Army Corps: Kissimmee restoration will help curb harmful flows, pollution to Caloosahatchee

Chad Gillis
Fort Myers News-Press

Federal water managers Thursday celebrated Everglades restoration work done north of Lake Okeechobee that will help curb harmful releases to the Caloosahatchee River and its estuary. 

Restoring natural flows in the Kissimmee River is one of the top restoration priorities in South Florida as it will help hold back flows to Okeechobee while also improving water quality. 

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a ceremony near the river to celebrate restoration work in the Kissimmee River basin that will allow the agency to hold more water north of Lake Okeechobee, which will in turn help the entire Everglades system. 

What was once a straight-shot, channelized canal has been restored to historic, winding oxbows. 

Storing more water north of the lake will help reduce the need for harmful discharges to the Caloosahatchee River, which is vitally important when the lake is suffering from a toxic blue-green algae bloom. 

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"People are used to Okeechobee getting too deep and then they start dumping water on the Caloosahatchee, and part of the reason is because the Kissimmee was so heavily drained," said Paul Gray, a scientist for Audubon. "At any time this can hold about 100,000-acre feet of water, or about 3 inches off the lake." 

Slowing flows to Lake Okeechobee will help with water levels and lake management, but it will also improve water quality by cutting down on the amount of pollution flowing from the north and into Okeechobee. 

The lake functions as a headwaters for the Caloosahatchee River, so the cleaner the water is in the lake, the better it is for the Caloosahatchee and its delicate estuary. 

The river is sometimes plagued with harmful discharges from Lake Okeechobee, a process that can blast freshwater 15 miles into the Gulf of Mexico. 

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Capt. Holden Fisher tries his luck on a restored portion of the Kissimmee River on November 2, 2020. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Thursday celebrated the completion of restoration work in the river and its basin.

Attenuating those types of flows is a top goal for many environmental groups. 

"Restoring the meandering river is important for improving water quality, and I think one of the overarching themes is to keep water on the landscape longer so we're not impacting the receiving water so abruptly," said Calusa Waterkeeper John Cassani. "We're doing better with the restoration projects but we need to better understand the net effect in order to plan for the future." 

Gene McAvoy with the University of Florida's agriculture extension in LaBelle said the project will help cleanse pollution from the northern part of the historic Everglades before that water gets to Okeechobee and, eventually, the Caloosahatchee. 

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"I don't know if it will help farmers but it will improve water quality because a lot of what they're doing is restoring the meandering Kissimmee River," McAvoy said. "That will help clean the water before it reaches the lake. The water will spread out during high water times in the flood plane and that will help clean up the pollutants that might be in the water." 

The South Florida Water Management District helped acquire the land and will operate the control structures north of Lake Okeechobee, of which the Army Corps controls. 

Chauncey Goss is the chair of the water district's governing board and said the Kissimmee River restoration is just one project to celebrate.  

“Under the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis, we continue to see historic environmental achievements,” Goss said in a statement to The News-Press. “In addition, our partnership with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is integral to the success of many critical Everglades restoration projects such as the Kissimmee River Restoration Project, the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Reservoir Project and the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area. Completing these projects is vital to SFWMD’s mission of protecting South Florida’s communities from flooding while safeguarding and restoring local water resources and ecosystems.”

Army Corps Col. Andrew Kelly said Monday that the Kissimmee project is a significant part of the overall Everglades restoration, which stretches across 16 counties and spans from just south of Orlando to the Florida Keys. 

"Any chance you get to bring the water distribution to where it was historically, it will be significant," Kelly said. "We dug a channel (decades ago) and opening up (the Kissimmee) flood plain will help." 

Kelly said the restoration has also been good for wildlife north of the lake. 

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"There's really significant improvements in the ecology and it's really impressive and exciting to see," Kelly said. "It shows that we can actually do this, but it just takes time." 

Gray said more storage is needed north of Lake Okeechobee to help the entire system. 

"We want to be able to store one million acre-feet north of the lake, and this is a pretty good chunk," Gray said. "This project was done for ecological restoration but the water management side is really going to help restoration and it gets back to the idea that mother nature works, if we just let her." 

Connect with this reporter: @ChadEugene on Twitter.