What’s not being said about the Lake Okeechobee crisis

As candidates try to blame someone else for the Lake Okeechobee algae crisis, here are two truths:

Florida can’t fix this recurring problem without a massive public investment, and Gov. Rick Scott’s solution is the worst idea.

Decades of abuse turned Lake Okeechobee into a cesspool, a reality that presented itself in the early 1970s. Audubon of Florida’s Charles Lee recalls the “Special Project to Prevent the Eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee" when Reuben Askew was governor.

Eutrophication is excessive growth of plants and algae. It deprives the lake of oxygen. The causes are pollutants rich in nutrients, notably nitrogen and phosphorus. Phosphorus comes from fertilizer. For years, the state regularly allowed farms south of the lake to pump runoff into the lake so fields didn’t flood. Nitrogen comes from cow manure. For years, dairy farms north of the lake sent it through their runoff.

Fifty years ago, there was no Disney World. Since 1971, when the park opened, Central Florida growth has sent pollutionladen suburban runoff into the lake.

As a result – and despite projects to clean water entering from the north – the bottom of Lake Okeechobee is a layer of near-toxic ooze. That’s bad enough when the lake is calm. When hurricanes stir the water like mixing beaters, that ooze swirls up.

When rain fills the lake high enough to threaten the Herbert Hoover Dike on the southern side, the Army Corps of Engineers releases water east and west. The water carries those pollutants and slams coastal estuaries that support marine life and water-related businesses, including real estate.

To understand the challenge, you need to understand that Lake Okeechobee is the midpoint of a hydrological system. It starts south of Orlando, at the headwaters of the Kissimmee River, and ends in the Keys, at Florida Bay.

Before the settlement of South Florida, water overflowed from the lake and trickled south, creating the Everglades. Civilization disrupted that cycle.

The St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers, through which those discharges flow, originally didn’t connect to the lake. The state dug canals to them from the lake, to allow farming in what is now the 700,000-acre Everglades Agricultural Area. At that point, the priority became sending water east and west, not south.

Despite many state and federal projects to make the lake cleaner, that fundamental problem remains. Re-engineering the system to restore that historic southward flow could require at least $10 billion and perhaps much more. That’s in addition to the $1 billion-plus from the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.

To succeed, such re-engineering also would have to overcome opposition from farmers who don’t want to sell their land. When the Legislature finally approved money for a southern reservoir last year, sugar growers successfully lobbied to make it smaller. Money for the reservoir is in the House and Senate water bills.

Water quality has become a major issue in the races for governor and Senate. Ron DeSantis, who hardly mentioned Florida during the Republican gubernatorial primary and never championed environmental issues in Congress, visited the Everglades last week.

Then there’s Gov. Scott. His record includes rollbacks of environmental regulations, including septic tank inspections, and severe cuts to the South Florida Water Management District. It’s the lead state agency on Everglades restoration. In 2013, Scott went on a Texas hunting trip financed by U.S. Sugar — one of his biggest political patrons – and tried to keep it secret.

To reinvent himself, Scott is running against Washington. Bill Nelson is a threeterm incumbent. The governor blames the federal government – meaning Nelson – for failing to complete upgrades to the dike. If the dike were stronger, Scott implies, it could hold more water and prevent the need for discharges.

First, there is no guarantee that the Corps of Engineers would allow higher levels. The federal government has been reviewing dam standards since Katrina in 2005.

Second, high levels also harm Lake Okeechobee. They damage marshes that actually are helping make the water cleaner. The lake improves during droughts, when levels drop. If they get low enough, the state can scrape off some of that ooze when it dries.

Last month, Scott did a drive-by in Martin County, refusing to speak with reporters or residents protesting the latest algae crisis. His special project on Lake Okeechobee is to prevent the loss of a Senate race.