By Isadora Rangel
January 25, 2017
TC Palm
A bill to curb Lake Okeechobee discharges is expected to be filed Thursday, but large landowners and environmental groups continue to clash over whose science is best to achieve that goal.
The bill, a priority of Senate President Joe Negron, will propose storing water in a reservoir south of the lake, said his spokeswoman, Katie Betta. That’s despite the sugar industry and large landowners arguing up to the last minute that storage north of the lake will yield more results.
That clash of ideas was evident during a Wednesday state Senate hearing on the issue.
Negron, R-Stuart, said last year he wanted the state and federal government to go 50/50 to buy 60,000 acres south of the lake, build a reservoir for $2.4 billion and send the water south. A southern reservoir was part of a plan Congress passed in 2000, and Negron wants to move the planning for it from 2021 but the South Florida Water Management District has been reluctant to do so.
Tom Van Lent of the Everglades Foundation, the main group pushing Negron’s proposal, said the answer to alleviate the impact discharges have on the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers is clear.
“There’s broad scientific consensus that storage south of the lake is critical,” said Van Lent, a civil engineer who holds a doctorate and has been working on South Florida water issues for 35 years.
Van Lent said a reservoir south of Lake O also would reduce discharges by 50 percent versus 6 percent from a northern reservoir while directing much-needed water south into Florida Bay. His research is at the epicenter of a feud between the Everglades Foundation and the South Florida Water Management District, which wrote a letter saying he’s using “irresponsible science” to make the case to send water south.
Van Lent said he stands by his research, which looked at southern and northern reservoirs in planned restoration projects and used scientific simulations to see which one would work best.
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