New greenhouse in Panacea could promote cleaner water; see how it works

• Water quality has been a popular topic in Wakulla County.
• The Gulf Specimen Marine Lab is working to protect the water by installing a greenhouse.
• Watch the video to see how the greenhouse could be a way to filter water in this area.

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

“And you do that buy the best filters in the world which is seaweed and algae.”

Jack Rudloe owns Gulf Specimen Marine Lab where they just built a greenhouse in hopes that it will filter water here by using algae.

“We want to grow this kind of algae so this is some of the red algae called gracilaria that we find growing in the bay.”

Rudloe says the algae will help filter the water making it better for marine life at the lab and in the bays.

They received a $700,036 thousand dollar grant from The Department of Environmental Protection.

Stan Brown with Salty Dog Construction built the greenhouse and says he’s proud to help this community landmark.

“This is place that my children came to when they were young and my grandchildren come here so it’s been good to be able to help people and know that you’re helping the community.”

The greenhouse took about 5 weeks to build. It has a retractable roof giving sunlight for the plants to grow.

Rudloe is hopeful this new addition will help improve the water quality and support marine life.

“If we have more algae and more ways to clean it up, maybe we can keep pace with the insane growth that’s going on here.”

They say the rest of the greenhouse should be finished in a year. After that it will be open to the public for education.