BonitaNews.com
July 11, 2007
http://www.bonitanews.com/news/2007/jul/11/hearing_lake_o_plan_coming_fort_myers/
by Julio Ochoa
The Army Corps of Engineers will showcase its new and improved plan
for releasing water from
It’s original plan was not well received last year by local residents and
officials, who wrote many of the 3,000 comments the Corps received. Most
comments focused on the fact the new plan would increase the damaging releases
from the lake to the Caloosahatchee estuary.
The Corps incorporated the public comment and came up with a plan local
officials say is probably the best-case scenario, given the system’s
constraints.
“It’s the best that we could get after a year and a half of meetings,” said
Kurt Harclerode, operations manager for Lee County Natural Resources. “This is
a better plan than we have in place right now.”
If the Corps approves the plan after a series of public meetings in August,
the new release schedule could be adopted as early as November. It’s being
called an interim plan because it will only be in effect for two years. After
that, a new plan will be developed to incorporate more storage, treatment
facilities and other projects currently under construction.
The new plan has a lot more flexibility, said Pete Milam, regulation
schedule manager for the Corps.
For example, if it looks like it’s going to be a drier-than-normal season,
water managers can hold back more water. They can also release smaller amounts
of water earlier in a wet season.
Under the current plan, water managers must wait until the lake reaches
certain stages before releasing any water. By that time, the lake’s level may
be high and climbing rapidly, forcing water managers to releases massive
amounts of water.
The biggest pulses of nutrient-rich freshwater from the lake have the worst
effects on the estuary.
After the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, water managers were forced to
release large amounts of water down the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries,
destroying wildlife and habitat and fueling algae blooms.
“People will recognize that we heard them the first go-round and we have
made the balanced adjustments that we can make under the constraints in the
study,” Milam said.
The constraints include having to operate the lake more than a foot lower
than previous years because of concerns with breaches in the Herbert Hoover
Dike, an earthen barrier surrounding the lake.
The new plan was sidetracked briefly by residential and agricultural
interests who depend on the lake’s water. Those interests feared the new plan
would not keep enough water in the lake during dry times, causing drought
conditions to occur more often and last longer.
Representatives from the sugar industry and water management district could
not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Corps officials met with leaders from the South Florida Water Management
District and said they resolved the concerns by explaining the plan’s
flexibility.
“They found a way to satisfy the concerns that they had in their drought
operations,” Milam said. “With that, the board supported the release of the
draft.”
The new plan also helps reduce flows to the estuary by measuring releases
further downstream on the Caloosahatchee River. The current plan measures the
release of water where it comes out of the lake. By the time it travels
downstream, several thousand cubic feet per second of freshwater from the river
basin adds to the lake release, causing more damage to the estuary.
Under the new plan, releases will be measured downstream, so salinity
levels in the estuary do not get too high.
“That is a big improvement for the salinity balance in the estuary,” Milam
said.
If you go
The Army Cops of Engineers will hold a series of four public hearings
throughout the state next month to get comments on its new plan for releasing
water from Lake Okeechobee. The Fort Myers meeting will take place at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, Aug. 8, in the Lee County Commission chambers.