Rivers Coalition Meeting Recap
Walter Deemer • May 29, 2024
Meeting - May 24, 2024
This month’s Rivers Coalition meeting focus was on the ever-present threat cyanotoxin (blue-green algae) poses to the St. Lucie River and Estuary and the problems monitoring it.
The good news: Federal cyanotoxin standards are already in place. They were established five years ago by the Federal Clean Waters Act so states could detect threats before an actual bloom occurred.
The bad news: Florida has ignored those standards. (Technically, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection isn’t required to accept those cyanotoxin standards --- but is required to explain why not. It hasn't.)
According to federal law, the Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for the quantity of water in the Lake Okeechobee system -- but the state of Florida is responsible for the quality of that water. Since Florida doesn’t have any standards for harmful toxin levels, water monitoring is inadequate and, when harmful algae is present, public notifications are sporadic.
Environmental groups think the time has come to take action.
“Five years is enough”, said Jason Totolu, the Senior Attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. That organization is heading a multi-group effort formally requesting, via petitions, that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency step in and set limits on algae toxins in Florida. The goal: Help protect both human and aquatic life health and, with water management agencies adhering to those standards, prevent toxin laden water from being discharged into rivers and the ocean.
The Rivers Coalition is supporting this effort on behalf of its 106 member organizations. At some point in the EPA review process, though, letters of support from the general public will be appropriate. I’ll let you know when that time comes.
In other developments:
* The more than five-year process of developing a new Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual, which will replace the current 2008 version -- and which is much more environmentally-friendly -- is finally nearing the finish line. The Army Corps of Engineers expects to sign the final version and implement it in mid-August.
* Lake Okeechobee, thanks to a very helpful dry season, has dropped to 13.2 feet – three feet lower than it was in March. The Corps is “very optimistic” they can get through the hurricane season without needing to do any discharges. (They know as well as we do that the media has been deluging us with forecasts of a much more active hurricane season than usual – but the real issue isn't how many there are but how many end up affecting our area.)
* The City of Stuart is installing 300 oyster beds along the Riverwalk.
* The South Florida Water Management District is starting to monitor health, fish and plant life criteria much more intensively than in the past. This will give water managers much more data to incorporate in their decision-making process.
But the good news is that health issues are being weighed much, much more heavily in managers’ decision-making process now than in the past. It’s not just gallons of water any more.
-- Walter Deemer
Gil Smart (VoteWater) and Eve Samples (Friends of the Everglades) updated the February 26th Rivers Coalition meeting on how this year’s legislative session in Tallahassee was going as far as environmental issues are concerned. It wasn’t good news. Gil warned us last month: “If last year’s legislative session’s theme was facilitating sprawl, this year’s is sprawl on steroids.” And since the Republican-controlled legislature can pass anything it wants, at this point the only possible changes in the disturbingly-large number of bad bills in the pipeline are tweaks to the bills. With one possible exception. Some North Florida Republican legislators have voiced concerns about the Everglades water management process. South Florida Republicans haven’t yet, but if they notice the desertions they may be persuadable. The bills are HB 701 and SB 1120. Gil’s bottom line: “Right now the worst bills are all the pro-growth bills like ‘Blue Ribbon Projects’; House Bill 299 is on the House floor but Senate Bill 354 still has to clear the Rules Committee this week, and in both cases it would be helpful for people to reach out to our local legislators and tell them to oppose these bills.” The bad news from Tallahassee doesn’t stop there. Florida Forever, the state’s conservation and recreation land acquisition program which is funded by doc stamps, started in 2001 at $300 million/year. Funding was cut to zero during the Great Recession but rebounded to $100 million in 2018-2023 and then came all the way back up to $270 million last year. Alas; this year the Governor requested only $115 million. Even worse, the Senate wants to appropriate just $35 million for Florida Forever. The House’s number: A Big Fat Zero. Meanwhile, Lake Okeechobee hasn’t seen any serious effects from the drought thus far. It’s currently at 12.26 feet, and it would have to drop below 11 feet for 80 days before triggering any real concerns. The main problem with the lake right now Is actually to the west: The Caloosahatchee River needs fresh water, but the low lake level is preventing it from getting enough. At least the drought is giving the St. Lucie Estuary a breather from discharge threats. -- Walter Deemer, LWVMC Rivers Coalition Representative
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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