{"id":270282,"date":"2026-05-14T01:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T01:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270282\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T01:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T01:54:08","slug":"fort-myers-homeowner-alarmed-as-blue-green-algae-blankets-river-property-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270282\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Myers homeowner alarmed as blue-green algae blankets river property | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA, (WINK) \u2014 Blue-green algae<\/a> has appeared along the Caloosahatchee River, alarming a local resident concerned about her family’s health.<\/p>\n

Melissa Musselman walks down to the Caloosahatchee River almost every morning. Sometimes she gets a glimpse of manatees, but this morning, blue-green algae covered her dock and extended halfway out to the river.<\/p>\n

“We love it out here,” Musselman said.<\/p>\n

For Musselman, it doesn’t get much better than her six and a half acres of serenity. Her property features chickens, horses and a peaceful view of the river.<\/p>\n

“It is absolutely paradise, it’s real serene,” Musselman said.<\/p>\n

That serenity was shattered when she looked down at the water this morning. Blue and green algae covered the Caloosahatchee just behind her home.<\/p>\n

“I looked down, and it was immediate, and it was thick,” Musselman said. “It looks like green marble.”<\/p>\n

\"Fort<\/p>\n

The algae extended halfway throughout the river. Musselman was alarmed at how much of it there was.<\/p>\n

This comes just days after the Lee County Health Department<\/a> issued a blue-green algae warning for the Caloosahatchee and Sebastian Canal. The algae thrives in warm water, sunny conditions and slow-moving water with excess nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus.<\/p>\n

The algae was less than 50 feet from Musselman’s water well. She’s concerned the algae could seep into her water supply, threatening her health and the health of her animals.<\/p>\n

“It’s very concerning, very concerning,” Musselman said.<\/p>\n

Musselman says she came to the area to escape development. Now she’s worried that she might have to pack up and leave once again.<\/p>\n

“This was going to be our forever home and it’s being encroached on,” Musselman said.<\/p>\n

WINK News collected a water sample to bring to Florida Gulf Coast University’s Water School<\/a> for testing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SOUTHWEST FLORIDA, (WINK) \u2014 Blue-green algae has appeared along the Caloosahatchee River, alarming a local resident concerned about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[38574,209,211,210,9149,115941,1521],"class_list":["post-270282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-caloosahatchee-river","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-florida-gulf-coast-university","tag-freshwater-algae","tag-southwest-florida"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}