The January 23rd Rivers Coalition meeting featured updates on the current set of Lake Okeechobee discharges from Major Cory Bell, the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers District Commander for South Florida, and Jason Engel, the Corps’ Chief of Water Resources Engineering Branch.
 
Why the current discharges, which began in early December? The lake’s level has been “too high” for the last four years. This has caused the loss of over 90% of the grass in the lake; sunlight can’t penetrate more than three feet of water in the lake’s currently-murky condition. Without sunlight, grass dies. Without grass, the bass population dwindles – and bass are the focal point of the lake’s recreational attraction. And without grass, the animals and plants at the very bottom of the food chain have nowhere to live.
 
The Corps thus made the admittedly-difficult decision to inflict pain and suffering on the St. Lucie Estuary, via discharges which create harmful reduced salinity levels, to lessen the even greater pain and suffering that Lake Okeechobee has been enduring.
 
Is it working? The Corps says yes. Their stated goal is to get the lake level, currently 14.55 feet, down to 12 feet by May 1. They said that they are on track to get there “barring unanticipated heavy rainfall between now and then”, and would like to be able to stop the discharges in April; their “sweet spot” is 12.7 feet in early April. When asked, though, they admitted that there is only a 50% chance of hitting that 12’ goal by May 1.
 
A second goal is to have the lake level below 12.5 feet for a full ninety days, which would allow for maximum grass growth. The Corps confessed this second goal may be harder to achieve because it depends on both how quickly the lake’s level drops and how long it stays there.
 
Significantly, the Corps told us if their discharge plan is unsuccessful in lowering the lake to their target levels they will not keep doing it again “year-after-year”. If the current discharge plan works, in other words, the Corps will continue to lower the lake’s level in the future if and when they deem it necessary – but if their plan doesn’t at first succeed, they will not try, try again. 
 
And in the best of all possible futures, when all of the reservoirs and all of the water treatment areas have been built, the Corps of Engineers won’t need to send water down the St. Lucie Canal any longer in order to lower the lake level. In the future… 

-- Walter Deemer, League of Women Voters Martin County Chapter