Representative Brian Mast has produced a documentary titled Tortured Coast, which deals with the effects of toxic blue-green algae blooms and how it affects everyone in their daily lives. This is an issue that has persisted in his Treasure Coast district for about 100 years.
Brad Stewart, a spokesman for Mast, explained that the series was produced in-house and that no taxpayer money was used. Also, no money from his re-election campaign was used as well. The first video is scheduled to air on Thursday on Mast’s website and on Youtube, and Stewart explained that the goal of the series is to educate lawmakers and other government officials about the environmental, economic and public health issues that are caused by discharges from Lake Okeechobee to the St. Lucie River.Stewart explained that “There’s clearly a disconnect between the people in Washington, D.C., and the people in Tallahassee with the people who are actually forced to live with the decisions being made by people who don’t live there. What we wanted to do is show the human toll and human impact of the discharge decisions being made in Washington and the water quality decisions being made in Tallahassee.”
A trailer of the series can be seen below: