Concerned beta-Methylamino-ʟ-alanine (BMAA) will ‘plague’ our water and Lake Worth Lagoon next week?

Are you worried about participating in the City of Lake Worth’s 17th Annual July 4th Raft Race because of something mysteriously ‘plaguing’ the water or maybe even a ‘plague’ of BMAA?

Don’t be distracted by this
silly nonsense!

Why? Because another neighborhood participating in the race or a Raft Race crew being sponsored by a local business or group in this City (and even outside agitators) will be trying to trick your Raft Race team into dropping out of the race by cleverly planting the seeds of doubt and/or distracting your crew of rowers in an attempt to sap their will to win. Remember: A big part of the Raft Race are the tactics and strategy to gain an advantage weeks and even months prior to the race to throw off and confuse all the other teams in the race.

To learn more about the City’s Annual Great American Raft Race click on this link. The editor at The Lake Worth Herald explains it this way:

Winning the race is highly coveted, after all, it gives bragging rights to the victor for a whole year.
     Some of the best shows from the raft race happen after the race, when teams will complain and protest actions of another team. Yes, there will actually be protests, based on rules that do not exist. These protests will be heard and immediately be discarded, as they should. This is all for fun, there is nothing but bragging rights waiting at the finish line and there is no reason to get hot under the collar because someone got one over on you.

A short video from last year’s 16th Annual Great American Raft Race (please take note of all the people splashing around and having fun in the water):

The Parrot Cove Neighborhood was the big winner last year. It was their pre-Race planning, gathering of intelligence, mis- and disinformation, and well-planned sabotage on July 4th which is credited for Parrot Cove’s well-deserved win. In the spirit of Independence Day it’s “worthy” to keep in mind:


Intelligence in the American Revolutionary War was essentially monitored and sanctioned by the Continental Congress to provide military intelligence to the Continental Army to aid them in fighting the British during the American Revolutionary War.

Attention everyone here in the City of Lake Worth, especially all participants in this year’s Great American Raft Race:

Beware the words “plague” and “plaguing”! Do you remember former Commissioner Chris McVoy and his silly Resolution No. 38 in 2016 to “[I]mplement a solution to long standing water discharge issues plaguing the City”? Was that an attempt to sabotage a crew or crews in the Raft Race?

Don’t get distracted by any nonsense ‘plaguing
the City’ unless it’s a reporter from CBS12
planning a plague of silly news.

Concentrate on making the best raft you can to win the Raft Race for bragging rights until next year!

FYI: If you happen to spot anyone from the press or news media and suspect they’re trying to stir up trouble ahead of this year’s Raft Race please do not hesitate! Contact the City’s Public Information Officer, Mr. Ben Kerr. Call 561-586-1631 or by email: BKerr@lakeworth.org


With our City of Lake Worth’s spectacular, nonsensical, and iconic Raft Race only 56 days away this is the stuff (see excerpt below) you have to be aware of from the press and media. This item that was published in the Post last year does not even rise to the standard of Chris McVoy, PhD, an expert on Everglades restoration who warned of “part science and part what you can get politically.”

In fact, in March 2016 the “firebrand ethnobotanist Paul Alan Cox” said in The Palm Beach Post about BMAA:


“No one is claiming BMAA is the only cause,” [emphasis added] he [Cox] said. “There has been all kinds of hypotheses in the past. Aluminum, brain trauma. There are probably lots of different things that lead to these neurological diseases.”


And it wasn’t our City that had a problem with BMAA in the first place. It was BMAA in the St. Lucie River that possibly created that “spike in emergency room visits” and the public there was forced to “escape to more distant lodgings” to cities in Central Palm Beach County that had any hotel rooms available:


“The algae bloom in the St. Lucie River and its estuary certainly appeared and smelled toxic. It caused an overpowering, noxious smell, burning eyes, headaches, flu-like symptoms, respiratory problems, and rashes. The local hospital weathered a spike in emergency room patients. People were forced to evacuate waterside properties and escape to more distant lodgings.”


Have you decided to stop working on your raft for the July 4th Great American Raft Race because of BMAA? Are you considering an “escape to more distant lodgings.” Worried about “burning eyes, headaches, flu-like symptoms, respiratory problems, and rashes” too?

Don’t do that! Our precious Lake Worth Lagoon is doing just fine!

For example, former Post reporter Willy Howard (now a reporter with The Coastal Star) wasn’t all too concerned about health issues or the quality of the water in the Intracoastal when he went, “Paddling the habitats of Lake Worth Lagoon” in May 2017.

Concentrate on making your raft more “Worthy” in the water and faster too! Our Great American Raft Race is on Independence Day, July 4th!