The featured presenter at the January 22nd Rivers Coalition meeting was Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District Commander Col. Brandon Bowman. He reported: * The Lake Okeechobee management effort is going well. The lake level is currently a near-ideal 13.01 feet. In addition, following last summer’s Lake Recovery Operation, Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (“sea grass”) now covers 20,000 acres of the lake bottom compared with just 3000 acres beforehand. * All stakeholders but one are having their needs met at the present time: The Caloosahatchee River west of the lake isn’t receiving nearly as much fresh water as it needs. * The biggest threat to the St. Lucie Estuary right now isn’t discharges from Lake Okeechobee; it’s polluted runoff flowing into the headwaters of the North Fork. The Corps has several projects underway to address that issue. * The Everglades restoration effort continues moving forward, albeit at a seemingly-glacial pace. To wit: Col. Bowman was happy to announce that the Everglades Agricultural Area projects would be completed five years ahead of schedule – but that still won’t be until the end of 2029. * The big C-44 Reservoir, just north of the St. Lucie Canal in western Martin County, is a key part of the management plan. The reservoir will store runoff and remove phosphorus before discharging the water. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been able to operate at capacity; there’s a seepage issue at one end, and it can only be filled to ten feet compared with its designed fifteen-foot level. The Corps doesn’t think the reservoir will be able to be filled to capacity until 2032. * Finally, Coalition members expressed a great deal of alarm about the Corps’ Engineering Research and Development Center’s plan to develop treatments to remove peroxide and phosphorus from the water. The concern stems from the ERDC’s need to test those treatments, and they have to do the testing in the St. Lucie Canal. There was widespread fear that this could produce harmful results in our canal and our estuary. On the legislative front, Gil Smart, the Friends of the Everglades monitor of the goings-on in Tallahassee, shook his head: “If last year’s legislative session’s theme was facilitating sprawl, this year’s is sprawl on steroids.” A disturbingly large number of bills have been filed that will allow more and more development projects to be subject only to administrative approval rather than, as now, being required to go through a public review process. If these bills pass they will drastically reduce public input on some very big and impactful development proposals -- and completely eliminate it in some cases. As these and other really bad bills get rammed towards the finish line, you will undoubtably be receiving calls for action from your favorite environmental organization. Keep an eye on your inbox. -- Walter Deemer, LWVMC Rivers Coalition Representative

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The June 26 Rivers Coalition meeting featured a update on Martin County’s land acquisition program from Merritt Matheson, Vice-Chair of the Environmental Lands Oversight Committee, and John Maehl, Martin County’s Environmental Resource Administrator.

Water Ambassador Field Trip: Eyes on the Seagrass Bitz Kayak Tour was on May 27 th . Lyn Aal-Magee attended this program which can be extended to others who are interested. Water Ambassador is collecting sightings of seagrass in the Indian River. To participate in the Eyes on Seagrass Blitz, they recommend that you download the ArcGIS Survey123 app in your phone's app store. Download the app and then access the form via the link bit.ly/ReportSeaGrass once before heading out on the water. After you have accessed the form via the link for the first time, you can then open the app to access the form directly. Alternatively, if you do not want to download the app you can enter data through the direct link to the online form: bit.ly/ReportSeaGrass but the app will make it easier while on the water. More information about the Eyes on Seagrass in the IRL Blitz can be found here: https://bit.ly/EOSBlitz  The Water Ambassador Program in Martin County, FL , is an educational initiative aimed at empowering residents to protect local waterways. The program includes monthly webinars on stormwater-related topics, providing residents with opportunities to learn about water quality, conservation, and restoration. It is a partnership between Martin County and UF/IFAS Extension, focusing on community engagement and education. Participants can register for webinars, which cover various water resource topics and are every third Tuesday.

Do you know what we did for the first Earth Day back in 1970?