum; if a dog shows tremors, vomiting or weakness after exposure, treat it as a veterinary emergency.
Sewage spills and runoff push Enterococcus and E. coli to unsafe levels. EcoBoard turns raw government readings into a plain answer: safe or not.
Seawall crews, charter captains, marinas, dive ops and waterfront contractors get a same-day text so they can protect clients and pause work the moment a spill hits their water.
Monitoring stations along the corridor are checked continuously, so you don't have to dig through state databases yourself.
This is not something residents can stand by and tolerate. Our water and our air are being polluted, and those responsible face no real consequences. We are calling for enforcement with teeth: severe penalties for polluters and a real, funded plan to clean our waters and protect the air we breathe. Here is how to make that demand count — today.
Demand enforcement and penalties from the people who can deliver them — the Governor, Florida DEP, and your own state representatives.
Every spill and bloom you report is logged with the state — and a documented pattern is what forces action. Report pollution the moment you see it.
Alerts are step one — organized residents are step two. Sign up and we will mobilize the list for hearings, comment periods and clean-water campaigns.
Pick what you want to know about and where. We'll email you the moment it's reported near your water — sewage spills, algae toxins that can kill a dog, big lake discharges and severe weather. Free, and you can stop anytime.
EcoBoard aggregates public monitoring data and may lag official sampling. It is an awareness tool, not a substitute for official Florida Department of Health advisories or posted beach closures. Always follow local guidance.