Repairs to leaky lake dike drag on
Florida’s $50M may not speed up Okeechobee work
A $50 million flood of taxpayer money meant to speed up repairs of Lake Okeechobee’s leaky dike may shave only a few years off the slow-moving fixes.
To guard against South Florida flooding, the Florida Legislature this month approved the money to help the federal government reinforce the 30-foot-tall mound of rock, shell and sand that holds back lake waters.
Fixing the 143-mile-long dike also is billed as a way to store more water in the lake. That could reduce draining to the coast that fuels toxic algae blooms, which scare away fish and tourists alike.
The problem is, it’s expected to cost nearly $1 billion to finish strengthening the lake’s erosion-prone dike — with construction lasting until 2025.
Even with the state’s $50 million contribution, federal officials say itwould also require doubling the amount Congress has been paying each year just to get fin--
ished a few years sooner. And it remains to be seen whether Congress would deliver that money.
Congress would need to pay about $200 million a year, according to the Army Corps of Engineers, which leads the dike repair.
Each new hurricane season brings growing flooding concerns for lakeside communities waiting for dike repairs to be finished, Belle Glade Mayor Steve Wilson said.
“If the dike doesn’t get repaired, these [lakeside] communities could get devastated,” Wilson said. “Every year we are having storms. ... We don’t want a repeat of what happened in New Orleans.”
Flooding from the lake following hurricanes in 1926 and 1928 swamped South Florida, killing more than 3,000 people and prompting construction of the dike.
Now, the more than 70-year-old dike is considered one of the country’s most at risk of failing — raising renewed flooding fears for communities south of the lake.
Palm Beach County leaders for years have implored the federal government to send more money south to speed dike repairs.
Gov. Rick Scott, who this month pushed the Legislature for as much as $200 million in state funding for the dike, still blames President Obama’s administration for not doing more to fix the dike faster. In April, Scott trumpeted getting a commitment from President Trump to complete the repairs.
“While I called on President Obama multiple times throughout his administration to step up and fulfill the federal government’s funding commitment to fixing the dike, it never happened,” Scott said in April.
But it’s Congress — controlled by Scott’s fellow Republicans — that decides howmuch money each year goes toward Lake Okeechobee’s dike rehab.
That funding has been pretty consistent, whether it has been Trump, Obama or President George W. Bush in office, according to the Army Corps.
During the past five years, congressional funding for Lake Okeechobee’s dike has averaged about $90 million a year, according to the Army Corps.
“There’s been little change between [presidential] administrations,” Army Corps spokesman John Campbell said about Lake Okeechobee dike repair funding. “Congress and the president have supported the rehab effort.”
Since 2001, the federal government has invested about $870 million in reinforcing Lake Okeechobee’s dike.
The Army Corps has already built a 21-mile-longwall through the middle of the dike along the southeastern portion of the lake, from Port Mayaca to Belle Glade.
The wall, which reaches as far as 70 feet deep, is intended to reduce water seeping through the earthen dike in order to avoid erosion that can lead to a breach.
The Army Corps is in the midst of replacing 28 of 32 lake culverts, fortifying more areas where the movement of water makes the dike vulnerable to failing.
The next step calls for building about 35 more miles of wall within the dike along the southern and southeastern portions of the lake — reaching from Belle Glade to Lakeport.
Work to fix Lake Okeechobee’s dike has been slowed through the years by design problems and construction delays as well as limits on federal funding.
Other dikes and levees across the country are also vying for federal funding.
About 20 to 25 percent of the federal money spent each year on flood-control repairs goes to Lake Okeechobee’s dike, according to the Army Corps.
“Acceleration of [the dike] rehabilitation is certainly something that has been on the minds of a lot of politicians,” Campbell said. “We are very cognizant of that.”
The state’s extra money for Lake Okeechobee dike repairs came along with approval of a $1.5 billion proposal to team with the federal government to build a reservoir south of the lake. That reservoir could hold water that would otherwise get drained out to sea to avoid flooding South Florida.
Those lake discharges to the east and west coasts have been blamed for toxic algae outbreaks like those that last summer coated waters near Stuart with a foul-smelling green ooze, making waterways unsafe for swimming and fishing.
State money to expedite dike repairs, along with building a reservoir that creates a new outlet for lake water, will “help our efforts to reduce, and one day eliminate, the harmful discharges from Lake Okeechobee,” state Senate President Joe Negron said. He represents Stuart and pushed for the reservoir.
For the reservoir to proceed, Congress would have to agree to pay half the tab. That’s at the same time that Congress is being asked to boost funding for Lake Okeechobee’s dike to go along with the state’s $50 million.
“How much $50 million is really going to help will depend on ... Congress,” said Mark Perry, of the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart. “They really need to fix this.”