As 2017 comes to a close, and Florida is finally able to say goodbye to a devastating hurricane season, the lasting impacts of Hurricane Irma still haunt south Florida water management.
Since Irma, the Army Corps of Engineers has been issuing periodic releases from Lake Okeechobee, in an effort to alleviate precarious water levels at the lake. According to Army Corps spokesperson John Campbell, the releases have been effective, and are currently being phased out. “We’ve seen very nice recession over this past month,” says Campbell. “Our concern is that (the water level) is still high, not just for this time of year, but in general. In the past, when we’ve been at these levels in late December, we’ve had to do releases in the first six months of the following year.”
Soon after the storm, pulse releases into the St. Lucie canal were flowing at about 4,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), and by last week they had been reduced to around 500 cfs. The Corps expects to cut off releases into the canal entirely by the end of the year.
After Irma, the lake’s elevation stood at 17.2 feet above sea level, the highest December record since 2004. Typically when the lake gets that high, dike seepage becomes a major concern for management officials.
Campbell says that since September, regular inspections have discovered no evidence of dike failure. Though with the current level at about 15.5 feet, the Corps can hardly rest easy. It would much rather see the lake at 12.5 feet. In order to remove just 1 inch of height from the massive body of water, billions of gallons must be drained.
In 2012, 2014 and 2015, the lake level was also high in December. Consequently, in January 2013 and 2016, maximal releases (at 4,000 cfs and greater) helped contribute to disastrous toxic algae outbreaks all over the St. Lucie waterway, having a deep impact on local economies and quality of health in the Treasure Coast.
The lake levels are only one of the many factors that plague the Okeechobee waterway. Decades of irrigation and agricultural development and an elaborate flood control system have nearly destroyed the natural habitat of the Everglades, overturned Florida Bay’s delicate ecological balance, led to high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen in the lake, and thrown South Florida Water Management headlong into a perennial cycle of crisis.
The general consensus among many scientists and activists is that better infrastructure is needed to store and treat stormwater runoff and convey it southward through the River of Grass. Currently, a combination of diminished conveyance capacity throughout the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) and interfering private-owned land have prevented expedited movement on this plan.
To move the water southward would constitute a major infrastructural overhaul and a complicated campaign of land-acquisition.
Moving the water south is a major component of CEPP (Central Everglades Planning Project), a prioritized schedule for Everglades restoration which was approved by Congress in December 2016. Since then, a few national and local politicians have sought to expedite the timeline on CEPP, since it is such a massive suite of programs, with many moving parts and much logistical red tape.
A major victory occurred this year with Senate Bill 10, a comprehensive directive championed by Florida Senate President Joe Negron (R-Stuart) and signed into law by the governor in May. One of the core components of the bill is to deepen one of South Florida Water Management District’s (SFWMD) water features south of the lake, a 14,000 acre FEB (Flow Equalization Basin), as well as acquire additional land for water storage and treatment through lease terminations and negotiations.
The ultimate goal is to provide 240,000 acre-feet of storage, which would drastically reduce the billions of gallons of water that right now are being released in emergency measures from Lake Okeechobee.
Movement on Senate Bill 10’s directive is still in its embryonic stage, most of the energy now being devoted to implementation approvals from the Army Corps of Engineers and contacting land-owners who may be interested in selling parcels to the district. In January, the SFWMD will need to present a detailed plan for reservoir construction to the state Senate.
Story by: Adam Laten Willson, correspondent
