Lake Okeechobee Water Level

cortr

It has been reported that water managers are considering keeping the lake higher to reduce flow east and west. The high water from the hurricanes and continued spraying is killing alot of the vegetation that was keeping the water filtered in the lake. There are only a few areas where there is clean water. If you don’t believe it, ask any BASS Elite Pros that fished here this week. If the water stays up, all the dead vegetation will turn the lake into a mud hole. It seems as if the lake is being sacrificed to protect the coasts and the sugar industry.  Although the Governor and legislature are addressing the issue, things are not progressing fast enough.  Please contact your elected representatives and demand they prioritize this before it is too late. Thanks

lemaymiami

Put simply... our freshwater systems here in Florida are very badly screwed up, and have been for years and years (roughly since right after WWII when "flood control" was all anyone was thinking about...).  Our state requested the Corps of Engineers do something after a series of disastrous floods from hurricanes and that's just what they did (every canal from Orlando south was designed with flood control in mind - and little thought to the consequences - and it's all connected - and each part contributes problems to other areas.  Want to learn more about what we're facing?  The first book to read is THE SWAMP by Michael Grunwald - it's a history of man's dealings with the Everglades and what the consequences were - for the past 500 years, starting with the Spanish if you can believe it... That book is so interesting I couldn't put it down until I'd read it cover to cover -and it's about time I read it again - particularly the part about recent history (since the 1940's).

Before we altered the natural system (Lake Okeechobee with no dike, overflowing every year and flooding all the way south to Florida Bay during the rainy season...) things were working as nature intended.  Remember that the natural waters in our state were almost nutrient free - pure limestone waters that come directly from rainwater that is absorbed into soft limestone rock and held there.   That's not what we have today - particularly in the big lake (Okeechobee) which is heavily loaded with nutrients now... "Flood control" actually cut off the flood waters needed for the Everglades to prosper - and all of those waters eventually reach Florida Bay which desperately needs a good mix of fresh and saltwaters to prosper... Instead all of the overflows from the big lake flow east or west now (down the St. Lucie to the east or the Caloosahatchee to the west) - causing untold damage when they reach the coasts...

Finally we're just beginning to do a few things to change that situation - but it will be a long, long fight with interests on every side wanting things their way.  It's going to cost a ton of money over fifty years or more to restore (those things that can be restored) the balance so badly needed.  Many different outfits are involved.... Look up Captains for Clean Water, the Coastal Conservation Association, and many others - all doing their part.  In the Orlando area we need to do everything possible to stop the nutrient loading that pollutes the waters coming into Lake Okeechobee -that means no more septic tanks on one hand - and requiring agricultural interests to filter their waste waters to remove all the fertilizers and other chemicals that have been allowed for years to head south into the big lake... 

I'll stop here since the work to be done is just hard to describe.  None of our problems happened over night and they'll take years to fix... You can imagine how voters will react when politicians ask to raise taxes to pay for it all...  But if you talk to folks along the east coast (terrible algae blooms, grassbeds dying off, manatees starving...) or the west coast (very bad red tide blooms with terrible fish kills every year now as a result from Sarasota all the way down to Marco Island) those discharges from the big lake need to be stopped or at least cleaned up... 

And so it goes... I won't be around to see how it all plays out - but if we don't get started my grand kids (and everyone else's grand kids) won't grow up in good circumstances at all as far as our waters go...  Anyone reading this is welcome to pass it along to anyone interested... We need this info as widely spread as possible since the voters in our state will be the ones needed to approve the efforts needed to clean up our mess... I'll step down off of my soapbox now.

swampdog

Well said Lemay!

capt louie

swampdog said:

Well said Lemay!

I agree !

cortr

Thanks, Mr. Lemay. Your insight is spot on.  Since you are one of the most respected contributors to this forum, I appreciate your post to this thread that I originally posted. I have been coming down to Lake O since the 80’s, and I am in Clewiston now.  I have never seen the lake so unhealthy looking with the high dirty water and decaying vegetation. Everyone please realize that this lake will die as we know it if nothing is addressed. Thanks again for your contributions to the forum. 

CaptJ

Lake Okeechobee can be viewed as the heart of Florida's environment. The decline of natural resources in our state can be attributed directly to unscrupulous developers and big agriculture. Lived in South Florida since 1949 and the recent declines have been startling. Hope our government can speed up the solutions. Going to take resolve on the part of taxpayers and politicians.

mdiaczyk

The governor cares about this issue some other elected officials don't. 

Jonsredfishin

I was launching a few weeks ago and Darell Pons, pro bass guy, pulled up in his wrapped truck and boat and stopped to check out my boat. I knew that he had just returned from fishing the Okeechobee tournament so I asked him how the lake looks. He said that it’s the unhealthiest that he’s ever seen it, but he’s never seen stringers of bass and specks coming in like he did. He said the fishing was truly unbelievably good. He also said they had sprayed all of the hydrilla and it’s eventually going to be a mess. 

cortr

Just returned from three weeks at Lake O. Have been going there since the eighties, and I agree it is the unhealthiest I have ever seen. The fishing was pretty good, but if something does not happen, we will lose one of the most special ecosystems in the state. Agree that spraying is killing the lake. Several locals told me that high water, decaying vegetation, and herbicide are creating a tar like substance on the bottom that cannot be good. It is complicated situation with competing interests trying to prioritize their needs. Hopefully, Gov. Desantis, SFWMD, USACE and U.S. sugar can come together before it is too late. 

FloridaOD

It is likely that Lake levels will trend higher..... after all, the Lake Levee has been “ improved”, Everglades “ Restoration” now focused on high levee structures rather than Art Marshall Plan Natural System Sheet Flow” and an assumed ever increasing development population and related “ water supply”. 

Non- News. 

swampdog

As a side bar: Government likes growth like a drug addict likes drugs and can’t say no to their need. The unbridled growth results in the overloading of our resources and especially our infrastructure. Poorly treated wastewater and unmanaged storm water runoff coupled with the elimination of wetlands and buffer zones along the waterways, carries nutrients into those waters and causing the heaviest impacts.