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Lake Okeechobee is in rough shape; the water level remains above 16 feet, submerged aquatic vegetation has died off and the lake ecology is suffering. Unfortunately, it appears the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is looking to solve this problem by creating another.
At the Rivers Coalition meeting in Stuart Thursday, Maj. Cory Bell said the Army Corps' new commander, Col. Brandon Bowman, has recommended initiating "Recovery Operations" on Dec. 7, discharging water east and west in an attempt to bring the lake down to 12 feet for 90 consecutive days (or to 11.5 feet for 60 days).
The Caloosahatchee would get 2,100 cubic feet of water per second (cfs); that’s not much more than the 2,000 cfs the Caloosahatchee is already getting, a level the estuary sometimes needs during the dry season to maintain salinity levels. But the river currently isn't in great shape — and more water from the lake won't help.
Then there's the St. Lucie, which needs no water from the lake, but will get up to 1,400 cfs under the Recovery plan, which includes both lake water and local basin runoff. That's bad news for an estuary that's been struggling with poor water quality due to runoff alone in recent months.
And, there's no guarantee that these discharges will succeed in taking the lake down to where the Corps wants it — 12 feet for 90 consecutive days, or 11.5 feet for 60 days. And if we don't reach those milestones? We're saddling the estuaries with a lot of pain — for little gain.
We've got lots more on the possibilities and impacts in our full report at VoteWater.org — check it out.
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