With the last three weeks being rather dry I was surprised to read that water from Lake Okeechobee is still being dumped into the St.Lucie River. Apparently things have changed at the Army Corps of Engineers.
Chief of Engineering for the Corps, Steve Duba stated on September 2 in an interview with the TCPalm Newspaper “The lake is at 14.6 feet (as of Tuesday) which is well within its normal operating range,” We prefer to operate the lake between 12.5 feet and 15.5 feet.”
Today it was reported that the Corps will release more water to drop the Lake to its minimum operating range of 12.5 feet. Below is an Article written today on WPTV.com:
OKEECHOBEE, FL — To ensure “public health and safety,” the Army Corps of Engineers plans to continue indefinitely the “low-volume” releases from Lake Okeechobee, a practice local environmentalists say is neither safe nor healthy for the St. Lucie Estuary.
After a series of high-volume “pulse” releases following Tropical Storm Fay, in mid-October the Corps began a low-volume release designed to stay in effect until the lake reaches 12 1/2 feet. It’s now about 14 feet.
The “low-volume” release is 200 cubic feet of water per second, or about 129 million gallons of water per day. By comparison, the 63,000-plus customers of the Port St. Lucie Utility Systems Department used an average of 12.9 million gallons of water per day so far this month.
“The main reason (for continuing the releases) is public health and safety because of issues with the dike,” said Luis Alejandro, the Corps’ manager for Lake Okeechobee and the Kissimmee River basin. “Lowering the lake level slowly now also will reduce the need high-volume releases in emergencies.”
Brad Tarr, a senior marine biologist with the Corps, said the estuary, which lost almost all its salinity following the influx of fresh water from Fay and the pulse releases from Lake O, is returning to the normal salinity level needed to support marine life found in brackish water.
“The water nearest the tidal exchange (where it’s flushed by the incoming and outgoing tides) is in the good range, 12 to 14 parts per thousand,” Tarr said. “Farther in the interior, it’s more like 5 or 6 parts per thousand, which is survivable. If we stay on the current course (of low-volume releases), we should see the salinity have a gradual climb back to optimal salinity.”
Henry Caimotto, owner of the Snook Nook bait shop and board member of the River’s Coalition, said lots of pompano, a fish that needs salinity, can be found near the St. Lucie Inlet, where tides bring in salt water.
“You’ll see a few pompano around the Roosevelt Bridge (below the merging point of the north and south forks of the St. Lucie River) and a few up in the North Fork,” he said. “But you won’t find any pompano in the South Fork, where the water from the lake comes in. … (The Corps isn’t) doing us any favors putting someone else’s water in our backyard.”
Mark Perry, director of the Stuart-based Florida Oceanographic Society, disputes the Corps’ contention that the releases will lower Lake Okeechobee enough to offset the damage they do to the St. Lucie estuary.
“It’s a fallacy to think these (low-volume) releases are lowering the lake,” Perry said. “The only things that are going to lower the lake are the natural forces of evaporation and the dry season. And it’s also a fallacy to think that these low-volume releases will prevent high-volume releases in the future. If we get the rain, the lake’s going to rise. And if it rises, (the Corps) is going to release water, a lot of water.
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The lake walks a fine line. All it takes is a foot or two in the wrong direction for it to slump into drought or rise into flood. When Fay jumped Lake level 4 feet almost instantly (2-3 weeks) to 15 ft, everyone assumed it was on its way to another chart topping year (like 2005), but that proved to be its high water point. The Lake never ceases to surprise.
Thanks for your Comment. Its nice to get feedback from the West Coast of Florida. I also really enjoyed reading your Blog: http://sfwj.blogspot.com, especially the Cowhorn Orchid post and the Big Cypress Photos. It will take me a little longer to digest all your charts. I often focus on Lake O’s impact on our eastern shore but it really hits home when you can see Lake O’s impact on the Gulf Coast combined with the impact from the Mississippi River.
Thanks,
Bart-OSR