the light is just peering in in these
shafts and it’s really it’s kind of
otherworldly just seeing these long
strings of green algae but to light on
them kind of dancing in the water when
I’m sitting out on the water you did see
a manatee swim up into Manitou Springs
which seems very fitting and some
manatees are working their way here but
there’s nothing for them to eat
the campin here since I was 6 or 7 years
old with my parents so have a real
history with this place it’s always been
one of my favorite caves why this stuff
has happened over the past 20 years our
Springs have declined in flow some are
not as clear as they once were sub
aquatic vegetation eel grass these sort
of native type species have virtually
disappeared in many of these springs and
they’ve been taken over with this still
a Memphis algae that’s pretty much
everywhere in the basins of these
Springs nowadays
this filamentous algae is it’s gooey
its glassy it’s not good to eat well
mullet eat it and this says there’s one
or two things snails eat it but
something has happened to the water
quality that’s killing the snails so the
lack of the animals that graze the
filamentous algae and the high nitrates
that cause it to grow explosively are
why the the imbalance is there
what’s on the radar these days is
nitrates and they come from fertilizer
animal waste human waste our Springs the
background levels are pretty much
considered 0.10 is is a background level
of nitrates and four years that’s what
all this groundwater around here was as
some of these large farms have come in
any Springs basins these
nitrate levels quickly started spiking
up and point three five is the point
that scientists consider spring water or
groundwater to be impaired okay now the
spring we’re going to be diving at today
is 1.2 1.3 milligrams pretty much
constantly so that’s several times what
normal background in three or four times
what’s considered impaired people come
here and look at this you know we come
here and we can cry because it’s changed
so much it’s still beautiful with the
clear blue water and the bright green
algae it’s still a beautiful beautiful
place to come
shafts and it’s really it’s kind of
otherworldly just seeing these long
strings of green algae but to light on
them kind of dancing in the water when
I’m sitting out on the water you did see
a manatee swim up into Manitou Springs
which seems very fitting and some
manatees are working their way here but
there’s nothing for them to eat
the campin here since I was 6 or 7 years
old with my parents so have a real
history with this place it’s always been
one of my favorite caves why this stuff
has happened over the past 20 years our
Springs have declined in flow some are
not as clear as they once were sub
aquatic vegetation eel grass these sort
of native type species have virtually
disappeared in many of these springs and
they’ve been taken over with this still
a Memphis algae that’s pretty much
everywhere in the basins of these
Springs nowadays
this filamentous algae is it’s gooey
its glassy it’s not good to eat well
mullet eat it and this says there’s one
or two things snails eat it but
something has happened to the water
quality that’s killing the snails so the
lack of the animals that graze the
filamentous algae and the high nitrates
that cause it to grow explosively are
why the the imbalance is there
what’s on the radar these days is
nitrates and they come from fertilizer
animal waste human waste our Springs the
background levels are pretty much
considered 0.10 is is a background level
of nitrates and four years that’s what
all this groundwater around here was as
some of these large farms have come in
any Springs basins these
nitrate levels quickly started spiking
up and point three five is the point
that scientists consider spring water or
groundwater to be impaired okay now the
spring we’re going to be diving at today
is 1.2 1.3 milligrams pretty much
constantly so that’s several times what
normal background in three or four times
what’s considered impaired people come
here and look at this you know we come
here and we can cry because it’s changed
so much it’s still beautiful with the
clear blue water and the bright green
algae it’s still a beautiful beautiful
place to come
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