By Mark Perry, Florida Oceanographic Society
October 2, 2016
TC Palm
Mark Perry, Executive Director
Florida Oceanographic Society
We are now at 247 days of constant discharges from Lake Okeechobee, totaling more than 216 billion gallons into the St. Lucie Estuary and southern Indian River Lagoon.
More than 400 billion gallons have gone to the Caloosahatchee River Estuary from the lake during this same period. The destruction to the environment and the economies in these coastal communities has been devastating, including threats to human health from contact with the waters.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported inflows to the lake of 909 billion gallons since January and, even with record rainfall on the lake of 528 billion gallons, an almost equal amount — 580 billion gallons —left via evaporation and seepage.
So how much water from the lake went south to the Everglades? Only about 12 percent of the outflow, or 160 billion gallons. Both the Army Corps and the South Florida Water Management District stated sending water south from the lake in 2016 has been limited by high rainfall in the water conservation areas. These areas are in and south of the 700,000 Everglades Protection Area (about 480,000 acres of which is sugar cane farms).
To continue reading this column, please click on the link:
http://www.tcpalm.com/story/opinion/contributors/2016/10/02/guest-column-water-lake-o-must-go-south/91290660/