Blue Waters - Close to Home

We hung this piece a while back at Barb and Emery’s, on their covered patio at their waterfront home.  Entitled “Blue Waters”, it is a 60” x 48” photograph printed on Somerset Velvet rag paper and surrounded with a hardwood frame under acrylic glass.
 
This photo is one of my earlier pieces, taken in the year 2002 in the Everglades Backcountry, with film in my Hasselblad camera. I had the opportunity to revisit the piece just a few weeks ago and it reminded me of how much I love to view scenes of blue, clear water.
 
Much has changed in photography since the days of film; so too has the environmental conditions of the Florida Keys.  Though, with digital, we can enhance and color correct, with nature, there is no Photoshop.  It is overwhelming at times to think of the serious nature of problems caused by population growth, and the effects of development all throughout Florida. 
 
Each one of us has to do what we can to impart positive change at or own level.  Personally I have adopted water conservation practices and I harvest rainwater for my plants.  Knowing full well what we apply to our ground is soon leeched through our porous coral substrate, into the groundwater, I am careful to add nutrients to my garden using only the least toxic means: compost and seaweed extract.
 
Our swimming pool is salt water, never do we add water from the hose; whenever the pool is low, we open the well which feeds the ground water into the pool.  Lately I’ve noticed the water coming from the well is a bit more brackish than usual.  A couple weeks ago, after filling the pool, within a few days, the pool started forming green algae.  The pool tech came and tested the water and he reported it was high in phosphates.
 
Phosphates are the main ingredient for all life.  Phosphates are also what's feeding the algae blooms in the Florida Bay.  Who would've thought that my little blue water swimming pool would remind me of the beautiful blue waters in the backcountry.
 
Citizen scientist…  I guess I have some clues to what’s causing the problem; but where is the phosphate coming from and how do we stop it?  I guess I have more questions than answers.