Clean Water revisited, again, and again.

Scott and other state leaders have taken the position that toxic algae blooms on both Florida coasts are the result of the federal government’s failure to fortify the dike around Lake Okeechobee. Yes, the federal government strikes again!

Here’s how that narrative works:

The lake is a major source of the nitrogen- and phosphorous-rich water that spawns toxic algae blooms. There’s a 33-square-mile algae bloom in the lake right now. And when it rains a lot, as it has this year, the lake levels can be dangerously high under the current state of the lake’s 143-mile levee. Algae bloom is bad now, but catastrophic when it dies, expert says  A dead walking catfish lays on the shore with algae along Sewell’s Point on the St. Lucie River under an Ocean.

A failure of the old and vulnerable 30-foot-tall earthen barrier would flood lakefront communities and risk the lives of the people living there. Can’t have that. So to reduce the lake level, billions of gallons of that tainted water is pumped through the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries before being spewed into the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. “The state, as you know, doesn’t have any control over Lake Okeechobee,” Scott said this week, putting the blame, as he has in the past, on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for not building a stronger dike, so the lake’s water wouldn’t have to be pumped.

To emphasize the federal government’s blame, Scott declared a state of emergency in February, after winter rains created another algae-bloom crisis, calling for the federal government to spend $800 million to fortify the lake’s Herbert Hoover Dike. And he declared a state of emergency again on Wednesday, following the lead of Martin County officials. Cerabino says: Algae blooms, a Florida problem decades in the making. But a solution that calls for Florida’s largest freshwater lake to be converted into a sturdier cesspool evades addressing the reason why the lake is so polluted. And it also doesn’t address why water flows not connected to the lake are also becoming putrid with pollutants.

For years, one of my favorite weekend activities has been to sit on the rocks at the end of the jetty on the north side of the Boca Raton Inlet, where you can see tropical fish swimming among the rocks and sea birds swooping in and out of the flowing water. It’s not such a wonderful spot anymore. Whenever the tide runs out, a rush of water the color of black tea is pulled from the Intracoastal and out into the ocean surrounding the jetty. When that happens, the blue ocean doesn’t prevail for nearly a half-mile to the north, meaning that tourists who plunk down $429-a-night to stay at the Waldorf Astoria’s Boca Beach Club get to look at or swim in yellow-brown ocean water that more resembles battery acid than the brilliant blue water shown on the resort’s website.  Toxic Algae is Spreading Along Treasure Coast Beaches. Blue-green algae in the St. Lucie River and on Treasure Coast beaches

Building a stronger dike around Lake Okeechobee won’t fix that. But fixing the pollution levels permitted for the water that flows in and out of that lake — as well as the rest of Florida’s freshwater canals, rivers and waterways — will.

And you can’t blame the feds for that. Since 1998, the federal government has been trying to get Florida to lower the nutrient levels permitted in fresh waters protected under the federal Clean Water Act.

After decades of non-compliance, the federal Environmental Protection Agency six years ago stopped waiting and called for specific numeric limits on water pollutants from farmers, municipal wastewater and stormwater utilities operations, and other polluters of state waters. The reaction from Florida’s leaders was swift. Gov. Scott, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam and legislative leaders wrote a letter to the EPA, urging the federal government to do nothing. “We are very concerned about the cost of this onerous regulation to Floridians,” the letter said. “Businesses across Florida are struggling and our unemployment rate is nearly 12 percent. We each ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and hear from numerous constituents about concerns of an overbearing federal government that’s placing burdensome regulations on Florida’s families and employers.”

A year later, the state legislature moved to ban the EPA’s pollution limits from being imposed. And two years ago, Florida, through Bondi’s office, joined the Fertilizer Institute in opposing the EPA’s pollution controls on the Chesapeake Bay — even though Florida is unconnected to the Chesapeake and the six states that are had already agreed to the cleaner water standards there.

Earlier this year, Scott signed a state water bill that eases timelines for cleaning up tainted Lake Okeechobee water, a bill that former Gov. Bob Graham called “a purposeful effort to weaken protection and management of Florida’s water resources.” So it’s not surprising that Scott is trying to distance himself from this week’s algae blooms on the Treasure Coast, as is our President, David Israel.

After all, they illustrate an uncomfortable truth long ignored in Florida: That the cost of clean water pales in comparison to the cost of dirty water.