NapleNews.com

Guest Commentary: Policy must change to improve Lake Okeechobee

By RAE ANN WESSEL, Natural resource policy director, Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation

Monday, August 27, 2007

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/aug/27/guest_commentary_policy_must_change_improve_lake_o/

The practice of backflowing rivers and backpumping water from the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) into Lake Okeechobee is failed water policy that will prevent ecosystem restoration of the greater Everglades system.

Many claims are being made that the water backpumped from the farms and stormwater areas south of the lake is cleaner than the water currently in the lake and all other sources of water to Lake Okeechobee. This is simply not true.

The sampling numbers from the South Florida Water Management District’s own report illustrate the fact that water being backpumped and backflowed into the lake is not clean and is contributing significantly to the pollution of the lake. Longtime Lake Okeechobee scientist Dr. Paul Gray compiled the following facts from the SFWMD’s own report on backpumping.

Backpumping during the last drought in 2001 dumped 1,493 tons of nitrogen into the lake. The permitted level is 393 tons. Backpumping contributed nearly four times the permitted levels of nitrogen to the lake. In that same drought, phosphorus from the EAA contributed from 87 to 154 parts per billion (ppb) of total phosphorus. The phosphorus target goal for the lake is 40 ppb. This means backpumping contributed two to four times the phosphorus loading to the lake. Is this the clean water?

At that same time, backflowing water contributed even more nitrogen and phosphorus into the lake: an additional 637 tons of nitrogen and 63.5 tons of phosphorus. This backflowed water also violates the dissolved oxygen standard by 100 percent, creating dead zones in the lake where no oxygen is present for aquatic life.

In defending the practice of backpumping, the statement has been made that “Rainfall south of the lake can be returned to the lake by these pumps, as has been done by every governor and (Department of Environmental Protection) secretary during past droughts.” Hmmm … backpumping is justified because it has always been done that way? Since this practice has resulted in a dying lake and polluted estuaries — requiring $4 million of South Florida taxpayers’ money to clean up — is backpumping/flowing really good water policy?

Backflowing is the practice of reversing the flow of water in the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers to make it flow upstream, back into Lake Okeechobee. Backpumping uses pumps to redirect water from the Everglades Agricultural Area south of the lake back into the lake.

This practice serves two purposes: it eliminates excess water from the agricultural fields in the EAA and provides the EAA an irrigation water supply.

With 700,000 acres of land in the EAA to alternately pump dry and irrigate, the simple question becomes why should they be allowed to use a natural freshwater lake to dump polluted water from their private corporate operations? Especially since Lake Okeechobee — the second largest lake in the entire nation — provides drinking water for municipalities around the lake and has been a world-class fishing destination and economy for rural communities. Would you drink or fish out of your neighborhood, roadside stormwater treatment pond?

Managing Lake Okeechobee as a reservoir, instead of a living system, perpetuates the degradation of the entire greater Everglades ecosystem. It is time for the EAA to manage its own water, to provide for the storage and treatment of storm water on its land and to stop degrading public resources.

Every system — natural and manmade — has operating limits. If we are to make a commitment to and investment in restoration, we must begin with the limits of the natural system and not make public policy decisions based on political compromises. We are clever enough to find solutions to the current problems, but this will require focusing on possibilities instead of obstacles. We must change our water policy and practices today if we hope to see real ecosystem restoration.

We applaud the governing board for its stand against backpumping and encourage board members to not allow trading or movement of polluted water between water bodies or watersheds.