

It’s unclear what kind of federal funding would become available with a declaration and whether it would make a difference, said Julie Hill-Gabriel, Audubon Florida’s deputy policy director. Also, the Small Business Administration is offering loans to businesses affected by the algae and opened a Stuart application office last week. The Environmental Protection Agency is testing St.

Is an effective response to the event beyond the capability of the state and the affected local governments?ĭoes it require supplementary federal emergency assistance to save lives and to protect property, public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster?įEMA’s denial letter said the federal government already is helping the state, FEMA Administrator W. States that request a federal state of emergency must meet the following requirements, Lemaitre said:
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Both are monitoring the work of Stuart-based Ecosphere Technologies, which conducted a free demonstration of its method to clean algae from the water earlier this month. He has 30 days from July 15 to do so.įlorida’s Department of Environmental Protection and Martin County have been testing the algae for toxicity, but neither have spent any money to clean it up. Scott will appeal the denial but his office on Monday didn’t say when. Scott himself has boasted the state’s economy has grown 2.3 percent and revenue was up by $1.3 billion this year, Lamaitre pointed out. “The state has robust capability to respond to emergencies and disasters.” “The state of Florida is the (fourth) largest state in the nation with a population of almost 20 million people,” FEMA spokesman Rafael Lemaitre said. Rick Scott failed to prove the state isn’t able to handle the “severity and magnitude” of the blooms in his request for a federal emergency declaration, which the Obama administration denied Friday. Florida has enough money to handle the Treasure Coast algae crisis on its own and without federal help, a Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman said Monday.
