Ten Billion Gallons Of Polluted Water Pumped Into Lake OkeeChobee!

[FloridaFishinFool]

 

Letters Feb. 14: Water crisis

mailbag@news-press.com12:02 a.m. EST February 13, 2016

We can thank Governor Rick Scott for not doing anything about the beautiful brown water flowing throughout our Southwest Florida waterways.

He is happily spending the money elsewhere that 75 percent of Floridians voted to make a constitutional amendment to help clean up the pollution from the sugar industry that now flows directly into the Caloosahatchee River. I think our climate-change-denying governor doesn’t seem to care for two reasons:

The sugar industry, which will soon “self monitor” its own pollution, helped elect him and his mansion on the beach in Naples is far enough south where the nice brown stuff is out of sight. Maybe some dead fish will float down there. Remember the water when you get your high property tax bill as Rick doles out your tax dollars as incentives to businesses and other corporate welfare recipients who will most likely help him run for Senator. Incentives and corporate handouts that have not proven to produce any jobs here! What we need is another “Cornhole Rally for Tax Cuts,” promoting the myth that lowering taxes will magically create employment in Florida.

- Brad Turek, Cape Coral

•Many thanks for your coverage of this major beach-pollution problem in Southwest Florida. They certainly describe the pollution problem, however no local or federal officials have given a credible solution.

Most of their ideas involve using federal funds to build “temporary parking places” for this polluted water, after it starts its journey to us, following release from “Lake O.” But none of those deals with the original source of that pollution.

It is clear that this pollution is the nitrogen and phosphorus-laden water, which is “back-pumped” into Lake O by the sugar cane gGrowers. Therefore, what doesn’t the Corps of Engineers simply prohibit that from being done? It will then become the responsibility of the “polluters” to correct it.

Trying to “paper-over” the real cause is a true waste of time, and billions of our dollars.

- Dick Hasselman, Sanibel

•Polluted water fix: Instead of protecting privately owned US Sugar, use eminent domain and spend the $1.5 billion from the federal government and some state BP money to buy the land south of the lake. This is what we voted for in Amendment One, twice, to divert the flow of Okeechobee, not building a higher dike.

From senators Garrett Richter to Marco Rubio, we must demand they stop representing the minority interests of privately held US Sugar who corrupts politicians. It should be illegal to accept “gifts” from special interests. For politicians to represent the constituents who elected them they must fight for the rights of people to have clean water.

The Legislature continues an assault on clean water, from toxic Okeechobee sludge releases to denying local home rule the power to ban fracking. The politicians we elected also protect the big oil’s secret cocktail of chemicals being injected in our aquifers, too. We will soon have waters that are a dead zone, our sea life extinct and more lost limbs from the bacteria in these toxic coastal waters. Who do we hold accountable when the water is so polluted that our state has transformed from a pristine tourist destination to a toxic wasteland? Vote!

- Peter Crumpacker, Fort Myers Beach

•The solution to preventing polluted lake water discharge into the Caloosahatchee river, is to build a filtration plant at the discharge location sized to operate year round, with continuous cleaned water delivered to the river.

Recovered fertilizers and contaminants would be returned to the original source and local water users would pay fees to cover the plant operations.

Concerned Florida visitor.

- J. T. Nelson, Cape Coral

•As a long-time boater who has crossed Lake “O” several times and have studied the navigational chart of the lake, I observe that in the southeast quadrant of the lake there are four canals shown heading southeast. They are the W. Palm Beach Canal, the Hillsboro Canal, the North New River Canal and the Miami Canal.

I then went to Bing maps to verify the existence of these canals, and I what found on Bing was that only one on the navigational chart appears to be viable, the Miami Canal.

The point of all this is that if these canals are still operational, why are they not being used to assist in the lowering of Lake “O”? Does it not make sense that if they do empty somewhere on the east coast, should they not be used?

They may not be navigable, but if they can carry a substantial amount of water, why are they not mentioned as additional release venues?

On Bing maps, the Miami Canal appears to pass through a section of the Everglades, so why not use it to divert water out of the Lake not only into/through the Miami area but into the Everglades and then south. Is that not the goal, to replenish the Everglades and let it filter the water prior to natural release in Florida Bay?

Just some thoughts and questions that perhaps The News-Press might be interested in looking into as an additional solution to our severe water quality concerns.

- R. Bruce Longman, Cape Coral

•Re: Feb. 7, op-ed by Sanibel Mayor Kevin Ruane, “Heavy rains force need for more storage” and cartoon by Doug MacGregor.

Clearly, Mayor Ruane makes a great statement about the need for more water storage, and Doug MacGregor underlines the frustration of the folks of Southwest Florida with the Lake “O” releases.

Until the EAA Reservoir is built and functioning, we will have times when uncontrolled flow from the Hoover Dike will be mandatory for public safety. Now is the time to get a contract for the purchase of the 26,600 sugar acres urgently needed for the long planned Deep Water South EAA Reservoir! Once established, it will hold enough water to allow proper treatment prior to release to the Everglades and Florida Bay — which desperately needs it.

It seems that there is bipartisan support in Congress for action. Curt Clawson has been reported to have said “While we have seen recent, positive actions on the building of the C-43 Reservoir and related projects, the long-term solution for Southwest Florida is getting the water to flow south from Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades, after natural filtration.” In addition, Sen. Bill Nelson has announced that he’s helping lead a bipartisan group urging immediate authorization of anyEverglades restoration project ready to begin in the next five years. Clearly now is the time to work with the Federal folks.

However, I have just received a copy of the January 2016 Army Corps “South Florida Ecosystem Restoration (SFER) Program Overview.” But guess what? I cannot find the EAA Reservoir. It would appear the next to last item (No. 14) is the “Central Everglades Planning Project,” which would “Convey 200,000 acre-feet of water south from Lake Okeechobee” with a to date apparent federal investment of some $9.8 million. The construction date projected is “TBD,” so this is not in the next five-year plan as of now. Is this the EAA Reservoir?

This Army Corps reports this need to be in the “Planning Study” category. What do we need to do to move it into a today action category? We need this EAA Reservoir to be in the now and about to be constructed classification! Whom has the will to make that happen?

- David A. Urich, Life Member of Responsible Growth Management Coalition, Inc.

On 2/17/2016 at 6:19 PM, bocabasser said:

http://www.news-press.com/story/news/2016/02/16/water-flowing-everglades-national-park-first-time-nearly-century/80448460/

not sure how they are going to solve the problem, but i wish they would work together and come up with a solution that serves all.

This is awesome news! Thanks for posting.

Before man screwed things up, water flowed South out of Lake O and down into the Everglades and right on off the tip of Florida.

This latest development is a step in that direction.

Apparently the heat from the people along both coasts of Florida have brought this new development into play because they do not want all this water diverted east and west into salt water brackish estuaries. Moving water South should have been brought into operation long before now to move water back down the natural flow path. It makes better sense than what we see now.

[topwaterrob]

Everglades fishing is going to be a disaster for the next few months.....

[FloridaFishinFool]

 

 

 

[Mike L]

On 2/17/2016 at 7:38 AM, 0119 said:

That clear brown tannic stained water is cleaner than the inshore waters of both the Atlantic and the stagnant gulf.  Sadly none of the folks/groups bellowing out in protest cares even one dingleberry about the environment. This is simply more northern money controlling our lives. Developers cannot sell if the news is telling heavy pocketed snowbirds that the water they are looking at is ugly.  That is the only thing fueling this.  10 billion gallons is not clogging the rivers, its flushing them.  Tests have proved pollutants are nill at most places and "within fed. guidelines" in the others.  Coastline nature is well within its ability to cope with the outflow, since its from one way or another, a natural occurring thing and esturine wildlife isnt showing up in mass at any local wildlife rehab centers.  Pictures of suffering wildlife has been determined to be deaths related to redtide which we have been suffering from in our area before the ouflow started.  Johnny Yankee has been swimming in that brown water for decades here in Charlotte harbor where brown is the 365 day a year color.  Johnny Rich Yankee in Ft. Myers beach can do the same thing......

DITTO!! 

I live 2 miles from Charlotte Harbor and have been for 37 yrs and 0119 is exactly right!

 These people just p*** me off!

 

Mike

 

[Florida Cracker2]

I will make another attempt to put things into perspective. You can go to USGS website, pull up a map of Florida, and see all the recording locations for waterflow in real time and you can also pull up a history graph. It's measured in cubic feet per second which is 7.48 gallons. During the time Lake O was releasing 44,880 gallons per second at Moore Haven Lock...and still is, the Peace River at Arcadia (pretty far upriver) was discharging about 30,000 gallons per second. Like I said in a previous post...little of all that fresh water originated from Lake O. Redirect it to the southern tip of Florida if you want...the water will still be fresh and brown. We had a couple fronts come through and dumped a lot of water on us and is flowing from multiple locations and multiple rivers, creeks, canals,...etc.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/fl/nwis/rt

[Rick Howard]

I am confused.  If the water is polluted than why is anyone okay with letting it into the Everglades either?  I suppose it has to go somewhere.  Which leads me to the question which systems could better handle the excess.  

[FloridaFishinFool]

1 hour ago, Rick Howard said:

I am confused.  If the water is polluted than why is anyone okay with letting it into the Everglades either?  I suppose it has to go somewhere.  Which leads me to the question which systems could better handle the excess.  

To answer your question directly, I am of the opinion that the overflow from Lake O is drained out fastest through rivers to the east and west and directly into the gulf or Atlantic ocean. Let all those pollutants run out of Florida. It happens like this anyways all over Florida and every other state too.

Most of what we are talking about is surface pollution gathered up by rain picking it up, dissolving it, and carrying it into lakes and rivers. A lot of it is fertilizer chemicals, some sewage from millions of head of cattle all over Florida, some is from roads, from cars and trucks, fuel, oil, etc. washed into lakes and rivers.

Like you said it has to go somewhere. And rather than let it pile up and accumulate within the state, flushing it out of the state is probably the best for those of us who live in this state.

If you read this entire thread, you would have read that some ten billion gallons of run off polluted water was back pumped NORTH from down South and into Lake O causing water levels to rise, but as Florida Cracker posted it is also coming from all over the state and running off into lakes and rivers.

Back pumping it north into Lake O is not what any of us should want. It makes no sense to add to the pollution in that lake just to let it sit there and accumulate even more. It is best to not pump it in, in the first place. So back pumping is an issue that needs to be dealt with because of growing numbers of people who want that water to flow South through the state as Nature originally intended it which flushed out Florida Bay off the Southern tip of Florida and kept it cleaned out. But once man cut off that natural flow Florida Bay began to silt up and die.

So there are growing efforts to restore this natural flow- even if the water contains run off pollutants. The everglades itself was a natural filter for the water. The river of grass is where this water flowed through and it was filtered as it flowed South off the tip of Florida and into Florida Bay.

I am with you in that if all of this contaminated water was allowed to flow its natural path South, the river of grass would filter out those contaminants and they would possibly build up in the areas doing the filtering, so there another problem arises which is why I said above it might be best to just send all that water directly to the coast as fast as possible and get those pollutants out of the state. But it is not a good idea to dump them into the gulf or ocean, but we all gotta realize that is where most run off ends up anyways.

We are damned if we do and damned if we don't. And it just depends on which side of the fence you are on as to where someone would want all this water to go.

I personally don't want to see it back pumped into Lake O. I think this BS needs to stop. Let the water flow South as nature intended and see what comes of it.

As for Lake O, I think the levels should be maintained by the out flows east and west as well as South and try and balance it out and do so over a longer time period rather than let the water pile up to emergency status and then do power dumps. Try and let the water out slower over longer period of time rather than all at once as we saw here recently.

We need better water management, and big efforts towards restoring the natural water flow South, and I would hope a permanent end to back pumping north from down South.

This is how I see it anyways... and I am sure others see it differently...

[Rick Howard]

I did read the entire thread, however, I was failing to understand that the water was being artificially being pumped into the lake then let out through the river systems.

The Everglades are better suited to deal with the excess then?

This is interesting to me and I'm not trying to me a smart @ss.  Even if it comes across that way in text. 

[FloridaFishinFool]

You're not coming across as a smarta** to me so no problem.

The everglades use to naturally handle all of the water from central Florida heading South through Lake O naturally anyways. But man claimed the land and drained it off into canal systems all over Florida and generally just messed things up!

I'd say yes, the everglades could handle all this water and much more as it once did naturally, but can it handle all the contaminants that come with it?

Today there are untold numbers of humans living on this land the water use to flow across. Would they be flooded out if the natural water flow South was restored?

This is why Lake O is apparently now caught in the middle and catching a lot of it, and as that happens someone has to make decisions on where to send it and we can see it is usually due east and west rather than South, but maybe things are changing now???

The first thing I would like to know is if the back pumping north to Lake O. can be stopped and all that water sent down through the everglades again?

[Rick Howard]

Making more sense now.  I am curious to how this works out.  A real catch 22.  

[Master Bait'r]

Kind of an ironic conundrum that if you're there to experience the negative effects of this, the fact that you can even live there is pretty much what caused it to begin with, no?  

 

Hope it all shakes out though   

 

 

[0119]

12 hours ago, Rick Howard said:

Making more sense now.  I am curious to how this works out.  A real catch 22.  

We can cry pollution we can cry we like a different color, we can over think the whole matter but no one is giving even one moment's thought for their fellow man. This isn't about pretty water. This isn't about Yankee dollars or sugar. Taken down to the simplest denominator it's ALL about protecting tens of thousands of homes from flooding. MORE IMPORTANT than my fishing, some yankees vacation or all the soapboxing the overthinking academics can spew for political and financial gain.

[buzzed bait]

not to make light of the situation, but rather put it into perspective.  10 billion gallons sounds like a lot, sure, but the lake's capacity is 1 trillion gallons, so the 10 billion is .01% of the lake's capacity....  

[0119]

Or its just enough to burst and aged dike that's breached the dike a few times recently and suffers from decades of government disinterest in maintaining let alone repairing.

[Rick Howard]

42 minutes ago, 0119 said:

Or its just enough to burst and aged dike that's breached the dike a few times recently and suffers from decades of government disinterest in maintaining let alone repairing.

This is what troubles me nation wide.  We can't fix anything until it becomes a problem.  Then when it becomes a problem we argue over what the problem is.  Then we can't agree on a solution.  Meanwhile things get worse and all new problems arise and/or the problem gets bigger starting the cycle over again.  Which is I think where this particular situation is now.  Neglected for too long.  Correct?

 

[0119]

Absolutely. Side effects of an entitlement minded generation developed out of a society fixated on political correctness and special lobbyist reactionary type governing.

[topwaterrob]

In my opinion, It could be worse.  It could be drought conditions.  Mother nature and the Lake will get through this here.

[Buckeye Ron]

As someone who is planning to move to SW Florida next year I am very,very interested in this subject and this thread is proving to be very educational for me. Speaking as an "outsider" I have long wondered about the long term impact of all the development and construction in Florida,and this thread goes a long way in detailing the impact.

[BassinLou]

SouthFLBassHunter, and I went up to the South end of the Lake yesterday for a whole a day of fishing. The Lake was at 16.25ft. For some of you who familiarized with Slims, and launch from the 2 little ramps. You know that during normal water conditions you have climb the ladder from the dock up or down to your boat. Well... yesterday all I had to do from the bow of my boat is step up to the dock. 

On a side note... we were able to figure out what the fish were doing and landed 14 LMB... 

 

2nd note.... For those anglers that fish on US 27 between 75 and the Holeylands. The water levels are so bad that in some areas the water is feet from reaching 27. That's not good. 

 

[Mike L]

44 minutes ago, BassinLou said:

SouthFLBassHunter, and I went up to the South end of the Lake yesterday for a whole a day of fishing. The Lake was at 16.25ft. For some of you who familiarized with Slims, and launch from the 2 little ramps. You know that during normal water conditions you have climb the ladder from the dock up or down to your boat. Well... yesterday all I had to do from the bow of my boat is step up to the dock. 

 

 

Wow! 

That is truly shocking! I haven't been there in years. We usually don't go past So.Bay and was thinking about going into Pelican next weekend. 

 

Mike 

[0119]

13 hours ago, Buckeye Ron said:

As someone who is planning to move to SW Florida next year I am very,very interested in this subject and this thread is proving to be very educational for me. Speaking as an "outsider" I have long wondered about the long term impact of all the development and construction in Florida,and this thread goes a long way in detailing the impact.

Yeah we don't retire and stay here unless maybe your a golfer. 99% off the bass water in my county is now posted no trespassing. Don't even get me started about gun rights and how they have prohibited that here.  

[FloridaFishinFool]

It has gone national now, and when this happens, so to does the spin...

 

SOUTH FLORIDA’S TOURIST SEASON FROM HELL

By David Guest | Wednesday, February 17, 2016

 

Polluted fresh water from releases from Lake Okeechobee, near shore reefs off of Stuart and Jupiter Island.

JACQUI THURLOW-LIPPISCH/JACQUITHURLOWLIPPISCH.COM

 

February and March are the prime times for tourists to come to Florida for a respite from cold winter weather. So imagine the panic that people who run fishing charters, paddle board concessions, beachfront hotels and restaurants are feeling as dark agricultural swill gushes from the state’s center to the east and west coasts, killing marine life.

“It's brown, it stinks, it's cold,” a tourist from New Mexico told a TV reporter in Fort Myers."It doesn't look very appealing to get into to go swimming in.”

The scuzzy water that’s wrecking this year’s tourist season comes courtesy of Big Sugar and other agricultural operators around Lake Okeechobee, which sits in the state’s sparsely populated center roughly between Palm Beach on the east coast and Fort Myers on the west coast. It’s America’s second biggest lake in the lower 48, and thanks to ridiculously permissive policies, it’s become a private dumping ground for mega-agricultural operations. These corporations pump the public’s water from the lake to irrigate their fields, then send the water; polluted with fertilizer and other farm chemicals, back into Lake Okeechobee.

Because heavy winter rains have raised the lake level and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dike around the lake is old and weak, South Florida water managers have been releasing some 70,000 gallons of polluted lake water per second into two rivers which lead out to the coasts: the Caloosahatchee, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico, and the St. Lucie, which empties into the Indian River Lagoon and then into the Atlantic.

"I just call it the black curtain because everything on one side is perfectly clear and all the dark water looks like a curtain was pulled on the waterway," Charter Captain Mike Wilson told reporters in Fort Myers.

The pollution has caused outrage so fierce that an angry mob gathered to shout down Florida Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam as he arrived at a local Economic Development Council meeting at a high-end resort along the Atlantic beachfront.

An angry crowd greets Putnam because of water pollution.

KERI WEST/YOUTUBE

Local politicians on both coasts are demanding that Florida Gov. Rick Scott declare a state of emergency to compensate businesses for their losses, and several mayors are traveling to Washington, D.C., to urge Florida’s representatives to take action. A throng of people crowded onto a southwest Florida causeway to protest the assault on their Florida way of life.

It is an environmental tragedy that we here at the Earthjustice Florida office have been intimately involved with for decades. For more than two decades, we’ve been filing lawsuits from various angles to stop this heartbreaking situation from happening.

Ever since water officials opened the flood gates to let the polluted water out of the lake on Jan. 30, people have been sounding the alarm.

“The dead ocean creatures and red tide have had an immediate impact on my business," an innkeeper on Southwest Florida’s beautiful Captiva Island told his local NBC station.

“How many people will never come back because of this?” a protester told a WINK TV reporter in Southwest Florida. “Can’t go swimming, can’t go fishing, boating’s gone down the tubes.”

“My business has been devastated by this,” a commercial fisherman on the St. Lucie River told WPTV.

Feeling the pressure, Gov. Rick Scott asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to break from its usual practices and drain Lake Okeechobee south into the Everglades instead of out to the coasts, and the Corps complied. As you can imagine, that approach is certainly raising serious questions. Remember, American taxpayers are paying billions to clean up the Everglades, and the federal government sued Florida decades ago for failing to keep agriculture’s polluted runoff out of Everglades National Park.

The solution has nothing to do with moving the water around. It’s about cleaning it up. And that’s where Florida and the federal government have continually been falling down on the job. Only a month ago, the state legislature passed a law that eliminates pollution permits for agricultural operations around Lake Okeechobee. You read that right – no permits. Instead, these multinational corporations get to work on the honor system. Agriculture Secretary Putnam was the one who shepherded that sham of a law into being.

We’ve tried to attack this mess on several fronts over the years. We filed legal actions to stop agricultural operations from pumping their pollution back into the public’s lake. We sued the government for using taxpayer-funded pumps to move the pollution around.  We filed legal actions to compel government to set numeric limits on the amount of fertilizer, sewage, and manure allowed in water.  Each of these actions spawned massive backlashes from industry and from government that reached all the way to Washington, D.C., and beyond. We’re still in court, attacking the regulatory framework that makes an environmental disaster like this possible.

It’s heartening for us to see the citizens rising up, taking their video cameras out to document the damage, holding their leaders to account and joining together to challenge this broken system.

Can it be any plainer that these giveaways to corporate polluters have got to stop? If they don’t, Florida’s tourist season will be a memory.

--------------------------------------------------------

Some of us Floridians would not mind so much a drop in tourists coming to this state... but there was one comment under this article I did like and agree with:

MeMack1 said: "this problem is a lot deeper than sending water south. Sending this cesspool water west....east.... south is not solving the problem that happens every couple years. The problem is the sugarcane farms and SFWMD backpumping their polluted water into the rim canal and the lake. That is the problem...unlit that is stopped this will not go away "

[FloridaFishinFool]

 

Florida Officials Drain Lake Full Of ‘Toilet’ Water To Coast

BY BRYAN DEWAN FEB 25, 2016 12:23 PM

CREDIT: JACQUI THURLOW-LIPPISCH

Aerial view of polluted waters caused by last Okeechobee discharge, dubbed the "Lost Summer," in 2013

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With tourist season just around the corner, Florida’s beach communities would normally be preparing for a happy, healthy summer. Instead, they’re reeling from polluted water that is likely to inflict severe damage to the local economy and environment.

Lake Okeechobee, a large inland lake in southern Florida, is experiencing its highest water levels in nearly a century due to heavy rains that fell during the month of January. This should not be suprising, because heavy rainfall events are increasing as the planet warms. But after water levels reached a foot above normal, public officials began to worry that the excess water was putting too much stress on the lake’s aging dike. Officials then made the decision to drain the lake out toward Florida’s coasts. There was one problem: Lake Okeechobee’s waters are toxic.

Local industry has long been using Okeechobee’s waters as a dumping ground for an assortment of chemicals, fertilizers, and cattle manure. David Guest, managing attorney of the Florida branch of the environmental law group Earthjustice, called the lake a “toilet.” While the pollution was once confined to the lake, it now flows toward Florida’s coastal communities via local rivers. The water, which is flowing out of the lake at 70,000 gallons per second, will soon pollute the ocean waters in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean.

Lake water being discharged into local rivers.

CREDIT: WPTV, DALE

This pollution has immediate consequences for southern Florida’s environment and economy. The untreated water contains toxic chemicals and fertilizers that are harmful to local flora and fauna, and the fertilizers and chemicals found in the water are known to cause algal blooms, which are known to poison shellfish and make life difficult for the marine food chain. Dawn Shirreffs, a senior policy adviser at the Everglades Foundation, told ThinkProgress that there have been reports of dead fish being found along the coastline. This is especially concerning since many species will migrate to Florida to seek comfortable water temperatures this time of year.

The local economy, much of which is driven by tourism, will also be negatively affected by the polluted lake water. In 2013, the last time a significant water discharge occurred in southern Florida, locals dubbed the season the “lost summer,” due to the downturn in tourism and beach-going as a result of the polluted coastal water. In 2015, FloridaRealtors, a trade organization representing the Florida real estate industry, commissioned a study assessing the impact of water pollution on home values in Martin County, Florida. The results were alarming. During the “lost summer,” aggregate real estate value fell half a billion dollars, as potential buyers were reluctant to buy or invest in property that was near water that was both toxic and objectively disgusting.

Furthermore, as sea levels rise, many Floridians are right now coping with coastal flooding even when it isn’t raining. Cities like West Palm Beach, which sits between the south of the lake and the Atlantic Ocean, have faced increased flooding due to higher sea levels. Adding polluted lake water to the mix makes this even more of a problem. It’s also a problem for the tens of thousands of sharks that would normally be farther south off the coast of Miami — but this year are off the coast of Ft. Lauderdale. They appear to be doing this because the water is warmer — which puts them closer to the polluted lake water.

Lake Okeechobee can be seen from space. This massive dumping ground for chemicals and fertilizers is about to pollute Florida’s coastal communities.

CREDIT: NASA, VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Immediate solutions are hard to find. Unfortunately, given the immense pressure on the lake’s infrastructure due to the excess precipitation, there is no other option but to discharge the toxic water to the ocean. John Campbell, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said the water could not be diverted south of the Everglades right now because Lake Okeechobee’s water levels are just too high.

Speaking to ThinkProgress, the Everglades Foundation elaborated on current efforts by local, state, and national officials to secure funding for new infrastructure that can help prevent this from occurring in the future. Current proposals include the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and the Central Everglades Project. Dawn Shirreff, of the Everglades Foundation, said these plans have high levels of support.

In the meantime, those affected by the lake discharge are raising awareness and taking action. Mayors and local officials are calling on Florida Governor Rick Scott to issue a state of emergency, and a delegation of mayors and activists traveled to Capitol Hill on Monday to ask federal lawmakers for help. Last Friday, Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) toured Lake Okeechobee with water experts and the Lt. Colonel of the Army Corps. of Engineers. Nelson said the lake discharge was “idiotic,” and is currently working on getting bipartisan support for funding to remedy the situation. Tourists and locals are posting pictures of the dirty water on social media, hoping to raise awareness, and a local activist group called “River Kidz” organized a protest along the St. Lucie River on Sunday.

[FloridaFishinFool]

 

Jennie Pawlowsky Posted on facebook: Manatee are crawling out of the water to get food because we are killing all of the sea grass with the Lake Okeechobee discharges. This is criminal and JUST the beginning of a very devastating year. We need more voices. We need more people to get angry. There is a protest this morning at 11 a.m. in downtown Stuart be there.

[Florida Cracker2]

I've seen manatees do this for years. They see something high on the bank and will climb up and eat it. I've seen them eat entire clumps of weeds growing on the rocks along the bank of my property. This is becoming a real fiasco. Common sense is a thing of the past.