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Corps of Engineers to start releasing Lake Okeechobee water
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BONITA SPRINGS — At 7 a.m. Thursday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will start pulse releases averaging 4,000 cubic feet per second for the next 11 days.
Lake Okeechobee’s water level reached 14.68 feet Wednesday. Water managers for the Corps said the releases will not lower the lake, but could slow its rise.
“It’d be nice to be breaking even by the end of the pulse release,” said John Zediak, chief of the Corps of Engineers Jacksonville district water management section.
If any of the storms lined up across the Atlantic hits the basin, however, the pulse releases could end in favor of larger ones.
“What the storm brings is really the indicator of what we’ll try to do,” Zediak said.
The releases are only about a third of what came down the Caloosahatchee River from the lake in 2005 and 2006, when nutrient-laden water from the lake meant dead seagrasses and severe red tides for coastal areas.
“Having lake releases isn’t going to help the water quality of the river or the estuary,” said Rae Ann Wessel, natural resources policy director for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation. “The lake is lower, and these are relatively smaller releases than some. Hopefully that’ll lessen the impact. However, it’s still going to have an impact.”
Both the lake and the river are suffering from too much water from Tropical Storm Fay. In fact, the lake rose by nearly three feet in a week, its fastest rise ever. The Caloosahatchee was flowing at a rate of more than 12,000 cubic feet per second a few days ago, but had fallen to just over 5,000 on Wednesday.
“The estuaries have been receiving water since Fay came ashore,” Zediak said. “Too much water.”
The river should flow between 2,500 and 4,500 cubic feet per second. Wessel said thinking of that range is dangerous, because dirty water can damage the river at 2,500. Turbid water blocks light from reaching the depths and chokes off oxygen, she said.
“In the 25-foot deep channel, the bottom levels become oxygen depleted,” she said.
Zediak said he didn’t yet know what the peak flows might be in the next 11 days, but the average will be 4,000 cubic feet per second. That’s enough to fill 4,000 Olympic swimming polls every day.
The Caloosahatchee won’t be the only water body affected. The St. Lucie Canal east of the lake will be receiving discharges of 1,800 cubic feet per second.
“We’re also looking at the future,” said Zediak. “What the storms may bring us and where we are in hurricane season. If things change drastically, if Hanna veered and came up the center of the state, it may cause us to suspend the pulse releases.”
That likely would be in favor of bigger releases. The district released as much as 9,800 cubic feet per second in 2006.
These releases are the first for purposes of flood control since April 2006. There have been smaller environmental releases.
Wessel said the releases only underscore the dire need for more water storage.
“We really need to look at the South Florida Water Management District and the Corps to expedite those opportunities, like the U.S. Sugar deal,” she said. “That’s going to be critical.”
The deal is also years away, or perhaps even decades. In the meantime, water was being pumped back into the lake from at least one Everglades Agricultural Area this week.
The releases are expected to begin at 7 a.m. They would continue through next Sunday.
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Red Tide, here we come!!!There has to be another solution to the problem we created... I just hope it comes soon..
#1 Posted by theabyss on September 3, 2008 at 8:34 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I just hope all that released water won't end up in our already flooded yards here in the Estates.
#2 Posted by EstatesDweller on September 3, 2008 at 9:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Let the levee break by holding all the water. After all ask not what you can do for your country but what your country can do for you.
Once that 18 feet of water come busting across south Florida, red tide won't even seem to be a problem. And look at all the free handouts we will get from the government.
#3 Posted by swampbuggy on September 3, 2008 at 10:56 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Geez Dixie, why haven't you advised the scientists of that. You are right it is not caused by man, we only compound the problem. Just watch the next few weeks then report back.
#4 Posted by theabyss on September 4, 2008 at 12:14 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Saying Red Tide isn't caused by man is playing the role of a shill for the sugar industry. The statement is literally true but in that context cannot stand on its own without being intentionally misleading.
The algae bloom is in fact a natural response: to excessive levels of nitrogen in the water.
The proximate cause of which IS man.
#5 Posted by bsdetector on September 4, 2008 at 7:11 a.m. (Suggest removal)
YES THIS WATER WILL COME INTO NEIGHBORHOOD.
It is the only answer. If the water doesn't get released the levee will bust
OR
Orlando will start to get sinkholes.
And that will not happen
#6 Posted by GGunderwater on September 4, 2008 at 9:16 a.m. (Suggest removal)
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