By Andy Reid
September 15, 2016
Sun Sentinel
More Lake Okeechobee draining is planned to lessen South Florida flooding risks, despite concerns about fueling toxic algae blooms in Stuart and other coastal communities.
Lake Okeechobee’s rising waters, boosted by recent rains, threaten to erode and burst through the lake’s troubled dike — considered one of the country’s most at risk of failing.
To guard against flooding, officials try to keep the lake between 12.5 and 15.5 feet above sea level. On Thursday, the lake rose to 15.36 feet and it’s expected to near the top end of that range next week.
To help stem those rising waters, an 80 percent spike in draining lake water east toward Stuart was announced Thursday by the Army Corps of Engineers.
While that draining eases South Florida’s flooding risks, it dumps more polluted lake water into coastal communities that have already been struggling with pollution-fueled toxic algae blooms. That foul-smelling, bright green algae can kill marine life, scare away tourists and pose a public safety risk.
“We recognize the concerns about algae blooms,” Army Corps spokesman Mark Ray said. “The Corps must balance the safety of people living and working around Lake Okeechobee with the environmental concerns presented by water releases.”
The latest round of lake draining will mean discharging up to 756 million gallons of lake water a day to the east through the St. Lucie River toward Stuart.
The Army Corps also plans to continue draining up to 1.8 billion gallons of lake water per day to the west through the Caloosahatchee River toward Fort Myers.
Combined, that’s enough lake water to fill nearly 4,000 Olympic-size swimming pools each day.
Heavier than usual rains during the winter and spring followed by the usual summer storm season have boosted water levels from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades. To ease flood control threats, the Army Corps since January has been draining billions of gallons of Lake Okeechobee water each day to the east and west.
Phosphorus and other pollutants, which wash off farmland and urban areas and drain into the lake, get discharged toward the coasts during lake draining.
The flush of freshwater from the lake hurts the ecology in the normally salty estuaries and the influx of pollution that it brings can worsen algae blooms — which make waterways unsafe for fishing and swimming.
That’s trouble for the environment and the economies of coastal communities dependent on tourism.
“We are still having reduced tourism. Businesses are really hurting,” said Charles Grande, of the Stuart-based Rivers Coalition advocacy group. “This increase [in lake draining] is not going to help.”
South Florida remains in the peak of hurricane season and even if a storm doesn’t hit, the lake level is on pace to top 16 feet by November, according to the Army Corps.
Lake Okeechobee’s dike is a 143-mile long, 30-foot-tall mound of rock, shell and sand. It is relied on to hold back waters that — before South Florida’s farming and development got in the way — once naturally flowed south and replenished the Everglades.
Lake Okeechobee’s dike remains in the midst of a decades-long rehab, which has already cost $500 million since 2007.
The Army Corps in August finalized a proposal to spend another $830 million to finish strengthening the dike by 2025.
Copyright © 2016, Sun Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-lake-okeechobee-draining-spike-20160915-story.html