Lake Okeechobee discharges to St. Lucie River were 30 percent more than Army Corps reported
By Tyler Treadway
January 25, 2018
TC Palm
The 2017 Lake Okeechobee discharges were worse than we thought.
The South Florida Water Management District released figures Wednesday to TCPalm showing discharges to the St. Lucie River totaled 192 billion gallons.
That’s 58 billion gallons more than the Army Corps of Engineers reported when the discharges, which started in mid-September, ended early Dec. 28.
The extra volume moves the 2017 discharges from the 12th largest to the ninth largest since 1965, the date the water district uses to start comparisons of water flow into the St. Lucie River.
The 2017 discharges now surpass the “Lost Summer” discharges of 2013, which dumped 136.4 billion gallons into the St. Lucie.
The Corps also reported discharges to the Caloosahatchee River totaled 347 billion gallons; the district’s total is 397 billion gallons, an additional 50 billion gallons.
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