By Tyler Treadway
November 19, 2017
TC Palm
Sometime Saturday, the 100 billionth gallon of water discharged from Lake Okeechobee since mid-September poured into the St. Lucie River.
To put that in perspective:
- The current round of discharges becomes the 13th largest since 1965.
- By comparison, discharges during the “Lost Summer” of 2013 totaled 136.4 billion gallons, and discharges in 2016, when toxic algae blooms blanketed much of the St. Lucie River estuary, totaled 237 billion gallons.
With 100 billion gallons of water, you could:
- Supply Port St. Lucie for nearly 17 years. (The city uses about 16.1 million gallons a day.)
- Cover Stuart with 56 feet of it.
And there’s no end to the discharges in sight.
To continue reading, click here: http://www.tcpalm.com/story/news/local/indian-river-lagoon/health/2017/11/19/lake-okeechobee-discharges-st-lucie-river-indian-river-lagoon-top-100-billion-gallons/857984001/