Inspections: Lake Okeechobee dike sound

CLEWISTON — For the thousands of Floridians who live in the shadow of the 80-year-old dike that surrounds Lake Okeechobee, there is always a back-ofthe-mind fear that the earthen barrier might fail — a twitch that gets ticked up a notch when its water level reaches near-record levels like now.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the Herbert Hoover Dike, said Thursday that recent daily inspections show that while there is some increased seepage as the water level now exceeds 17 feet, the barrier’s integrity has not been compromised.

The lake’s water level seems to have finally stabilized five weeks after Hurricane Irma dumped heavy rains as it raked across Florida, causing a 3.5 foot increase in the lake.

The record water level is 18.5 feet.

The corps has been releasing lake water through canals into the state’s Atlantic and Gulf coasts to keep the levels under control and reduce the chance of failure of the 40-foot high berm, which is 142 miles.

It was built in the 1930s using sand, rocks, limestone, clay and peat that came from local dredging. Little compaction was done. Almur Whiting, the corps’ regional dam safety officer, said if the dike were built today, better material would have been used and it would have been packed tighter.

He showed a group of reporters Thursday what inspectors look for.

While there has been seepage and even some flowing water coming through the dike, the water has not been carrying material from inside the barrier. That would be a sign of possible weakening, he said.

The corps is halfway through a $1.7 billion renovation program, which is scheduled for completion in 2025.

There is a push to complete the project by 2022 but that would require increased spending of $200 million annually, up from the $50 million to $150 million that’s been budgeted annually over the last decade.

Part of the renovation includes installing barriers within the berms to slow the seepage.

Okeechobee is the second-largest natural freshwater lake in the continental U.S., covering 730 square miles about 40 miles west of Palm Beach.

The biggest concern with the high water level would be a lateseason tropical storm like Hurricane Wilma, which struck South Florida on Oct. 24, 2005.

Besides adding feet of water to the lake — the added weight would put additional pressure on the dike.

A storm that passed directly overhead also could cause the water to slosh from one side to the other like in a bathtub.

That could cause the dike fail.

“Any hurricane, storm or tropical system, even unnamed, has the potential dump enough rain to continue to cause us problems,” said John Campbell, a corps spokesman.

There are no tropical systems in the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico.

An earlier state-built, smaller dike failed on the lake’s southern edge during hurricanes in 1926 and 1928.

The resulting flash floods crashed through the surrounding towns, killing 300 people the first time and more than 2,500 the second. to