DISCHARGES FROM LAKE TO STOP FOR NINE DAYS
Officials hope natural saltwater flushes will counter harmful effect.
The beleaguered St. Lucie Estuary will get a more than weeklong break from Lake Okeechobee releases in the hope natural saltwater tidal flushes will recharge salinity and kill harmful bluegreen algae.
Beginning Saturday, no water will flow east from the lake for nine days — a period that bookends the July 4 holiday.
The Caloosahatchee River to the west of Lake Okeechobee will see no pause in discharges despite a growing algae bloom that one resident called “catastrophic.”
“It’s in the upper estuary and now it’s moving west into the Fort Myers and Cape Coral area,” said John Cassani, whose group Calusa Waterkeeper is a member of a national nonprofit organization that monitors waterways. “The spatial scope of this bloom is just enormous.”
A cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae, bloom has expanded on Lake Okeechobee this past week, with Treasure Coast residents fearful the continued release of lake water would not only further dilute the brackish St. Lucie Estuary but also add to the growing bright green bloom pooling along riverbanks and in marinas.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which controls Lake Okeechobee levels, cautioned Thursday that lake discharges into the St. Lucie
are all but guaranteed to restart July 9 as persistent rainfall continues through Florida’s wet season.
“Water levels in the lake remain high for this time of year,” said Lt. Col. Jennifer Reynolds, Jacksonville district deputy commander for the Corps. “The water conservation areas south of the lake are also above their preferred ranges.”
The Corps is working with the South Florida Water Management District to find additional space to store lake water, which an executive order last week allowed to increasingly flow south, including through Palm Beach County into the Lake tem could push the level Worth Lagoon. several feet higher in a mat
District officials said the ter of weeks, weakening the water reaching the Lake Herbert Hoover Dike. Worth Lagoon in Palm “The bottom line is, it still Beach County through the has to come out, and I would C-51 Canal will receive addi- just rather get it over with,” tional cleaning other than said Mike Knepper, a Palm what it got in 2016 during a City resident who has been similar algae outbreak that monitoring algae on the St. temporarily closed Peanut Lucie Estuary and in the Island days before July 4. C-44 Canal with his drone.
Lake Okeechobee stood “I think they’re just doing at 14.10 inches above sea this to pacify us.” level Thursday. That’s within The C-44 Canal connects the comfort zone of the Lake Okeechobee to the St. Corps, which likes to keep Lucie Estuary. the lake between 12.5 and Cassani said the Caloosa15.5 feet above sea level. hatchee River is caught in But the concern is that a a Catch-22 situation. Lake bout of rainy-season show- Okeechobee releases damers or a single tropical sys- age the estuary by reducing salinity levels but also could flush the algae bloom out of the river. Stopping the releases reduces turbidity in the river and promotes the algae bloom to spread in stagnant water, he said.
The southwest coast is also suffering a long-lived red tide outbreak that stretches from Tampa Bay into Collier County, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
“Either way, there will be problems,” Cassani said. “It’s a terrible situation right now. The coast is getting nailed with red tide and the river with cyanobacteria.”