Plan: Inject Lake O runoff into a series of deep wells
Proposal seen as way to help protect fragile coastal estuaries.
South Florida cities have been injecting treated wastewater from sewage treatment plants 3,000 feet deep into a series of caverns beneath the drinking water supply for decades.
Now the same idea has been resurrected as a potential solution to harmful Lake Okeechobee discharges. The idea is nothing new, even when it comes to Lake O and the problem of what to do with its overflow.
The South Florida Water Management District is scheduled to hear a report on the idea today at its West Palm Beach headquarters. Drilling 50 wells that could take in 15 million gallons a day each would cost an estimated $330 million, but nothing has been finalized.
Wells north of Lake Okeechobee are viewed as one component in the solution to the crisis of polluted water ending up in fragile coastal estuaries of the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers. Other projects such as a new reservoir south of the lake would still be implemented, even if the wells become a reality.
More than 70 environmental, conservation and marine-related groups such as the Sierra Club, National Wildlife Federation,
Friends of the Everglades, the South Florida Audubon Society, Anglers for Conservation and Food & Water Watch oppose the wells. In a letter to Florida Gov. Rick Scott this week, they said the wells do not fit with the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan.
Robert Verrastro, lead hydrogeologist for the water district, said Tuesday that “the concept is not new. In fact, there are several deep-injection wells already constructed around Lake Okeechobee in Clewiston, Pahokee, Belle Glade and by the Okeechobee Utility Authority. They have all been successfully operating for several decades.”
He added that “the wells would only be used when the level of the lake is getting to the point where we have to discharge to tide.”
Verrastro said the caverns, known as the Boulder Zone, have a high capacity to store water. The analysis is in the very early stages, and it has not been determined how many wells would be needed or where they would be. Once water is injected into the Boulder Zone, it cannot be retrieved.
A draft report authored by Verrastro and water district Chief Engineer Cal Neidrauer states the wells would work in combination with reservoirs, aquifer storage and recovery and stormwater treatment areas.
Stormwater treatment areas are constructed wetlands that remove and store nutrients through plant growth and the accumulation of dead plant material that is slowly converted to a layer of peat soil. Five of the areas south of Lake Okeechobee are now removing excess nutrients from agricultural runoff water and, in some cases, runoff from urban tributaries, before discharging it into the Everglades and other natural areas. Two more of the areas north of Lake Okeechobee are in the planning stage.
Most aquifer storage facilities in Florida store water in the upper Floridan Aquifer, primarily in areas where the aquifer is brackish or somewhat salty.
In May, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which controls discharges from Lake Okeechobee, removed the consideration of deep injection wells from the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project, saying further analysis was needed.
In June, the water district’s governing board directed staff to evaluate the feasibility of deep injection wells.
Many in the agriculture industry support the idea.
U.S. Sugar Corp. spokeswoman Judy Sanchez said, “There is a need for storage all around the lake, and this is part of what would be North of Lake Okeechobee storage.”
In May, Scott signed legislation that calls for a $1.5 billion, 78.2 billion gallon reservoir in the Everglades Agricultural Area south of Lake Okeechobee. Publicly owned land will be used for the reservoir, which is meant to keep discharges from the lake from entering the estuaries.
Sanchez said that deep-injection wells would not affect the reservoir but would provide much more direct and cost-effective relief for the estuaries.
“If the water never gets pushed into the lake during wet-weather events, the lake levels do not threaten the dike and no discharges have to be made to the estuaries,” Sanchez said. “I tell people that if your roof is leaking, you don’t go out in the backyard and look for places to sweep the water once it’s flooded your house. You go on the roof and fix the leak.
The Sierra Club and the Everglades Law Center are among those opposed to the wells.
Lisa Interlandi, an attorney with the Everglades Law Center, said, “These wells raise far more questions than answers. They are extremely costly and the district does not have the money to pay for them. Fortunately we have a plan that is already on the books and approved by Congress to store the water so it can be treated and sent south to the Everglades. Once implemented, this will be far more effective at managing high lake stages than deep injection wells would ever be.”
The Sierra Club said in its letter to Gov. Scott that the best way to reduce and eliminate harmful Lake O discharges to the northern estuaries is to speed up the long-term restoration of the Everglades ecosystem.
“We urge you to ensure that public state tax dollars are invested in Everglades restoration projects that are fully vetted, ... do not jeopardize our public drinking water supply and do not waste the state’s precious fresh water resources,” Sierra Club officials said.
Diana Umpierre, of the Sierra Club’s Everglades Restoration Campaign said, “As far as we know the Boulder Zone has never been used to get rid of freshwater (or stormwater), and certainly not in the significant quantities being proposed” by the district.
“Besides the great concern of displacing much needed public state funds to advance the Everglades Restoration projects, there are also valid concerns of limited hydrogeologic data at the depths and geographic area being proposed, making the district’s proposal a very risky and expensive undertaking,” Umpierre said.