SWFL to feds: Don't make us bear the brunt of dirty Lake O releases, now or in the future

Fair is fair.

That’s the message Lee County’s commission and all of its mayors hope the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers takes to heart as it makes future decisions about releasing polluted water from Lake Okeechobee.

“There is a good chance that the Caloosahatchee will again be impacted by high-volume releases from the lake this rainy season,” they wrote to Colonel Andrew Kelly, the district commander for the federal agency that oversees the lake’s system, which includes the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie watersheds. Signing on were Lee Commission Chair Kevin Ruane, Fort Myers Mayor Kevin Anderson, Estero Mayor Katy Errington, Cape Coral Mayor John Gunter, Fort Myers Beach Mayor Ray Murphy, and Sanibel Mayor Holly Smith. (Approval was pending but expected from Bonita Springs Mayor Rick Steinmeyer when the letter was sent.)

“We fully understand that the limitations of the current system do not allow for any one stakeholder to realistically achieve even near-perfect conditions (but) we do ask and expect out of the process is that the Corps recognizes that while the Caloosahatchee and the residents of Lee County realize minimal benefits from the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control project we should not continue to suffer the bulk of the adversity. (The Lake Okeechobee Systems Operating Manual) should therefore improve conditions in the Caloosahatchee Estuary beyond those expected from the C-43 Reservoir.”

A translation from the letter’s diplomatic official-ese might read: “We’re pretty sure the Caloosahatchee is going to get swamped with dirty lake water this summer. We know things as they are now aren’t perfect for anyone, but Lee County gets very little from Everglades restoration, so it’s not right to keep hammering us with most of the lake releases. Going forward, you need to give us more help.”

As it deals with the day-to-day business of regulating lake levels and deciding how much to discharge and where, the Corps is also reworking protocols that are expected to be in place by the end of next year.

Did you know?:Army Corps working toward new release schedule for Lake Okeechobee, Everglades system

By the way:Corps pushes ahead with lake release modifications, lawsuit still in play

They’re periodically reworked, Corps spokeswoman Erica Skolte told The News-Press last week. With upgrade work taking place on the Herbert Hoover Dike, which walls in the lake, “it made us think it was the right time to do the LOSOM review, so that as soon as the (dike work) is completed, we want to be able to put this in place.” LOSOM is the abbreviation for the operating plan.

The new schedule will also accommodate new Everglades restoration projects like the C-43 Reservoir near the Hendry-Lee county line, which will store water for the Caloosahatchee for use when the estuary is thirsty for freshwater.

Before humans stepped in and re-engineered the system, lake water would sometimes flow to the Caloosahatchee when things were very wet. But now, the river as well as the St. Lucie drain the lake through straight, dredged canals.

Generally, the Corps works to maintain a lake level between 12.5 and 15.5 feet above sea level, while providing flood control, supplying drinking and irrigation water and provide flood control and keeping the Caloosahatchee estuary hydrated enough to keep from becoming overly salty.

As the Corps works to update the lake’s governing document, the Lake Okeechobee Systems Operating Manual, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, announced he’d file three water bills related to Lake Okeechobee releases.

The bills would help keep toxic algae out of the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee, while keeping public health at the fore with measures including alerting people to the hazards of Lake Okeechobee discharges.

"Water supply doesn't matter if it's crap water that you can't touch, drink, or if it poisons the things that it gets on top of," TCPalm reported Mast said while standing by the St. Lucie River in Stuart last week.

It’s important to remember that natural systems be considered in the decision-making process, said Caloosahatchee Waterkeeper John Cassani.

“The natural resources … fish and wildlife are legal users of the system, and they’re entitled to the same equity that the water consumption and the flood control get,” he said. “They’re entitled to share adversity equitably with the other legal users.”

Lake levels are currently higher than what Caloosahatchee advocates like to see going into the wet summer.

“Given the current conditions, if history tells us anything, we’re in for some significant flows this upcoming rainy season,” said James Evans the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation's environmental policy director.

Longer-term, re-working the LOSOM is a multi-stage process, Evans said: Early on, stakeholder groups are asked to posit scenarios that would favor their particular part of the system.

“The best way I can describe it is the Corps said to all the stakeholders, ‘OK everybody go to your corners and pick (what) performs best for your part of the system,’ I call it the Hunger Games … everybody comes out fighting for the (scenario) that serves them best, but the next step in the process will be to look at how these runs balance the different parts of the system – whether it’ water supply or flows to the St. Lucie, flows to the Caloosahatchee or the Everglades – that’s where we hope the Army Corp of Engineers will really step up,” he said.

“The ultimate goal here is to balance the needs of the entire system so that one stakeholder doesn’t get all of the benefits while one stakeholder gets all of the harm. And of course we’ve had our share of harm in the Caloosahatchee, so we’re looking forward to having more equitable results than we’ve seen in the past.”