NEWS PRESS
February 13, 2007

 

 

Lake O releases likely to end

http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007301310010

 

 

Water management officials are expected to stop environmental releases from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee River because they’re not doing any good.

 

The tape grasses the releases were meant to save are already dead, said Terrie Bates, assistant deputy director for water resources for the South Florida Water Management District.

 

The district has been doing light, trickle releases targeted at keeping salinity levels so the saltwater/freshwater mix is low enough to keep tape grasses alive.

 

But Bates told Lee County commissioners today that most of those grass beds are dead and there’s nothing left to save.

 

However, the releases that keep the salinity at minimum levels at the county's Olga water treatment plant will continue to protect drinking water, she said.