SUBJECT
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Approve Standard Grant Agreement # INV41 with the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to provide funding for the Forecasting, Detection, and Mitigation of Harmful Algae Blooms (HABs) through Innovative Technology in Polk County ($300,000 one-time revenue).
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DESCRIPTION
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) pose significant threats to both human and animal health and to ecosystems, not only in Polk County but throughout Florida. The proliferation of these blooms is largely attributed to the rising human population and the influx of nutrients into aquatic systems. As a result, State of Florida has designated funding for new technologies to be tested and used to combat HABs.
Polk County has hundreds of lakes and over the past several years reports of HABs in Polk lakes were documented and made public knowledge through the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) Algae Dashboard website. Encouraged by the State to gain a better understanding on nutrient loadings and HABs trends in Polk County, the County submitted a grant application to FDEP in 2023 for the innovative technology grant to forecast, detect and mitigate harmful algal blooms.
The state awarded Polk County $300,000 (no match required) to implement the project. The project goal is to use innovative technology to gain better insight on HABs threats to Polk County, by creating baseline trends and distribution of HABs. This work provides the foundation for and will build the standard operating procedures to detect, monitor and mitigate HABs. The long-term goal would be to use the findings of this work to address additional waterbodies in Polk County for HABs. Innovative technology will be used to establish procedures to predict HABs using multi-spectral camera. To monitor the presence of HABs ten (10) lakes will be chosen and studied for a period of at least one year, and continuous monitoring will determine if the lakes have a natural trend in HABs presence...
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