His community is among many countywide with old canals clogged by black, viscous gunk. An estimated 5 million to 7 million cubic yards of muck blankets the lagoon bottom in Brevard County alone, the legacy of more than a half-century of runoff and erosion. The muck is mostly soil from construction sites, farms and homes along the lagoon’s tributaries. But grass clippings, algae and other plants also contribute, as do past decades of fertilizer and sewage entering the lagoon. Those nutrients feed too much plant growth, and when the excess algae and other plants die, they settle out along the lagoon bottom as noxious muck.
The muck also carries metals from cars, power plants, paints and electronics into the estuary. Those cling to clays from sod and construction sites, flow into stormwater, then ooze into the estuary. Read more: