Emergency pumping ends; pollution fears rise

Emergency pumping into Lake Okeechobee has ended, lessening South Florida flooding risks but creating a water pollution threat that could eventually spread to coastal waters.

Concerns about rising waters in western Broward and Miami-Dade counties last month triggered emergency pumping south into Everglades National Park as well as north into Lake Okeechobee.

The draining to the south continues, while water levels have dropped enough to stop the pumping into Lake Okeechobee, according to the South Florida Water Management District.

About 9.4 billion gallons of potentially polluted water were pumped from a reservoir in southwestern Palm Beach County into Lake Okeechobee from June 24 through Wednesday.

That’s enough water to fill more than 14,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, or meet Fort Lauderdale’s public water supply needs for more than six months.

While the emergency pumping helped reduce rising Everglades waters in western Broward and Miami-Dade counties, it also risked sending fertilizers and other pollutants that wash off South Florida land into the lake.

“We know a lot of stuff has gone into the lake ... a lot of stuff we don’t want in the lake,” said Audubon Florida scientist Paul Gray, who monitors the health of the lake for the environmental organization.

The emergency pumping was prompted by heavy rains in June that pushed water levels about 2 feet higher than usual in Everglades marshes stretching through western Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

The rising waters risked overwhelming the high ground that deer, wading birds and other Everglades need to survive. If left unchecked, the high water also threatened to overtop or burst through levees that keep the Everglades from flooding South Florida communities.

The rising waters made the emergency pumping “the best possible alternative,” despite the pollution risks to the lake, South Florida Water Management District spokesman Randy Smith said Thursday.

So far, no signs of pollution problems from the pumping have been seen in the lake, Smith said.

Pollutants from water pumped into the lake can lead to temporary dead zones by scaring away fish and other marine life. It can kill aquatic plants that provide spawning and feeding grounds. The nutrient-rich pollutants can also fuel toxic algae blooms that produce a smelly, bright green ooze that makes waterways unsafe for fishing and swimming.

When the lake level rises too high, like it did last year, officials drain water to the east and west to avoid flooding. The draining risks spreading toxic algae outbreaks and other pollution problems to the coastal waterways.

Water from the reservoir in southwestern Palm Beach County usually passes through man-made, pollution-filtering marshes before flowing south into the Everglades. The emergency pumping bypassed that filtering, sending the water north into the lake, where the water level remains about a foot lower than normal.

The district maintains that the water from the emergency pumping does get an initial cleaning from plants growing in the reservoir and shouldn’t pose as high a pollution risk to the lake as just pumping in water that flows off sugar cane fields or neighborhood lawns — as has occurred during past flooding threats.