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Everglades update provided

8 min read

The Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, the Everglades Foundation and City of Sanibel provided information about the myths vs. facts concerning the Everglades and Caloosahatchee to a packed house on Sanibel.

Sanibel Natural Resource Director James Evans explained why Lake Okeechobee is so polluted. He attributed it to decades, upon decades of nutrient pollution from runoffs from dairy farms, agricultural lands and back pumping water from the Everglades agricultural area, which now only helps control flooding in communities. The pollution also stems from decades of nutrient polluting and phosphorus loading into the lake.

“Even if we stop all the nutrient loading from the north today, you have 30, 40, 50 years of nutrient loading you have to contend with,” Evans said.

SCCF Natural Resource Policy Director Rae Ann Wessel said when a natural lake has a dike around it, it does not allow much, but for water levels to go up and down, resulting in the lake not getting the full expression of water change it needs to come in and flush out. She said there is a layer on the bottom of the lake that is part of the problem.

“For nearly 70, 80 years no one paid any attention. It happened over time. What that leaves with us today is a huge challenge and an example of why you don’t want pollution to leave its source and continue to contaminate public waters. Because once it is beyond that source it is a lot harder and a lot more expensive and will take a lot longer to clean up,” Wessel said. “Our responsibility today is to continue to demand that the Water Management District, the Department of Environmental Protection take a very proactive and aggressive stance at controlling pollution at its source.”

Wessel began the program by reading three myths, or facts, about water quality that were discussed in detail by a panel.

One of the myths discussed in detail pertained to if the water that is stored and treated north of Lake Okeechobee, the state does not need to buy any land in the EAA, south of the Okeechobee.

“The difference of how it worked before, and how it works now is the key to understanding what’s the best path,” Everglades Foundation Vice President for Programs Dr. Tom Van Lent said.

In terms of Lake Okeechobee, all of the lake water would spill out and go south to the Everglades. The average used to be a million and a half acre feet leaving the lake towards the Everglades. Today that number is about 5 percent of what used to go south.

“Where does the rest of it go? It mostly goes out the Caloosahatchee and some out to St. Lucie River,” Van Lent said. “The question is, why is that? And that’s because the Central and South Florida Project was designed to work that way. That’s how the engineers planned it to work.”

He went on to say that the fix is the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project.

“The biggest change we have to make is instead of throwing the water away to the St. Lucie and the Caloosahatchee, start sending it south again. That is the fundamental structural problem this water management faces and is the cause of what you see in the Caloosahatchee,” Van Lent said. “The problems that this system faces are a fundamentally designed flaw of the Central and South Florida project.”

To solve the problem, he told the audience it comes to picking the right component, or storage.

“And it’s not north of the lake,” Van Lent said, adding that the component includes moving water south. “That is going to solve lots of different problems – the estuary problems, the lake problems, the Everglades problem.”

He said what he has found is a reservoir to the south is roughly 10 times better at reducing the estuary chargers than one to the north. The simple reason, Van Lent said, is if he builds one to the north, so long as the reservoir is empty and he can fill it up, it will help decrease the flows to the estuary. But, as soon as it is full, he has to stop because the reservoir is full and the only outlet for the reservoir is Lake Okeechobee and then the waters surrounding Sanibel.

“If I build one to the south and I can (connect) with other water features and make the water clean, the big thing is there is an outlet for that reservoir that is not Lake Okeechobee,” he said. “I can send it to the Everglades and it flows out to the Everglades, or the Florida Bay. When it does that I have more room, I can add more water and put it into the reservoir. I did a calculation and it shows about a 50 percent reduction for a 360,000 acre foot, that’s about a 120 billion gallon reservoir in the Everglades agricultural area. Or about a 5 or 6 percent reduction if I put one to the north.”

Wessel said a bill passed last year, called Legacy Florida, specifying what the Water Management District needs to focus on projects that reduce, prioritize reducing harmful estuary discharges.

“Based on what Tom has just said, because of the outlet for storage north is the lake, and the outlet for storage south is the Everglades and Florida Bay, this is the project south that meets that requirement of that bill,” she explained.

The C43 project, being built in the Caloosahatchee Basin, Van Lent said is a big reservoir and has a very specific purpose.

“When it’s raining, I’m going to capture the water, so I can put it back into the river and stabilize the salinity, so it doesn’t get so salty in the winter. That’s an extremely important benefit. Wherever I put a reservoir, I’m going to get a water supply,” he said. “If I built it north of Lake Okeechobee, it’s essentially the same thing as adding more water supply to Lake Okeechobee and that is a good thing during a drought we will very much appreciate having more water.”

Right now there is about 500 tons of water a year going into the lake and the limit, the total maximum daily load, is 105 tons from the surrounding basin. Van Lent said they got about 12 tons a year out of building the reservoir.

Chief Executive Officer of the Everglades Foundation Eric Eikenberg said legislation was filed last Thursday, Jan. 26, Senate Bill 10, which calls for 60,000 acres south of Lake Okeechobee to be purchased, so an above ground reservoir can be built, which is called for in a plan that is almost 17 years old.

Eikenberg said the bill sets a process where the state of Florida, once the governor signs the legislation, will have until the end of the year to negotiate with the companies that make up the U.S. Sugar Co-op to buy land.

“If they fail to negotiate in good faith by the end of this year, the legislation then calls for option number two,” he said.

That option contains a contract that Florida has, which expires in October 2020 for 153,000 acres owned and operated by U.S. Sugar. If negotiations cannot be met, then the board of trustees will execute that option for that land, as well as any land the state does not need it can sell.

Mayor Kevin Ruane said the House will be the issue, which is when the pressure will come. He said that is why they put together 163 mayors, to put the pressure on the House.

“Really what we want is a state sponsor, that is what we need,” Ruane said. “We have written confirmation from the Army Corps of Engineers to indicate they will advance the planning process in the EAA.”

Eikenberg said they spent 242 days last year under a state of emergency due to toxic water from Lake Okeechobee being dumped east and west.

“Two hundred and forty two days was on the national news. The fourth of July was ruined for countless kids and families, let alone folks that came to the state as tourist. This is 2017. I am tired of hearing about the 1930s and people complaining about the 1930s. What generation is going to stand up and say enough is enough? Sure we have the brightest minds, we have three of them right here at that table tonight,” he said. “We will be here until the cows come home trying to figure out how to do the Everglades Restoration and because of that narrow minded thinking there is a tremendous amount of Everglades fatigue in this state. This room is packed because we are upset from what we saw from last summer along the Caloosahatchee and what we saw on Sanibel and Captiva.”

Eikenberg instructed those who showed interest in becoming involved to send “water” on their smartphone to 52886, which would pull up their legislature and a prepared text to support Bill 10.

“Join this movement to make your voices be heard,” he said.