Lake Worth Lagoon needs environmental attention, too

What happened to that muck-trap that was supposed to protect the Lake Worth Lagoon from the deluge of Lake Okeechobee discharges? The trap, a 15foot deep gash in the floor of the C-51 Canal, began as a noble water-management experiment. Seventeen years, and many Lake O discharges later, it’s become a bit of an afterthought.

The fate of the muck trap — it started in 2007 and largely went ignored until the first study of its operation took place 13 years later, producing inconclusive results — reflects the a larger reality: the lagoon’s stepchild status. The lagoon suffers with every Lake O discharge. Unlike its larger and better-known estuaries, the St. Lucie River Estuary and the Caloosahatchee River, the lagoon lacks the attention and advocacy to protect it from discharges to lower the lake’s water levels.

It’s not like there’s been no effort to protect the lagoon. Palm Beach County officials have worked hard to preserve the lagoon’s ecosystem, ranging from restoring oyster beds and seagrasses to building artificial reefs. Yet, those initiatives are threatened with each Lake O discharge, like the one the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers initiated this month that is now dumping out 224,000 gallons-a-minute of Lake O water into the Lake Worth Lagoon.

The lagoon needs more attention and advocacy to better protect it from the lake’s sediment. Fixing the muck trap would be a start. So would starting construction on decades-old smaller reservoir and water treatment areas in the county under the 2000 Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) projects, which have never gotten underway. It’s an environmental malaise that the county doesn’t deserve and frankly shouldn’t tolerate.

If you think the frustrations among county officials and area environmentalists over the lake and the lagoon are hyperbole, please check out what has clearly been a theme of frustration from the following comments collected over the years by Post reporter Kimberly Miller who covers water management issues for the paper:

“I don’t think the impacts of the Lake Okeechobee discharges on the lagoon are fully understood or being addressed,” Lisa Interlandi of the Everglades Law Center told Miller in 2020. “When the water does come, it destroys a lot of the progress we made in the years it didn’t come.”

“Over the years, certain projects get prioritized over others and other projects languish in the planning phase or even more concerning have never made it to the planning stage,” County Commissioner Greg Weiss told Miller in a 2021 article. “Unfortunately for us in Palm Beach County, this has been the fate of our CERP projects that were identified over 22 years ago.”

“There was a series of policy decisions that got us into a scenario where the Lake Worth Lagoon is now being impacted when it didn’t have to be,” Deborah Dunn, the county’s director of Environmental Resources said during a conversation with Miller earlier this month. “The Lake Worth Lagoon has not been a primary focus.”

The lagoon is a 20-mile stretch of the Intracoastal Waterway from North Palm Beach to Ocean Ridge. Its reef and mangroves are home to a variety of marine life, including more than 100 species of birds, snook and puffer fish, sea turtles and manatees. The county has tried to keep the lagoon as pristine as possible, but it could use more help.

Again, it begins with making better use of the muck trap. A new study of its effectiveness may be in order before making a decision to re-dredge the trap. However, it’s imperative that something is actually done. The same can be said for the shelved CERP water storage and treatment projects that were slated to be built in Palm Beach County but never were. They deserve a higher priority from our state and federal partners to ensure acceptable water quality.

The truth is that Lake O discharges are a fact of life in South Florida, and with this release, there’s some recognition that the lagoon needs relief. The South Florida Water Management District, for example, diverted some of the runoff through a canal south of the lagoon, a first. Water managers also point to the recent opening of a 6,500-acre stormwater treatment area that will clean Lake O waters flowing south to a new reservoir set to open in 2025.

The proverbial cavalry is coming to the rescue. The question is, how long can the lagoon hold out?