W.P. FRANKLIN LOCK, Fla. — Over the past several years Fox 4 reported on high water levels in Lake Okeechobee leading to high volume releases down the Caloosahatchee. But this year the opposite is true, a lower lake, a healthier lake and now the concern is for too little fresh water being released.
Fox 4 Meteorologist Andrew Shipley spoke with SCCF about the concern and what it means for the Caloosahatchee Estuary.
Since the start of dry season, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been trying to get Lake Okeechobee water levels into much healthier situation compared to recent years.
“Everything I that have seen is sub aquatic vegetation is growing,” said SCCF Environmental Policy Director Matt DePaolis. “The Lake is looking really good.”
And with the Lake now under 12 feet for the first time in several years, the Army Corps on Friday announced that they are reducing the flows down the river from the lake to 650 cfs. When recovery operations started in December, releases were more than 3x that (2,100 cfs).
While that might sound like a good thing, especially after years of devastating releases, the Caloosahatchee still needs beneficial flow of fresh water.
“The (South Florida) Water Management District’s modeling shows that we can handle that, but we would be very nervous to go any lower than that,” said DePaolis. “We are already on razors edge.”
DePaolis says the concern comes from the fragile balance of salt and fresh water needed for our oysters to reproduce.
“Adult oysters are more tolerant of changing conditions, as they can kind of close up and hunker down, but the spat really needs a specific set of conditions to have success,” said DePaolis. “And if the oyster spawn is impacted that could be generations of oysters that in turn impacted by that change.”
And while oysters can close, our vulnerable tape grass further upriver cannot.
“If they get too saline, they will just experience morality. And we already have minimal amounts of tape grass in the Caloosahatchee Estuary based on past releases, based on situations like this past.”
While the current models do show the estuary can handle flows at this level, DePaolis says this is the floor and they should not be reduced any further.
“If model starts to deviate from the real-world conditions we are seeing on the ground, we really hope that South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corps are going to be responsive to that to protect the estuary.”
The Army Corps told Fox 4 via email Friday, that even lower releases may be made and that South Florida Water Management District will be incorporated in those decisions as they have the legal responsibility under the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manuel (LOSOM).
