DENTAL IMPLANTS

by Dental Implant Specialists

said. “All of the things that we love — the habitat, the biodiversity, the fishing opportunities, the ability to be able to go out and recreate — all depend on our ability to keep these estuaries healthy.”

Even though the current red tide conditions appear to be improving, Buchanan and fellow roundtable attendees agreed that the conversation needed to continue regardless of the presence and severity of a harmful algal bloom.

“Red tide is a natural occurrence, but at the end of the day, we are aggravating it even more so,” Buchanan said. “The goal is to do everything we can to minimize the red tide. Unfortunately, what I have seen over the years is that we will have a bad bout of red tide, and everybody gets ramped up and then we don’t deal with it.”

He predicted that as people continue to move to the state in droves, red tide conditions will only worsen unless necessary steps are identified and taken.

Dave Tomasko, the executive director of the Sarasota Bay Estuary Program, was asked to share his knowledge about red tide.

Although it is a naturally occurring organism, Tomasko said that humans can make it worse with such behaviors as overfertilizing lawns.

Outside of simply what steps can be taken, local officials highlighted actions underway to improve water quality, including Manatee County’s $1.3 billion investment in capital improvement projects over the next five years.

Projects include replacement of old sewer lines and rehabilitating two of the county’s three wastewater filtration systems.

“When it comes to the quality of life of our citizens and when it comes to the cleanliness of our water, we know that is a primary function of government and we know it is a focus and priority of our citizens, so it’s a priority for us as well,” Van Ostenbridge said.