The November 21 Rivers Coalition meeting focused on Major Cory Bell from the Army Corps of Engineers sharing the reasoning behind their decision to start releasing water from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie Estuary on December 7 in a “Lake Recovery Operation”.

Why now? Four years of above-normal lake levels have destroyed almost 90% of the lake’s submerged aquatic vegetation – the grass that’s needed for the little critters at the bottom of the food chain to grow and for bass to spawn. During that time, the lake’s turgidity has degraded so much that sunlight, essential to plant growth, can only penetrate three feet of lake water compared to the six feet that was previously the case. The Lake Recovery Operation’s plan is to lower the current lake level (16.03 feet; a foot above the late-November optimal management level) to 12 feet or less for a 90-day period. They want to reach that 12-foot level on May 1, to allow the decimated submerged aquatic vegetation beds to recover during the summer.

It sounds like a wonderful idea. Alas, there’s a cost – a big one, to us. The Lake Recovery Operation would send a whole lot of fresh water down to the St. Lucie Estuary. As the Florida Oceanographic Society noted in a letter to the Corps, “Over the past two months, the St. Lucie Estuary has been subjected to prolonged freshwater conditions as a result of sustained stormwater runoff. This influx of fresh water has devastated essential marine ecosystems, including the widespread loss of oysters and seagrass beds, already suffering from the effects from recent rainfall runoff.” They added: “Any further freshwater introduction from USACE operations could hinder or even halt the potential for recovery of the estuary.” 

Simply put: What’s good for the lake is bad for the estuary. 

You will probably not be surprised that Rivers Coalition members were not at all happy with the Lake Recovery Operation.   

The FOS and Friends of the Everglades have both written the Corps urging them to reconsider the timing and scope of their Lake Recovery Operations. If you’d like to join them, you can send an email to cory.j.bell@usace.army.mil .

Meanwhile, a frustrated Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch observed that the Treasure Coast’s position on the South Florida Water Management District’s Board has remained unfilled ever since the Florida Senate refused to consider her reappointment two years ago. She urged us to try to get the Governor to appoint somebody – anybody – to advocate for the Treasure Coast on the so-important-to-us SFWMD board. So if you happen to bump into the Governor…