FloridaFishinFool reply : 

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-lake-o-pumping-change-20160201-story.html

South Florida Emergency Pumping Into Lake Okeechobee Ends

Feb. 1, 2016

Ten billion gallons of pollution-laden water was pumped into Lake Okeechobee during four days of emergency measures to avert South Florida flooding, officials disclosed Monday.

Amid an already rainier-than-usual winter, heavy rains last week triggered the controversial "back pumping" of water from South Florida's vast farming region, the Everglades Agricultural Area, north into the lake.

That helped protect lakeside towns as well as sugar cane fields and vegetable farms from flooding, but at the expense of allowing fertilizers and other pollutants that wash off the land to end up in the lake.

And that back pumping came at the same time officials were starting to discharge water from the swollen lake out to sea for flood control, despite the potential environmental harm to coastal fishing grounds.

By Sunday evening the emergency pumping into the lake had stopped after water levels south of the lake were brought under control, according to the South Florida Water Management District.

But in just four days, the 10 billion gallons of water pumped into the lake from the south equated to filling up about 15,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

The pumping was necessary to "protect thousands of families, businesses and property in the Glades communities," according to a statement from the South Florida Water Management District.

That pumped in water, usually low in oxygen and high in phosphorus and nitrogen, can lead to fish kills, toxic algae blooms and threaten drinking water supplies. Prolonged back pumping can lead to dead zones in the lake, scaring away fish, wading birds and tourists alike, environmentalists warn.

"We are glad it's over. ... If it keeps going, it gets worse and worse," said Paul Gray, an Audubon Florida scientist who monitors Lake Okeechobee. "It all adds up."

The short duration of this round of emergency pumping means the environmental risks to the lake should be minimal, according to Randy Smith, spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District.

Yet the El Nino-driven rainy weather during what is supposed to be South Florida's dry season could end up triggering more back pumping, according to the water management district.

January's rainfall, averaging 9.18 inches across South Florida, was the most for that month since 1932, according to the water management district.

While pumping water from the south into the lake has stopped, the lake draining to the coast continues.

Lowering the lake level by draining water to the east and west coasts helps ease the strain on the troubled dike that protects South Florida from flooding.

The Army Corps of Engineers on Friday started draining up to 1.8 billion gallons of lake water a day to the east into the St. Lucie River. As much as 4.2 billion gallons per day is also being drained to the west into the Caloosahatchee River.

That draining is good for protecting the lake's erosion prone dike, but big discharges of freshwater from the lake into normally salty estuaries can kill fishing grounds and fuel algae blooms that make waterways unsafe for swimming.

Dumping lake water to the coast and out to sea also wastes water that could be used to replenish the Everglades and to restock South Florida supplies during droughts.

The Army Corps of Engineers tries to keep Lake Okeechobee water levels between 12.5 and 15.5 feet above sea level. On Monday the lake was 16.14 feet.

To ease South Florida flood risk, Lake Okeechobee draining to resume

South Florida flooding threats are triggering the pumping of polluted farm water into Lake Okeechobee, just as more lake water is set to be drained out to sea.

While that helps protect lakeside communities and South Florida farmland from flooding, the draining and dumping can have harmful environmental consequences for the lake and coastal communities.

"It's really bad water," said Paul Gray, an Audubon Florida scientist who monitors Lake Okeechobee. "It has got really high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus. ... And here we are getting ready to dump extra (lake) water into the estuaries."

Rising waters during this rainier-than-usual winter are triggering the Lake Okeechobee water management difficulties.

To ease the strain on the lake's erosion-prone dike, the Army Corps of Engineers tries to keep the lake level between 12.5 and 15.5 feet above sea level. The lake level Thursday was 15.54 feet, which was nearly a foot higher than the average level for this time of year.

Water from Central Florida drains into Lake Okeechobee, which gets tapped by South Florida growers for irrigation and also serves as a backup water supply for South Florida communities.

But during heavy rainy periods, the lake fills up faster than the water gets moved south and that can trigger flood-control discharges to the east and west coasts.

Now in addition to the increased flows of water from Central Florida, flood-control concerns have prompted the emergency practice of "back-pumping" water into the lake from South Florida's vast farming region.

Rising water levels raise concerns about the lake's troubled dike, considered one of the country's most at risk of failing. Draining lake water out to sea lessens that strain on the dike and makes room for water expected to flow in from future storms.

But redirecting lake water toward the east and west coasts also wastes water that could restock South Florida supplies during future droughts.

And discharging large amounts of lake water toward the coasts can harm fishing grounds and fuel algae blooms that make water unsafe for swimming, scaring away tourists.

The Army Corps of Engineers on Friday plans to start lake releases east through the St. Lucie River. Also, ongoing lake releases west into the Caloosahatchee River are being increased, the Army Corps announced Thursday.

"The heavy rain this month has limited the ability to send any water south," said Jim Jeffords, the Army Corps chief of operations for Florida. "We will look to start releasing (water) when possible east and west in order to slow the rise and maintain storage capacity in the lake."

Back-pumping water from the south into the lake, which started Wednesday evening, was necessary to protect the "lives and property" of people living near the lake, according to a statement released Thursday from the South Florida Water Management District released.

Environmental groups have long raised concerns about back-pumping, warning that it flushes fertilizers, pesticides and other pollutants into Lake Okeechobee, which can lead to fish kills, toxic algae blooms and threaten drinking water supplies.

But the back-pumping is allowed to avoid flooding and "will continue as needed," according to the South Florida Water Management District.

This year's El Niño-driven wet weather has boosted Lake Okeechobee at a time when the lake water level is usually on the decline.

An El Niño weather pattern occurs when warming of the eastern Pacific typically translates to a wetter winter in Florida.

South Florida has averaged about 13 inches of rainfall since November, which is about twice as much as usual so far during the fall-to-spring dry season.

Lake Okeechobee's water once naturally flowed south, overlapping its southern banks and replenishing the Everglades.

But decades of draining to make way for South Florida farming and development redirected that water, flushing much of it out to sea for flood control.

On Friday, the Army Corps plans to increase that draining by discharging up to 756 million gallons per day of Lake Okeechobee water east into the St. Lucie River.

In addition, up to 1.8 billion gallons of lake water per day could be discharged to the west into the Caloosahatchee River.

The new round of lake water discharges could have harmful consequences on coastal fishing grounds if they linger into the spring spawning season, according to Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart.

Perry maintains that the coastal discharges could have been avoided if water managers were willing to hold more water in the farming region south of the lake or had moved more water south sooner.

"We are kind of disappointed that they haven't done more to move water south," Perry said. "They just have to manage (water supplies) better."

Projects are in the works that could enable holding onto more of the lake water that now gets drained out to sea.

Lake Okeechobee's 70-year-old dike is in the midst of a decades-long rehab. And slow-moving Everglades restoration plans, which call for building reservoirs and water-treatment areas, are expected to create more South Florida water-storage alternatives.

While that multibillion-dollar effort has been slowed by funding delays and construction problems, work has begun on a reservoir expected to eventually hold some of the lake water that flows to the East Coast.

 

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BareHook reply : 

SFWMD at its finest! Not!

So sad, I live in the St. Lucie area where they have just started the water discharges into the river and already there are bacteria warnings for fecal pollution as well as Vibrio vulnificus bacteria that can be fatal. No swimming or wading, and forget about eating your catch.

Eventually the warnings will extend to the local beaches near the inlets if the outflow continues....

Ken

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

It is already happening:

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Florida Cracker2 reply : 

I have mixed feelings concerning the water release. I have lived on the Caloosahatchee most of my life and during rain season the river often flows like it did over the last few days. It's just big-news since everyone along the coast got together the last couple years and filed suit. Don't get me wrong...I don't like the polutants flowing past my property and creating health problems, but for decades it has done this. And I love all the snook I caught over the last week. Usually I have to wait till June/July before they come upriver.

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Florida Cracker2 reply : 

And also a lot of that dirty water comes from the Peace and Myaka rivers as well from the north end of Charlotte Harbor. Also carrying pollutants from pasture lands. Even as a kid in the 70's we never harvested oysters during rain season. Again...don't get me wrong, I don't like it...but stopping the release from lake O won't make as much of an impact as people may think.

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Florida Cracker2 reply : 

I'm sorry I keep coming back to this thread...but the result of the ongoing lawsuit effects me directly as I have riverfront property which 1/4 of is Corps of Eng. wright-of-way and I want flood control. I want to put things in perspective. The locks at Moore Haven has a spillway 90 foot wide. The next lock at Ortona has a spillway about 110 foot wide allowing for drainage of its surrounding area. Move on west to Franklin Locks and the spillway is 330 foot wide allowing for the numerous creeks and a 70 foot spillway dumping into the south side of the river east of it. By the time you get to the mouth of the Caloosahatchee, you have added Orange River (sizable river) and many other drainage canals. An honest estimate of how much lake O water compared to other water would be about 20%. Factor in Peace and Myaka rivers and it could be as low as 5-10%. All the creeks and spillways were flowing the last few days...and still are now. Sorry if I have ruffled any feathers...I really don't mean to.

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

I don't think you have ruffled any feathers. Please feel free to speak your mind. Tell your side. I think we all understand your concerns as an individual land owner, but I think the majority of us are more concerned about poisoning our waters and killing wildlife more so than temporary flooding issues which I think is very important to you and we understand that, so please feel free to say whatever you want to concerning this issue. It is good to hear all sides so we can all have a better understanding of it all.

One thing we all have to realize, is that the U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers really messed this state up decades ago when everyone thought it was a great idea to dig massive canals and drain the water off the land so that the land could be claimed by man and used by man- with little to no regard for Nature. This was a huge mistake. Sugar cane growers and cattle ranchers were behind much of land grabbing back then.

The waters use to flow down through the center of the state through Okeechobee water basin and on into the vast grasslands of the everglades where it was filtered before running off the end of the state into Florida Bay where all that water washed out the bay and kept it clean and alive.

When mankind tampered with this natural water flow and stopped the washing effect of Florida bay, it began to get filthy and dying.

The move today is towards undoing the damage caused by the U.S. Army Corp. Of Engineers and restore this natural water flow, and much, much more needs to be done in this direction, but unfortunately for mankind, over the more recent decades a lot of new humans have moved into and onto the very lands we need for Nature to reclaim this natural water flow path, and so this is going to lead to conflict no doubt about it. Our human created filth (surface pollution) has to run off somewhere...

But what is more important? Killing Nature so we can conquer every inch of land for ourselves? Or try and find a balance with Nature and restore what we have damaged even if it means relocating humans to do it?

It boils down to what is more important to us and what are we going to do about it. All sides are welcome to share opinions so please don't hesitate to do so.

For anyone seeking information on this problem here are a few links...

http://www.dep.state.fl.us/secretary/everglades/

http://www.evergladesrestoration.gov/

http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/what-we-do/projects/

http://www.ce.utexas.edu/prof/maidment/grad/dugger/GLADES/glades.html

http://my.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xweb%20protecting%20and%20restoring/americas%20everglades

http://www.epa.gov/everglades

http://www.nps.gov/ever/learn/nature/cerp.htm

http://dels.nas.edu/resources/static-assets/materials-based-on-reports/reports-in-brief/everglades_brief_final.pdf

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

Lake Okeechobee levels were still rising slightly Thursday, and the lake is at the highest elevation its been since December of 2005

The Army Corps of Engineers on Friday morning will start sending nearly 70,000 gallons of water per second down the Caloosahatchee River.

Record rains in January dumped nearly a foot of the wet stuff on the 16-county region in the South Florida Water Management District, which basically covers the historic Everglades. Stormwater runoff from lands north and south of the river and Lake Okeechobee discharges turned coastal waters brown, close to black in some areas over the past week.

Lake Okeechobee levels are higher than they've been since December of 2005, after a series of tropical storms and hurricanes dumped rain across much of the state.

"All we need is a small (rain or storm) event and we could have a record event on Lake Okeechobee," said Jim Jeffords, who heads the district's operations division.

The district, on average, has received about 10 to 18 inches of rain over the past three months, when the dry season started. That's about a foot more than on average through Feb. 3.

Release rates will be 9,300 cubic feet per second, or 69,569 gallons per second, to the Caloosahatchee River while flows to the St. Lucie river and east coast will be as high as 7,700 cubic feet per second (or 57,300 gallons per second), the Army Corps announced during a press conference Thursday.

The lake is still rising, according to Army Corps and South Florida Water Management District records.

Critics of water management practices say the agencies should have been better prepared for this event, especially because federal meteorologists have predicted El Nino rains for months now.

Sanibel Mayor Kevin Ruane said the state and region need more places to store water — massive fields or reservoirs to keep water on the landscape instead of flowing into ditches and canals.

The South Florida Water Management District last week back pumped water off lands south of the lake and back into Okeechobee, a controversial practice that some say violates the Clean Water Act.

Ruane said farmers are getting a bad reputation over local water conditions. Much of the water flowing to Sanibel and miles out into the Gulf of Mexico is from the Fort Myers-Cape Coral area. Those flows, however, do not differentiate the pollution levels in runoff from local development versus those of Lake Okeechobee water.

"Organic material, mangroves, those are the elements that are making the water brown," Ruane said.

Mangroves produce tannins but do not cause waters to suffer from turbidity or low oxygen levels. These trees are major filters of pollution, and water in mangrove areas under normal circumstances is clear — although the bottoms of rivers and streams are brown from mangrove leaves, bark and limbs.

It's unknown how long the releases will continue, although it will take weeks or even a few months to lower the lake in preparation of the rainy season, which starts in June.

"It all depends on how much water we get out of the lake," Jeffords said.

During heavy rain events, water can enter the lake three times faster than it can be discharged, Jeffords said.

Meteorologists expect an El Nino pattern to bring even more rain in the next two or three months. More rain means more lake releases and stormwater runoff — the top contributors to local flows.

The Army Corps keeps lake levels at 12.5 to 15.5 feet above sea level. The lake has been kept higher in past decades, but water levels of 17 or 18 feet can destroy vegetation in the lake and kill the fishery. Higher water levels also mean more pressure on the dike. More pressure, in turn, leads to seepage, leaks, and, eventually, a breach.

Look what's happening around Lake Okeechobee
the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board

The El Nino weather system that helped keep hurricanes away from Florida last summer has put coastal regions under siege again. By responding to this latest emergency, the Legislature can head off others.

According to the South Florida Water Management District, the November-January period was the wettest since record keeping began in 1932. In January, the district's 16 counties got more than three times the usual rainfall. El Nino winters tend to be cooler and wetter.

All that rainfall has raised the level of Lake Okeechobee to more than 16 feet, a point where it threatens the Herbert Hoover Dike on the lake's south shore. When that happens, the Army Corps of Engineers releases water to the east through the St. Lucie River and to the west through the Caloosahatchee River.

Those discharges carry pollution from the lake, fouling the rivers, the estuaries — brackish areas where marine life breed — and even the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The longer the discharges last, the greater the damage. Unfortunately, the discharges last week got larger will last for a while. To ease pressure on the dike, the level must drop to at least 15 feet and perhaps lower.

Worse, to prevent flooding of farms and towns south of the lake, the district just pumped water from canals back into the lake for four days. The effect was to put more pollution into the lake, making the discharges even dirtier. It was only the ninth back-pumping since 2008. Four of those came after tropical storms.

Florida faces a frustrating paradox in trying to restore the Everglades water system that begins with the Kissimmee River headwaters south of Orlando and ends at Florida Bay. There is too much freshwater where we don't need it — flowing untreated into the lake — and too little where we need it — flowing clean into the bay.

Though the state has spent much on Everglades restoration, the state must spend much more to restore the system. Some immediate and longer-term help can come from the Legislature.

Citing the discharges, Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, asked for $7.5 million that would increase areas for storing and filtering water before it flows into the lake. Despite opposition from key senators, Negron is likely to prevail since he's set to be Senate president next year.

That one-time money would help, but Negron is sponsoring another bill that would help even more. Senate Bill 1168 would allocate as much as $200 million through 2024 toward the state-federal Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. The money would come from Amendment 1 funding.

Negron's co-sponsor is Sen. Lizbeth Benacquisto, R-Fort Myers. Her district includes the Caloosahatchee River, which is getting nearly 6 billion gallons of discharges per day, roughly 1 billion more than the St. Lucie River. Rep. Gayle Harrell, who also represents the Treasure Coast, is the House sponsor.

On Tuesday, the Senate Environmental Preservation and Conservation Committee will hear Negron's legislation. Chairman Charlie Dean, R-Inverness, wants more money to help the freshwater springs in his north-central Florida district. Environmental advocates are urging a compromise that preserves the Everglades money.

On Friday, Negron told the Sun Sentinel Editorial Board that he expects to reach that compromise. "I believe that we will find some Amendment 1 money for springs," Negron said. "The bill is a work in progress, and we have to work out the distribution formula." The emergency money would expand from 300 acres to 4,000 acres a successful water storage project on a Martin County farm. Negron said the site could hold 30 billion gallons of water.

That's about a week's worth of discharges at the current rate. Negron acknowledged that the project is just one of many needed to prevent assaults on the St. Lucie. Still, he is "optimistic long-term," and he may be right — if the Legislature and Congress keep the money coming. New legislation would automatically authorize — though not fund — Everglades restoration projects the U.S. Corps of Engineers considers ready in the next five years.

Construction soon will be complete on the A-1 reservoir in western Palm Beach County that can hold 60,000 acre feet of excess rainfall. Groundbreaking looms for a reservoir that would divert polluted water from the Caloosahatchee River. Construction has begun on a similar reservoir in Martin County. Negron said the work will take about six years.

So there is progress since the last St. Lucie River emergency in mid-2013. Audubon of Florida Director Eric Draper, however, makes the right point when he says, "The water system in South Florida is geared around the Everglades Agricultural Area, and we have to talk about that."

Correct. Beyond the money, if the state's new water policy doesn't force farmers to adequately clean water flowing off their fields, these emergencies — and the resultant damage — are inevitable.

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

 

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

  On 2/11/2016 at 4:07 AM, FloridaFishinFool said:

 

The Army Corps keeps lake levels at 12.5 to 15.5 feet above sea level. The lake has been kept higher in past decades, but water levels of 17 or 18 feet can destroy vegetation in the lake and kill the fishery. Higher water levels also mean more pressure on the dike. More pressure, in turn, leads to seepage, leaks, and, eventually, a breach.

 

Okeechobee bass fishermen, did you catch the line in there about when the water levels begin to kill off the fish? When water levels reach 17 or 18 feet? They do not say why or how though. I will have to see if I can find out why... but here is their plan:

"All that rainfall has raised the level of Lake Okeechobee to more than 16 feet, a point where it threatens the Herbert Hoover Dike on the lake's south shore. When that happens, the Army Corps of Engineers releases water to the east through the St. Lucie River and to the west through the Caloosahatchee River.

Those discharges carry pollution from the lake, fouling the rivers, the estuaries — brackish areas where marine life breed — and even the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. The longer the discharges last, the greater the damage. Unfortunately, the discharges last week got larger will last for a while. To ease pressure on the dike, the level must drop to at least 15 feet and perhaps lower."

Right now the people along the east and west coast of Florida are screaming mad over this water discharge from Okeechobee.

All of that water is suppose to flow naturally South through the everglades and right off the tip of Florida into Florida bay! Not be pumped back up north into Lake Okeechobee from down South and then discharged east and west out into the ocean and gulf of Mexico! Man is working against Nature!

But I do agree with the concerns of those people living along the Florida coasts who are saying that the government should have been better prepared for this ahead of time in advance of the high water level crisis and began slowly releasing the water in smaller amounts over a longer period of time to reduce the damage, rather than wait until the last second and do a massive power dump of the water in 4 days time, but it looks like that will not be enough and more water will be discharged I do believe.

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topwaterrob reply : 

I fished the lake this past Wednesday out of Belle Glade and I've never been on it when its this high.  It was hard for me to even identify the areas I routinely fish, they were all under water.  The fishing sucked as well. 

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1234567 reply : 

Went Friday and same story.  Water was high and dirty in most area and the fishing sucked as well. 

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Ohio Archer reply : 

Used to live in Homestead and fished Lake O a lot.  Everything is a delicate balance since man tried to "fix" the Everglades.  You would think we would figure out by now that we don't know squat about Mother Nature.

John Anderson sang about it well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8sh9P3X33w

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

Thanks for posting this song! I will repost it and hopefully it will link in to this website this time:

Seminole Wind (lyrics)

Ever since the days of old
Men would search for wealth untold
They'd dig for silver and for gold
And leave the empty holes
And way down south in the Everglades
Where the black water rolls and the saw grass waves
The eagles fly and the otters play
In the land of the Seminole

So blow, blow Seminole wind
Blow like you're never gonna blow again
I'm calling to you like a long lost friend
But I know who you are
And blow, blow from the Okeechobee
All the way up to Micanopy
Blow across the home of the Seminole
The alligators and the gar

And progress came and took its toll
And in the name of flood control
They made their plans and they drained the land
Now the glades are going dry
And the last time I walked in the swamp
I sat upon a Cypress stump
I listened close and I heard the ghost
Of Osceola cry

So blow, blow Seminole wind
Blow like you're never gonna blow again
I'm calling to you like a long lost friend
But I know who you are
And blow, blow from the Okeechobee
All the way up to Micanopy
Blow across the home of the Seminole
The alligators and the gar

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Darren. reply : 

That's a lotta crud..... Wow. 10B gallons.

Sorry to hear.

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DogBone_384 reply : 

....HUMANS......

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Fentawn reply : 

sad

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0119 reply : 

  On 2/10/2016 at 11:50 PM, Florida Cracker2 said:

I have mixed feelings concerning the water release. I have lived on the Caloosahatchee most of my life and during rain season the river often flows like it did over the last few days. It's just big-news since everyone along the coast got together the last couple years and filed suit. Don't get me wrong...I don't like the polutants flowing past my property and creating health problems, but for decades it has done this. And I love all the snook I caught over the last week. Usually I have to wait till June/July before they come upriver.

Local news is pumping this issue for their extreme agendas. All those tests they touted for a week came back negative. Johnny redsox is mad he has to look at brown water while is snowbirds toes sit in the sand. No one is explaining the fact a hundred thousand folks might lose their homes if it's not pumped out. Ft. Myers beach water is always a dirty soapy gray mess normally, now that it's tannic, it's allegedly uglier? Too many northerners are having all the say in what we do to our own state.  The snook trout and reds were not even in this area to be affected. I bet you are enjoying some good snook times up the river now. The upper Myakka is on fire for me.

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Florida Cracker2 reply : 

Picketers were on Mantanzaz pass bridge with signs boohooing the situation. The only remedy is stopping the flow of water off lands meaning that the water will have to stay at location. That will bring back malaria, dengi, and a host of other deseases that drainage has prevented. The alternative is lots of chemicals to reduce the deseases. There was a reason that dranage was implemented. Those who don't learn from history...live to repeat it. Remember...Florida was considered uninhabitable before drainage was in place.

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CHugh reply : 

The past 10 days have been terrible down here. All of my go to spots in canals are completely lifeless, no bait, no solid vegetation, not to mention they're all at least 5'-8' higher then normal. Some of my great spots that I save for fishing this time of year, and usually have clear water are all brown, lifeless, no fish. I was tossing a white fluke and it actually turned brown from the water. We'll feeling the effects of this all the way down in south Collier County.

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

Corps of Engineers OKs plan to divert Lake Okeechobee water south

By Arek Sarkissian of the Naples Daily News

2-15-2016

An earlier version of this story misstated the level considered safe by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Lake Okeechobee, which is between 12.5 feet and 15 feet. The article also incorrectly stated what roadway the L-29 canal runs along, which is East Tamiami Trail. 

TALLAHASSEE — U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Monday approved the first step in Gov. Rick Scott's plan to divert Lake Okeechobee water to the Everglades, with a goal of relieving estuaries along the Southwest Florida coast of damaging freshwater discharges.

Starting Monday, water from an already flooded conservation area south of Lake Okeechobee will flow to the Everglades National Park. The soon-to-be emptied conservation area will eventually take on water from Lake Okeechobee, decreasing flows into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers. Some Southwest Florida leaders have protested the discharges into the Caloosahatchee, arguing the flow that eventually gushes into the Gulf of Mexico endangers the delicate estuaries that survive on uniquely balanced brackish water.

"I applaud the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' quick action to move water south through the Shark River Slough to ease flooding in the Everglades," Scott said in a news release. "This action will help prevent a die off of wildlife whose habitat is currently flooded and eventually relieve pressure from discharges to the estuaries."

The Corps of Engineers began to flush water from Lake Okeechobee to the rivers Jan. 30 and "further increased" flows on Feb. 5 to relieve even more swelling from the heavy rainfall.

Historic January rains pushed the level of Lake Okeechobee well beyond the between 12.5 and 15 feet deemed safe by the Corps of Engineers. As of Monday, the lake level was 16.21 feet, according to a Corps of Engineers website.

The approval from the Corps of Engineers prompted the South Water Management District to open a gate that emptied part of the Everglades known as Conservation Area 3 at a rate of 10,000 gallons per second, according to a news release provided by the agency. The water from Conservation Area 3 flows through the L-29 Canal, which runs along East Tamiami Trail, and makes its way into Shark River Slough in Everglades National Park, said John Campbell, an agency spokesman.

"I'm not aware this has been done before," Campbell said, adding that landowners along the L-29 canal had to sign agreements.

The Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers will continue to digest Lake Okeechobee water, but the emptied conservation area will eventually take some of the flow, Campbell said.

"It is still something," Campbell said. "Every little bit helps."

Scott sent his letter to the Corps of Engineers after he received a letter from Rep. Heather Fitzenhagen, R-Fort Myers, who wrote him about the damage the fresh lake water had caused along the Gulf Coast. The dilemma led to a collaborative effort by federal, state and local officials, which resulted in a solution that began to take action Monday, Fitzenhagen said.

"Of course, you think about how the water interrupts the delicate estuaries that need that perfect mix of saline and fresh water," Fitzenhagen said. "But then you have to consider how it affects our quality of life along the coast, with people hearing about things like fish kills and algae."

Progress in the fight to decrease the lake water in the Caloosahachee drew praise from leaders in Lee County. Bonita Springs Mayor Ben Nelson said moving water south was a big step in the right direction.

"This is a good sign," Nelson said. "Given all the options that were even possible, this seems like the one that is most doable now."

Sanibel Mayor Kevin Ruane's city sits at the mouth of the Caloosahatchee, and he was pleased the countless hours of phone calls with the Corps of Engineers, and state and federal leaders finally paid off.

"We were trying to utilize everything we had to come up with a long-term solution," Ruane said. "This isn't just about how it all impacts our tourism — this is where we live."

Naples Daily News Reporter Maryann Batlle contributed to this report

ANGRY PROTESTERS DEMAND THAT ADAM PUTNAM PUT STOP TO LAKE OKEECHOBEE RELEASES

February 16, 2016  By Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster

 

Adam Putnam was met by a crowd of angry Treasure Coast residents during a stop in Martin County last week.

Putnam, the state’s agriculture commissioner, was greeted by protesters calling on the state and the Army Corps of Engineers to stop discharges from Lake Okeechobee into the Indian River Lagoon and the Caloosahatchee River. In a five-minute video uploaded to YouTube on Feb. 11, protesters could be heard shouting at Putnam as he makes his way through the crowd.

“We just want clean water,” a man is heard shouting.

“Why are they back pumping, why are they back pumping?” another person shouts.

Putnam is shown trying to talk to the crowd, but can barely be heard over their shouts.

Putnam was in Martin County on Thursday for a Economic Development Council of Martin County dinner. He was the featured speaker.

“I get it. I get why people are so upset,” he told WPBF 25.

Citing high lake levels, the Army Corps of Engineers began pumping water out of the lake on Jan. 30. The Corps further increased the flows on Feb. 5, saying the lake levels continued to rise.

According to WPBF 25, the Corps said in a media call Thursday it had no choice but to pump water out of the lake, saying if it didn’t pump now the water could breach the Herbert Hoover Dike and cause flooding when rainy season begins.

Lawmakers have called for action in recent weeks. Gov. Rick Scott last week called on the Corps to take swift action to stop the releases. On Monday, the Corps approved Scott’s request to deviate from its water control plan.

The deviation raises water levels in the L-29 canal, which runs along the north side of U.S. 41 between Water Conservation Area 3 and Everglades National Park.

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0119 reply : 

  On 2/17/2016 at 9:26 AM, FloridaFishinFool said:

 

“We just want clean water,” a man is heard shouting.

 

That clear brown tannic stained water is cleaner than the inshore waters of both the Atlantic and the stagnant gulf.  Sadly none of the folks/groups bellowing out in protest cares even one dingleberry about the environment. This is simply more northern money controlling our lives. Developers cannot sell if the news is telling heavy pocketed snowbirds that the water they are looking at is ugly.  That is the only thing fueling this.  10 billion gallons is not clogging the rivers, its flushing them.  Tests have proved pollutants are nill at most places and "within fed. guidelines" in the others.  Coastline nature is well within its ability to cope with the outflow, since its from one way or another, a natural occurring thing and esturine wildlife isnt showing up in mass at any local wildlife rehab centers.  Pictures of suffering wildlife has been determined to be deaths related to redtide which we have been suffering from in our area before the ouflow started.  Johnny Yankee has been swimming in that brown water for decades here in Charlotte harbor where brown is the 365 day a year color.  Johnny Rich Yankee in Ft. Myers beach can do the same thing......

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

I am curious then what you think of this claim from the above article:

"with a goal of relieving estuaries along the Southwest Florida coast of damaging freshwater discharges.

...Some Southwest Florida leaders have protested the discharges into the Caloosahatchee, arguing the flow that eventually gushes into the Gulf of Mexico endangers the delicate estuaries that survive on uniquely balanced brackish water."

When nearly pure fresh pours out into the gulf of Mexico and replaces the salt water with fresh, what happens to wildlife that is conditioned to living in salt water but now inundated with mostly freshwater?

This claim has nothing to do with dirty water. But is this claim valid? Does an inundation of fresh water as shown below kill or otherwise damage these natural habitats and wildlife?

I can see where a natural freshwater discharge would be diluted out over a longer period of time, but these water power dumps out of Okeechobee are massive and done all at once.

While I agree it does a fair amount of flushing, what does this massive outflow of freshwater do to the salt water habitat when released in such a large quantity so quickly?

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0119 reply : 

Estuaries by definition are the area where fresh and salt meet and intermingle. The entire Charlotte harbor is this Brown, tanning and fresh, 365 days a year. 

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bocabasser reply : 

http://www.news-press.com/story/news/2016/02/16/water-flowing-everglades-national-park-first-time-nearly-century/80448460/

not sure how they are going to solve the problem, but i wish they would work together and come up with a solution that serves all.

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

Letters Feb. 14: Water crisis

We can thank Governor Rick Scott for not doing anything about the beautiful brown water flowing throughout our Southwest Florida waterways.

He is happily spending the money elsewhere that 75 percent of Floridians voted to make a constitutional amendment to help clean up the pollution from the sugar industry that now flows directly into the Caloosahatchee River. I think our climate-change-denying governor doesn’t seem to care for two reasons:

The sugar industry, which will soon “self monitor” its own pollution, helped elect him and his mansion on the beach in Naples is far enough south where the nice brown stuff is out of sight. Maybe some dead fish will float down there. Remember the water when you get your high property tax bill as Rick doles out your tax dollars as incentives to businesses and other corporate welfare recipients who will most likely help him run for Senator. Incentives and corporate handouts that have not proven to produce any jobs here! What we need is another “Cornhole Rally for Tax Cuts,” promoting the myth that lowering taxes will magically create employment in Florida.

- Brad Turek, Cape Coral

•Many thanks for your coverage of this major beach-pollution problem in Southwest Florida. They certainly describe the pollution problem, however no local or federal officials have given a credible solution.

Most of their ideas involve using federal funds to build “temporary parking places” for this polluted water, after it starts its journey to us, following release from “Lake O.” But none of those deals with the original source of that pollution.

It is clear that this pollution is the nitrogen and phosphorus-laden water, which is “back-pumped” into Lake O by the sugar cane gGrowers. Therefore, what doesn’t the Corps of Engineers simply prohibit that from being done? It will then become the responsibility of the “polluters” to correct it.

Trying to “paper-over” the real cause is a true waste of time, and billions of our dollars.

- Dick Hasselman, Sanibel

•Polluted water fix: Instead of protecting privately owned US Sugar, use eminent domain and spend the $1.5 billion from the federal government and some state BP money to buy the land south of the lake. This is what we voted for in Amendment One, twice, to divert the flow of Okeechobee, not building a higher dike.

From senators Garrett Richter to Marco Rubio, we must demand they stop representing the minority interests of privately held US Sugar who corrupts politicians. It should be illegal to accept “gifts” from special interests. For politicians to represent the constituents who elected them they must fight for the rights of people to have clean water.

The Legislature continues an assault on clean water, from toxic Okeechobee sludge releases to denying local home rule the power to ban fracking. The politicians we elected also protect the big oil’s secret cocktail of chemicals being injected in our aquifers, too. We will soon have waters that are a dead zone, our sea life extinct and more lost limbs from the bacteria in these toxic coastal waters. Who do we hold accountable when the water is so polluted that our state has transformed from a pristine tourist destination to a toxic wasteland? Vote!

- Peter Crumpacker, Fort Myers Beach

•The solution to preventing polluted lake water discharge into the Caloosahatchee river, is to build a filtration plant at the discharge location sized to operate year round, with continuous cleaned water delivered to the river.

Recovered fertilizers and contaminants would be returned to the original source and local water users would pay fees to cover the plant operations.

Concerned Florida visitor.

- J. T. Nelson, Cape Coral

•As a long-time boater who has crossed Lake “O” several times and have studied the navigational chart of the lake, I observe that in the southeast quadrant of the lake there are four canals shown heading southeast. They are the W. Palm Beach Canal, the Hillsboro Canal, the North New River Canal and the Miami Canal.

I then went to Bing maps to verify the existence of these canals, and I what found on Bing was that only one on the navigational chart appears to be viable, the Miami Canal.

The point of all this is that if these canals are still operational, why are they not being used to assist in the lowering of Lake “O”? Does it not make sense that if they do empty somewhere on the east coast, should they not be used?

They may not be navigable, but if they can carry a substantial amount of water, why are they not mentioned as additional release venues?

On Bing maps, the Miami Canal appears to pass through a section of the Everglades, so why not use it to divert water out of the Lake not only into/through the Miami area but into the Everglades and then south. Is that not the goal, to replenish the Everglades and let it filter the water prior to natural release in Florida Bay?

Just some thoughts and questions that perhaps The News-Press might be interested in looking into as an additional solution to our severe water quality concerns.

- R. Bruce Longman, Cape Coral

•Re: Feb. 7, op-ed by Sanibel Mayor Kevin Ruane, “Heavy rains force need for more storage” and cartoon by Doug MacGregor.

Clearly, Mayor Ruane makes a great statement about the need for more water storage, and Doug MacGregor underlines the frustration of the folks of Southwest Florida with the Lake “O” releases.

Until the EAA Reservoir is built and functioning, we will have times when uncontrolled flow from the Hoover Dike will be mandatory for public safety. Now is the time to get a contract for the purchase of the 26,600 sugar acres urgently needed for the long planned Deep Water South EAA Reservoir! Once established, it will hold enough water to allow proper treatment prior to release to the Everglades and Florida Bay — which desperately needs it.

It seems that there is bipartisan support in Congress for action. Curt Clawson has been reported to have said “While we have seen recent, positive actions on the building of the C-43 Reservoir and related projects, the long-term solution for Southwest Florida is getting the water to flow south from Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades, after natural filtration.” In addition, Sen. Bill Nelson has announced that he’s helping lead a bipartisan group urging immediate authorization of anyEverglades restoration project ready to begin in the next five years. Clearly now is the time to work with the Federal folks.

However, I have just received a copy of the January 2016 Army Corps “South Florida Ecosystem Restoration (SFER) Program Overview.” But guess what? I cannot find the EAA Reservoir. It would appear the next to last item (No. 14) is the “Central Everglades Planning Project,” which would “Convey 200,000 acre-feet of water south from Lake Okeechobee” with a to date apparent federal investment of some $9.8 million. The construction date projected is “TBD,” so this is not in the next five-year plan as of now. Is this the EAA Reservoir?

This Army Corps reports this need to be in the “Planning Study” category. What do we need to do to move it into a today action category? We need this EAA Reservoir to be in the now and about to be constructed classification! Whom has the will to make that happen?

- David A. Urich, Life Member of Responsible Growth Management Coalition, Inc.

  On 2/18/2016 at 10:19 AM, bocabasser said:

http://www.news-press.com/story/news/2016/02/16/water-flowing-everglades-national-park-first-time-nearly-century/80448460/

not sure how they are going to solve the problem, but i wish they would work together and come up with a solution that serves all.

This is awesome news! Thanks for posting.

Before man screwed things up, water flowed South out of Lake O and down into the Everglades and right on off the tip of Florida.

This latest development is a step in that direction.

Apparently the heat from the people along both coasts of Florida have brought this new development into play because they do not want all this water diverted east and west into salt water brackish estuaries. Moving water South should have been brought into operation long before now to move water back down the natural flow path. It makes better sense than what we see now.

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topwaterrob reply : 

Everglades fishing is going to be a disaster for the next few months.....

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

 

 

 

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Mike L reply : 

  On 2/17/2016 at 8:38 PM, 119 said:

That clear brown tannic stained water is cleaner than the inshore waters of both the Atlantic and the stagnant gulf.  Sadly none of the folks/groups bellowing out in protest cares even one dingleberry about the environment. This is simply more northern money controlling our lives. Developers cannot sell if the news is telling heavy pocketed snowbirds that the water they are looking at is ugly.  That is the only thing fueling this.  10 billion gallons is not clogging the rivers, its flushing them.  Tests have proved pollutants are nill at most places and "within fed. guidelines" in the others.  Coastline nature is well within its ability to cope with the outflow, since its from one way or another, a natural occurring thing and esturine wildlife isnt showing up in mass at any local wildlife rehab centers.  Pictures of suffering wildlife has been determined to be deaths related to redtide which we have been suffering from in our area before the ouflow started.  Johnny Yankee has been swimming in that brown water for decades here in Charlotte harbor where brown is the 365 day a year color.  Johnny Rich Yankee in Ft. Myers beach can do the same thing......

DITTO!! 

I live 2 miles from Charlotte Harbor and have been for 37 yrs and 0119 is exactly right!

 These people just p*** me off!

 

Mike

 

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Florida Cracker2 reply : 

I will make another attempt to put things into perspective. You can go to USGS website, pull up a map of Florida, and see all the recording locations for waterflow in real time and you can also pull up a history graph. It's measured in cubic feet per second which is 7.48 gallons. During the time Lake O was releasing 44,880 gallons per second at Moore Haven Lock...and still is, the Peace River at Arcadia (pretty far upriver) was discharging about 30,000 gallons per second. Like I said in a previous post...little of all that fresh water originated from Lake O. Redirect it to the southern tip of Florida if you want...the water will still be fresh and brown. We had a couple fronts come through and dumped a lot of water on us and is flowing from multiple locations and multiple rivers, creeks, canals,...etc.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/fl/nwis/rt

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Rick Howard reply : 

I am confused.  If the water is polluted than why is anyone okay with letting it into the Everglades either?  I suppose it has to go somewhere.  Which leads me to the question which systems could better handle the excess.  

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

  On 2/19/2016 at 10:28 AM, Rick Howard said:

I am confused.  If the water is polluted than why is anyone okay with letting it into the Everglades either?  I suppose it has to go somewhere.  Which leads me to the question which systems could better handle the excess.  

To answer your question directly, I am of the opinion that the overflow from Lake O is drained out fastest through rivers to the east and west and directly into the gulf or Atlantic ocean. Let all those pollutants run out of Florida. It happens like this anyways all over Florida and every other state too.

Most of what we are talking about is surface pollution gathered up by rain picking it up, dissolving it, and carrying it into lakes and rivers. A lot of it is fertilizer chemicals, some sewage from millions of head of cattle all over Florida, some is from roads, from cars and trucks, fuel, oil, etc. washed into lakes and rivers.

Like you said it has to go somewhere. And rather than let it pile up and accumulate within the state, flushing it out of the state is probably the best for those of us who live in this state.

If you read this entire thread, you would have read that some ten billion gallons of run off polluted water was back pumped NORTH from down South and into Lake O causing water levels to rise, but as Florida Cracker posted it is also coming from all over the state and running off into lakes and rivers.

Back pumping it north into Lake O is not what any of us should want. It makes no sense to add to the pollution in that lake just to let it sit there and accumulate even more. It is best to not pump it in, in the first place. So back pumping is an issue that needs to be dealt with because of growing numbers of people who want that water to flow South through the state as Nature originally intended it which flushed out Florida Bay off the Southern tip of Florida and kept it cleaned out. But once man cut off that natural flow Florida Bay began to silt up and die.

So there are growing efforts to restore this natural flow- even if the water contains run off pollutants. The everglades itself was a natural filter for the water. The river of grass is where this water flowed through and it was filtered as it flowed South off the tip of Florida and into Florida Bay.

I am with you in that if all of this contaminated water was allowed to flow its natural path South, the river of grass would filter out those contaminants and they would possibly build up in the areas doing the filtering, so there another problem arises which is why I said above it might be best to just send all that water directly to the coast as fast as possible and get those pollutants out of the state. But it is not a good idea to dump them into the gulf or ocean, but we all gotta realize that is where most run off ends up anyways.

We are damned if we do and damned if we don't. And it just depends on which side of the fence you are on as to where someone would want all this water to go.

I personally don't want to see it back pumped into Lake O. I think this BS needs to stop. Let the water flow South as nature intended and see what comes of it.

As for Lake O, I think the levels should be maintained by the out flows east and west as well as South and try and balance it out and do so over a longer time period rather than let the water pile up to emergency status and then do power dumps. Try and let the water out slower over longer period of time rather than all at once as we saw here recently.

We need better water management, and big efforts towards restoring the natural water flow South, and I would hope a permanent end to back pumping north from down South.

This is how I see it anyways... and I am sure others see it differently...

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Rick Howard reply : 

I did read the entire thread, however, I was failing to understand that the water was being artificially being pumped into the lake then let out through the river systems.

The Everglades are better suited to deal with the excess then?

This is interesting to me and I'm not trying to me a smart @ss.  Even if it comes across that way in text. 

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

You're not coming across as a smarta** to me so no problem.

The everglades use to naturally handle all of the water from central Florida heading South through Lake O naturally anyways. But man claimed the land and drained it off into canal systems all over Florida and generally just messed things up!

I'd say yes, the everglades could handle all this water and much more as it once did naturally, but can it handle all the contaminants that come with it?

Today there are untold numbers of humans living on this land the water use to flow across. Would they be flooded out if the natural water flow South was restored?

This is why Lake O is apparently now caught in the middle and catching a lot of it, and as that happens someone has to make decisions on where to send it and we can see it is usually due east and west rather than South, but maybe things are changing now???

The first thing I would like to know is if the back pumping north to Lake O. can be stopped and all that water sent down through the everglades again?

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Rick Howard reply : 

Making more sense now.  I am curious to how this works out.  A real catch 22.  

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Master Bait'r reply : 

Kind of an ironic conundrum that if you're there to experience the negative effects of this, the fact that you can even live there is pretty much what caused it to begin with, no?  

 

Hope it all shakes out though   

 

 

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0119 reply : 

  On 2/19/2016 at 11:48 AM, Rick Howard said:

Making more sense now.  I am curious to how this works out.  A real catch 22.  

We can cry pollution we can cry we like a different color, we can over think the whole matter but no one is giving even one moment's thought for their fellow man. This isn't about pretty water. This isn't about Yankee dollars or sugar. Taken down to the simplest denominator it's ALL about protecting tens of thousands of homes from flooding. MORE IMPORTANT than my fishing, some yankees vacation or all the soapboxing the overthinking academics can spew for political and financial gain.

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buzzed bait reply : 

not to make light of the situation, but rather put it into perspective.  10 billion gallons sounds like a lot, sure, but the lake's capacity is 1 trillion gallons, so the 10 billion is .01% of the lake's capacity....  

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0119 reply : 

Or its just enough to burst and aged dike that's breached the dike a few times recently and suffers from decades of government disinterest in maintaining let alone repairing.

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Rick Howard reply : 

  On 2/20/2016 at 1:57 AM, 119 said:

Or its just enough to burst and aged dike that's breached the dike a few times recently and suffers from decades of government disinterest in maintaining let alone repairing.

This is what troubles me nation wide.  We can't fix anything until it becomes a problem.  Then when it becomes a problem we argue over what the problem is.  Then we can't agree on a solution.  Meanwhile things get worse and all new problems arise and/or the problem gets bigger starting the cycle over again.  Which is I think where this particular situation is now.  Neglected for too long.  Correct?

 

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0119 reply : 

Absolutely. Side effects of an entitlement minded generation developed out of a society fixated on political correctness and special lobbyist reactionary type governing.

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topwaterrob reply : 

In my opinion, It could be worse.  It could be drought conditions.  Mother nature and the Lake will get through this here.

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Buckeye Ron reply : 

As someone who is planning to move to SW Florida next year I am very,very interested in this subject and this thread is proving to be very educational for me. Speaking as an "outsider" I have long wondered about the long term impact of all the development and construction in Florida,and this thread goes a long way in detailing the impact.

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BassinLou reply : 

SouthFLBassHunter, and I went up to the South end of the Lake yesterday for a whole a day of fishing. The Lake was at 16.25ft. For some of you who familiarized with Slims, and launch from the 2 little ramps. You know that during normal water conditions you have climb the ladder from the dock up or down to your boat. Well... yesterday all I had to do from the bow of my boat is step up to the dock. 

On a side note... we were able to figure out what the fish were doing and landed 14 LMB... 

 

2nd note.... For those anglers that fish on US 27 between 75 and the Holeylands. The water levels are so bad that in some areas the water is feet from reaching 27. That's not good. 

 

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Mike L reply : 

  On 2/21/2016 at 10:04 PM, BassinLou said:

SouthFLBassHunter, and I went up to the South end of the Lake yesterday for a whole a day of fishing. The Lake was at 16.25ft. For some of you who familiarized with Slims, and launch from the 2 little ramps. You know that during normal water conditions you have climb the ladder from the dock up or down to your boat. Well... yesterday all I had to do from the bow of my boat is step up to the dock. 

 

 

Wow! 

That is truly shocking! I haven't been there in years. We usually don't go past So.Bay and was thinking about going into Pelican next weekend. 

 

Mike 

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0119 reply : 

  On 2/21/2016 at 9:20 AM, Buckeye Ron said:

As someone who is planning to move to SW Florida next year I am very,very interested in this subject and this thread is proving to be very educational for me. Speaking as an "outsider" I have long wondered about the long term impact of all the development and construction in Florida,and this thread goes a long way in detailing the impact.

Yeah we don't retire and stay here unless maybe your a golfer. 99% off the bass water in my county is now posted no trespassing. Don't even get me started about gun rights and how they have prohibited that here.  

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

It has gone national now, and when this happens, so to does the spin...

 

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

With tourist season just around the corner, Florida’s beach communities would normally be preparing for a happy, healthy summer. Instead, they’re reeling from polluted water that is likely to inflict severe damage to the local economy and environment.

Lake Okeechobee, a large inland lake in southern Florida, is experiencing its highest water levels in nearly a century due to heavy rains that fell during the month of January. This should not be suprising, because heavy rainfall events are increasing as the planet warms. But after water levels reached a foot above normal, public officials began to worry that the excess water was putting too much stress on the lake’s aging dike. Officials then made the decision to drain the lake out toward Florida’s coasts. There was one problem: Lake Okeechobee’s waters are toxic.

Local industry has long been using Okeechobee’s waters as a dumping ground for an assortment of chemicals, fertilizers, and cattle manure. David Guest, managing attorney of the Florida branch of the environmental law group Earthjustice, called the lake a “toilet.” While the pollution was once confined to the lake, it now flows toward Florida’s coastal communities via local rivers. The water, which is flowing out of the lake at 70,000 gallons per second, will soon pollute the ocean waters in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

This pollution has immediate consequences for southern Florida’s environment and economy. The untreated water contains toxic chemicals and fertilizers that are harmful to local flora and fauna, and the fertilizers and chemicals found in the water are known to cause algal blooms, which are known to poison shellfish and make life difficult for the marine food chain. Dawn Shirreffs, a senior policy adviser at the Everglades Foundation, told ThinkProgress that there have been reports of dead fish being found along the coastline. This is especially concerning since many species will migrate to Florida to seek comfortable water temperatures this time of year.

The local economy, much of which is driven by tourism, will also be negatively affected by the polluted lake water. In 2013, the last time a significant water discharge occurred in southern Florida, locals dubbed the season the “lost summer,” due to the downturn in tourism and beach-going as a result of the polluted coastal water. In 2015, FloridaRealtors, a trade organization representing the Florida real estate industry, commissioned a study assessing the impact of water pollution on home values in Martin County, Florida. The results were alarming. During the “lost summer,” aggregate real estate value fell half a billion dollars, as potential buyers were reluctant to buy or invest in property that was near water that was both toxic and objectively disgusting.

Furthermore, as sea levels rise, many Floridians are right now coping with coastal flooding even when it isn’t raining. Cities like West Palm Beach, which sits between the south of the lake and the Atlantic Ocean, have faced increased flooding due to higher sea levels. Adding polluted lake water to the mix makes this even more of a problem. It’s also a problem for the tens of thousands of sharks that would normally be farther south off the coast of Miami — but this year are off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale. They appear to be doing this because the water is warmer — which puts them closer to the polluted lake water.

Immediate solutions are hard to find. Unfortunately, given the immense pressure on the lake’s infrastructure due to the excess precipitation, there is no other option but to discharge the toxic water to the ocean. John Campbell, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the water could not be diverted south of the Everglades right now because Lake Okeechobee’s water levels are just too high.

Speaking to ThinkProgress, the Everglades Foundation elaborated on current efforts by local, state, and national officials to secure funding for new infrastructure that can help prevent this from occurring in the future. Current proposals include the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and the Central Everglades Project. Dawn Shirreff, of the Everglades Foundation, said these plans have high levels of support.

In the meantime, those affected by the lake discharge are raising awareness and taking action. Mayors and local officials are calling on Florida Governor Rick Scott to issue a state of emergency, and a delegation of mayors and activists traveled to Capitol Hill on Monday to ask federal lawmakers for help. Last Friday, Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) toured Lake Okeechobee with water experts and the Lt. Colonel of the Army Corps. of Engineers. Nelson said the lake discharge was “idiotic,” and is currently working on getting bipartisan support for funding to remedy the situation. Tourists and locals are posting pictures of the dirty water on social media, hoping to raise awareness, and a local activist group called “River Kidz” organized a protest along the St. Lucie River on Sunday.

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FloridaFishinFool reply : 

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Florida Cracker2 reply : 

I've seen manatees do this for years. They see something high on the bank and will climb up and eat it. I've seen them eat entire clumps of weeds growing on the rocks along the bank of my property. This is becoming a real fiasco. Common sense is a thing of the past.

 

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0119 reply : 

Yeah and now Wink News is slamming the C.O.E. for choosing to protect the rare endangered Cara Cara over the rights of Johnny Yankee to LOOK at non brown water.  They reported boat sales are crashing and Betty Snowbird wont let her hubby Elmer take his boat out in the toxic sludge. SO now he wont trade his great lakes boat in for bay boat and dealers are going under left and right. Bull$&*! This entire ordeal is just like Kevin Spacey was quoted as saying the other day. When you make news into entertainment, its no longer news, its make believe.

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GLADES reply : 

The excess flood waters from the sugar fields and other agricultural should be contained on the farm property until it has been cleaned in their own marshes.

It is their problem and they should foot the bill and not dump it onto state and public canals.

Big sugar has been sending its fertilizer water into the lake during the wet years since the lake was constructed.

They also pull the needed water  from the lake for irrigation during drought years at the expense of the need for some outflow east, south, and west.

IMHO, the agricultural farms south of the lake should all be closed and the natural north to south marsh flood plain flow should be restored.

The establishment and political favors will never allow it. This has been kicked around for 40 years and nothing has changed.

 

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