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New lake schedule unveiled
By Pete Gawda, Okeechobee News Lake Okeechobee may soon be maintained at a lower level with reduced discharges of freshwater to the St. Lucie Canal and the Caloosahatchee River.
Some environmentalists have claimed that freshwater discharges from Lake Okeechobee have upset the balance of salinity in the estuaries.
At a public meeting held Tuesday, Aug. 14, at the Okeechobee Civic Center, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (COE) unveiled a proposed new program of lake regulation.
Kim Taplan, south Florida program manger for restoration for COE, presented the tentatively selected plan (TSP). Computer simulation models, using actual conditions over the past 36 years, were used to demonstrate the outcome of various proposed schedules.
“Public safety is our main concern,” she said. Ms. Taplan said the proposed plan was designed to balance all lake management objectives including ecology, the estuaries, navigation, the Everglades and flood control.
The TSP represents a compromise to balance all these competing objectives. It is based on seasonally varying lake levels divided into three bands -- high lake management band, 16 to 17.25 feet; operational band, 9.7 feet to 17.25 feet; and water shortage management band, 9.7 to 12.2 feet.
There is an overlap of the lake levels because each band width varies with the seasons. The high lake level is designed for maximum releases. The operational band provides for a lake stage to balance all authorized project purposes. The water shortage band calls for water rationing.
The lake regulation schedule now in effect is the water supply environment (WSE). Since the WSE was instituted in 2000, water managers have found it to be inflexible to address extreme wet weather conditions. The WSE caused delay in releasing water from the lake causing high lake levels and requiring larger volume discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries. Recent high lake levels have caused concern about the stability of the Herbert Hoover Dike. There has also been public concern over the health of the lake and estuaries.
In 2005 plans were set in motion to develop a new regulation schedule.
In July of this year, the TSP was unveiled for public view.
The TSP maintains the lake at safer water levels, than WSE and allows for quicker response and operational flexibility to lake conditions and tributary inflows.
While higher lake levels tend to benefit water supply, they may increase risk to public health and safety and the ecology of the lake. Lower lake levels may improve lake ecology and reduce flood damage but may reduce water supplies and harm downstream estuaries.
“This plan actually lowers the lake level overall,” Ms. Taplan said. “We are working to rehabilitate the dike so that we can operate at higher levels in the future.”
As soon the Herbert Hoover Dike is repaired, she said the team is going back to look at new schedule.
“This is really designed to be an interim schedule,” she said. “We have been able to reduce those damaging high volume releases to the Caloosahatchee. We looked at more low flows to the estuaries to reduce salinity.”
Ms. Taplan added that being able to release more water to the south and an increased number of stormwater treatment areas are part of the long range plan.
“This plan gives us a lot more flexibility,” she said. “This allows us to incorporate a lot more information into making decisions.”
The plan includes releasing water at low volumes more often to the estuaries and there is some operational flexibility that may reduce the impact of discharges. Water managers will use a decision tree similar to the one used with the current lake regulation schedule.
Changes will be made weekly, or more often if necessary. “We feel like we have done the best we could at optimizing the plan and balancing all the purposes of the lake” she said in conclusion.
”We appreciate that you are trying to share adversity,” stated Charles Shinn of the Florida Farm Bureau Federation. “I feel that it is imperative agriculture is involved somehow in the decision making process.”
He noted that some agricultural interests are in dire straits.
David Brent, a private citizen stated that he felt a lot of the problems are upstream of the lake. He advocated more work in the Kissimmee basin to lessen environmental impacts on the lake.
“We think you guys have done about as good a job as you could do,” was the opinion of Dr. Paul Gray, staff scientist with Audubon of Florida. “We think that this is a reasonable schedule.”
He noted that a lot of the lake’s problems can’t be fixed right now. Dr. Gray said that instead of being too high, as it was in the recent past, the lake is going to be too low too often. However, he said that the flow to the Caloosahatchee River would be better.
If the dike is repaired, he said the lake level could go up which would give increased flexibility to water mangers. He said completion of Everglades Agriculture Area reservoirs would help the situation by giving more storage areas to the south. He added that the Kissimmee River restoration project would held in maintaining lake levels.
After a series of public hearings, the TSP should be in place by January of 2008.
Post your opinions in the Forum. Reporter Pete Gawda may be reached at pgawda@newszap.com. |
