May 4, 2010 – If you’ve been reading the newspapers lately, you know that Lake Okeechobee is at an unusally high level for this time of year, when its water level should be low with room to spare to accommodate the coming summer rainy season and any storms it might bring. Unfortunately, the unseasonably rainy winter and spring kept the lake level rising to a high of 15.15 feet on May 3, compared to 11.02 feet on the same date last year.
Since March, with the lake at about 13.5 feet and steadily rising, the Army Corps of Engineers has been following its newer, better protocol and sending much smaller discharges than in previous years down the Caloosahatchee River to the west and the St. Lucie River to the east.
Until April 26, those releases to the Caloosahatchee remained below the 2,800 cubic-feet-per-second agreed upon as the maximum amount of polluted fresh lake water the river and its estuary could withstand. Then, after suffering four days of releases nearly double that amount, the releases have been back down below 2,800 cfs daily.
Still, so far the Army Corps is managing the lake in accordance with the plan it adopted two years ago in response to massive pressure by PURRE Water Coalition members and many others. Part of that management plan, in addition to the reduced releases, was to manage the lake’s level between 12.5 and 15.5 feet (it used to try to sustain the lake at a much lower level, forcing higher releases down the rivers and into the estuaries). But this year, the lake level is peaking before the wet and hurricane seasons even begin. And it’s just expected to get worse.
An article in the Stuart News on Friday, April 30, reported that according to the Corps, the releases “will likely continue well into the west season” to keep the lake at a safe level to protect the aging Herbert Hoover Dike around the lake. Col. Luis Alejandro, who manages the lake for the Army Corps of Engineers, told the newspaper, “At the end of the day, our fundamental purpose is to protect the dike and the people who live around it. It’s a matter of public health and safety.”
The dike is 80 years old and undergoing repairs – repairs that have been ongoing for decades at an estimated cost of more than $1 billion. The Corps inspects the dike regularly – daily at 16.5 feet – for leaks, seepage, and more serious ruptures.
But the risk to public health and safety isn’t just about dike failure. The East Coast’s Martin County Health Department warned the Corps of health-threatening bacteria in the St. Lucie River estuary. Its director said Lake Okeechobee water “makes a better medium for bacteria levels to increase.”
Col. Alejandro was asked whether that bacteria didn’t also pose a health and safety issue? He said, “That’s also true. We have to try to balance all the impacts,” the Stuart News reported. “This is going to be a very tough year for everyone. Unfortunately, nature has put us in a situation where we have to make these releases.”
All of the above clearly supports the already strong arguments for the state of Florida completing the purchase of U.S. Sugar lands south of Lake Okeechobee. The purchase of this land will eventually allow some excess lake water to flow south without raising flooding or environmental concerns. That way, a statement like Col. Alejandro’s – “Unfortunately, nature has put us in a situation where we have to make these releases” – may never have to be uttered again.
“It’s a terrifically ironic statement,” said PURRE Chairman Mike Valiquette. “He should have said, ‘Unfortunately, man has created this situation by altering nature’s perfect design of Florida’s waterways such that natural occurrences like weather now force us to have to send polluted fresh water down unnaturally straightened rivers that will destroy estuaries.’ We are obligated as stewards of this planet and of this state and its people and its economy to see this land deal through and help solve this huge problem.”
This purchase is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the state to own land that will make it possible to help restore Florida’s water systems to more closely resemble the design nature intended, according to Valiquette. “The opportunity to buy land that will allow a path for water to flow south from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay likely will never present itself again,” Valiquette said.
“As we can clearly see as the 2010 rainy season draws near with Lake Okeechobee over 15 feet and its polluted fresh water already pouring into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers – rivers that nature never even connected to the lake – a solution that will allow water to flow south is an absolute necessity,” Valiquette said. “And it cannot happen if the state does not own that U.S. Sugar land.”
