Who will win this battle for clean water?
U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, has proposed lowering the water level of Lake Okeechobee to 10.5 feet above sea level during the early summer rainy season. The proposal seeks to lessen the harmful discharges that have created toxic algae blooms in Martin County to the lake’s east and Lee County to the west.
South Florida officials believe this proposal is “horribly dangerous,” as Broward Commissioner Steve Geller put it.
The lake serves as South Florida’s backup water supply. They fear even a short-term lowering of the lake from the current recommended range of 12.5 to 15.5 feet would create a host of problems, including well field damage, inability to deliver fresh water, crop destruction and restrictions on water use.
Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay called the proposal a “complete disregard for Palm Beach County and our water resources here.”
“What’s being proposed now will impact 6 million residents,” the population of Palm Beach, Broward and Miami-Dade counties, she said. “We’re cleaning up our mess, and the last thing I want to have happen in this county is we have to clean up someone else’s mess because their local community won’t clean it up.”
But a Mast spokesman said county officials are fomenting panic while Mast is taking a reasoned approach.
“Every few years, the ecology of the lake benefits from a temporary reduction in lake levels below 11 feet,” deputy chief of staff Brad Stewart said in an email. “This year a 10.5 foot lake level at the end of dry season [approximately May 15 to June 1, 2019] would be a win-win: It would likely prevent devastating discharges to the estuaries — with associated benefits to public health, the economy and the environment — while also benefiting the ecology of the lake.”
The lake serves as a backup water supply to South Florida’s cities, which mostly depend on underground aquifers, in case of drought.
In 2011, the lake dipped below 10 feet, forcing water restrictions in West Palm Beach and the town of Palm Beach.
Mast’s recommendation arrives as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is taking a new look at Lake Okeechobee’s water levels, part of a review of its 2008 lake operating manual. The analysis isn’t expected to be completed until 2022.
Heavy summer rains have triggered discharges of the lake’s water into rivers to the west and east to reduce pressure on the lake’s aging Herbert Hoover Dike, designed to protect Glades communities from massive floods.
An engineering report referred to the ailing dike, built in the 1940s, as “a grave and imminent danger to the people and environment of South Florida.”
The discharges have caused an environmental crisis in the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries.
Toxic blue-green algae, created from urban stormwater and septic tank and agricultural runoff, ruined fishing, harmed wildlife and drove away tourists. This is a separate problem from the red tide that killed manatees, turtles and birds last summer in southwest Florida.
Releasing lake water to the south poses its own environmental and financial risks. Deer, wading birds and other Everglades animals could suffer harm. Drinking water access also could be affected: There could be insufficient water to head southbound to feed South Florida’s crops and municipal water supplies.
“If it doesn’t rain, the lake will start drying up at 10.5 feet,” said Geller, chairman of Broward’s Water Advisory Board. “That could have a devastating effect on the economy,” especially in western Palm Beach County, which relies on the lake for fishing and tourism.
Problems with the lake’s water levels have been brewing for years. The Army Corps tries to keep its level low during hurricane season, because a powerful storm can send water into the lake much faster than the agency can move it out, forcing the dumping of water into the estuaries that has proven harmful to wildlife.
Hurricane Irma in 2017 brought the water level above 17 feet, which killed much of the lake’s vegetation and reduced the supply of food to its marine life.
The lake’s frequent swelling due to weather patterns has forced Mast to think hard about how to relieve waterways of the toxic goop, Stewart said.
“The way it has been operated for the last decade has resulted in real, serious adversity to the communities east and west of the lake which have had discharges nearly every year because the lake is being kept too high,” he said. “That’s very different from the kind of hypothetical adversity that some people are now trying to use to drive a wedge by parading out a list of horrible things that they believe might happen if the lake were to drop into drought levels, which to be clear, nobody is advocating for.”
Lisa Interlandi, executive director of the Everglades Law Center, wants everyone to calm down. She said the lake level is not the only issue affecting South Florida’s water quality. More research is needed into timing of the lake’s water releases and who has priority as the water quality is affected: Residents? Businesses? Agriculture? Tourism? The Environment?
“Every entity is connected to Lake Okeechobee,” she said. “The way we’ve been managing the system hasn’t been working for the majority of people. It’s the single most complicated and contentious issue in the Everglades.”
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