NewsPress.com
July 6, 2007
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070706/NEWS0105/707060365/1075
by Joel Moroney
Mud-choked water roared backward through Clewiston's canal recently,
dragging dead turtles, scores of fish and berms of vegetation into
drought-starved Lake Okeechobee.
Canal pumps on farm fields have been kicking on in response to recent rains
after a long winter drought. The reeking tide that's come as a result of the
pumping is a small example of what's fouling the Caloosahatchee River.
"It came through here like I-75 at rush hour," said Mary Ann Martin
of the dirty water, which piled up at the lock entrance, where alligators and
birds feasted.
"What I was so upset about was the quality of
the water coming into the lake — it was all mud and dead fish," said
Martin, of Roland & Mary Ann Martin's Marina & Resort.
When the lake reaches about 15 feet deep — where it has spent much of the time
since the 2001 drought — the lock at Clewiston's Industrial Canal and Martin's
Marina is closed and runoff continues west through town to the Caloosahatchee.
Martin and others hoped the practice of flushing water off the fields and
into the lake would stop after a June 14 court order. The order requires the
South Florida Water Management District to get federal Clean Water Act permits
for continued use of three pumps to move stormwater into the lake from the
agricultural area to the south.
Problem either way
But water district officials this week said what happened at Martin's
Marina is a normal function of the gravity system from Clewiston — 63 miles
east of Fort Myers — to the Caloosahatchee.
In other words, the water would've ended up in the river even if the lake's
Clewiston lock wasn't open, because of record-low water levels.
And if the Clewiston pump ever stops moving water into the lake from the south
in response to the lawsuit — the only outlet for that water would also be west
down the Caloosahatchee.
"Just keeping the gates open and allowing the water to flow (back in)
has been done for decades," said Chip Merriam, the district's deputy
executive director of water resources.
Either way, billions of gallons of water pulled from farm fields is headed this
way and its quality is of concern.
Water flow
When the lake is high, massive discharges also are being released through
locks at the mouths of the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers to relieve
pressure on the lake's aging earthen dike.
Those discharges have been blamed for a host of environmental problems that
have resulted in threats of lawsuits against lake managers by Sanibel Island
and Lee County.
Kurt Harclerode, operations manager for Lee County Division of Natural
Resources, wants a better explanation of what happened at Martin's marina.
"We want to get a clarification on operation protocols that would allow
that type of water to be discharged into the lake or the river,"
Harclerode said.
Susan Sylvester, the district's director of operations control, said the
best is being made of an antiquated system.
"We are trying to balance a system built for flood control and water
supply," Sylvester said. "That is the hard, cold truth. It is a
patient on dialysis. I am going to keep it as healthy as I can until we can
make improvements."
Field Runoff
Martin — a citizen member of the water district's lake advisory committee —
brought pictures of the mess to last week's committee meeting and got an
apology from board member Malcolm S. "Bubba" Wade Jr., senior vice
president of U.S. Sugar.
Wade blamed it on fields in the Sugarland Drainage District activating
dormant pumps and canal systems after the wet season's first rains.
"All that silt and everything that sat there for three or four months
started to move," Wade said.
The fields of the drainage district are in Hendry and Glades counties, which
flank the river and end at the lake.
Judy Sanchez, spokeswoman for U.S. Sugar, said the company operates about
160,000 acres of citrus and sugar cane in the 600,000 acre Everglades
Agricultural Area south of the lake.
The pumping lawsuit was backed by the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, which
intervened on behalf of environmental groups. They accused the water district
of polluting the lake with a flood control system designed to pull water from
rim communities and the vast agricultural area to the south by pumping it back
into the lake.
"The tribe has been in this ecosystem for hundreds of years,"
said Dione Carroll, a tribe attorney. "Lake Okeechobee is a historical
part of tribal culture, and it deserves protection."
First Flush
Members of the lake advisory committee, including Wade, said fixing the
problem of the "first flush" off fields would be a move in the right
direction.
"We'll work to figure out that answer," Wade said.
Sanchez, of U.S. Sugar, said long-standing environmental regulations in the
Everglades Agricultural Area make it some of the cleanest water available —
much cleaner than what is entering the lake from the north or the rivers from
runoff in areas where tougher regulations are still several years away.
"The first flush moves that stuff and what you're getting after that
is rainfall," Sanchez said. "Farmers south of the lake have been
cleaning water for 15 years — it's the cleanest water."
But Martin said it has been a problem for generations. She said old timers used
to call it "red water."
"Some way to filter out the silt and all that sludge coming off those
fields would really alleviate the problem. It was just pure muck. There was no
oxygen in that water at all," Martin said, noting clean water is
appreciated during times of drought. "I like backpumping when it is clean
water. If it wasn't for backpumping in 2001 (drought), this old lake wouldn't
have any water in it at all."
And Sylvester said the system has worse neighbors than agriculture.
"Once you go to asphalt, flood control becomes much more the
priority," Sylvester said. "Ag is a better neighbor than Wal-Mart or
Kmart and all the houses that go with it."