The Green Monster Invades Tampa at Sept. Meeting

WED. SEPT. 10
7 p.m. meeting begins/program 7:15
Hilton Garden Inn in Ybor City
1700 East 9th Ave.
Free guarded parking or city parking garage ($1 for 3 hours) at 9th Avenue and 13th Street

PROGRAM: A special presentation of the award-winning film “The Green Monster: It Came From the River”
SPEAKER: Filmmaker Bill Retherford of PRC Digital Media in Jacksonville

If "The Green Monster: It Came From the River" sounds like a B horror movie, then producer Bill Retherford has done his job. Although the documentary's pseudo-horror-movie tone is meant to be funny, the scenario it depicts is deadly serious. For more than a decade, parts of the St. Johns River near Jacksonville sported a greenish tinge in summer, as plant life vied for control of the water. In 2005, however, the St. Johns spewed up algae that turned the river a deadly phosphorescent green.
There was a toxin in this particular strain of algae . "It was nitrogen and phosphorus," Retherford said. "It makes people ill. And someone needed to step up and say we've got a problem."
""The Green Monster" aired in March 2006 in prime time on WTLV-TV in Jacksonville, just as local officials were readying their own report about the algae problem. Four months later, when Jacksonville Mayor John Peyton released his 10-year, $700 million restoration project, the River Accord, he adopted some of the documentary's recommendations. The mayor also credited "The Green Monster" for "galvanizing public interest."
Bill Retherford will be on hand to screen his 30-minute documentary and offer insight into what Tampa Bay needs to do to protect itself from monstrous, harmful algae blooms like the one that closed our beaches this summer.

Can’t make this meeting? A public screening and forum on The Green Monster/Red Tide issue will take place at 7 pm Tuesday, Sept. 9, at the St. Petersburg Times Auditorium in downtown St. Petersburg . Call Phil Compton at (727) 824-8813 for more information.