Posted on 07/09/2018 7:28:33 AM PDT by janetjanet998
GLADES COUNTY, Fla. -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will suspend water releases from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Estuaries starting Monday morning.
"As we look at operations in the system, we believe we can pause discharges for a short time to get additional input from staff on available options for moving water," said Col. Jason Kirk, Jacksonville District Commander. "We have implemented higher stages in the canal along the Tamiami Trail and we have implemented deviations to generate flexibility in operations at the southern end of the system to move additional water south. We want to ensure we are using all available flexibility before we resume discharges east and west."
The Glades is one of the most delicate ecosystems in the world.
There’s already a billion dollar plan to restore some of the original water flow south. The Ag fields south of Lake Okeechobee pollute the glades and kill off the saw grass if phosphate levels are not kept to a minimum.
A portion of the plan that has been partially implemented is to restore a ring of filter marshes between the Ag ares south of the lake and the glades which significantly reduces phosphate levels farther down the drainage.
The complexity of the system wasn’t a concern when the Army Corps drained the swamp.
A good video showing the propaganda mindset back in the day:
Waters of Destiny. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIi4OzKsFiU
They will now be called the neverglades
I live by that first big bay, about 30 miles north of the Caloosahatchee river. On July 4th we dined at a waterfront place in Fort Myers on that river (the first big one as you come north on the west side of Florida). Green slime was pouring out, covering the surface of the water. The beaches for about 30 miles south and 15 miles north have brown water now.
Since the local economy is semi-dependent on tourism, this is a bad thing. Fortunately it is summer here, the quiet season. The businesses that stay open year round are being destroyed.
yes YES , agree , I once was mentored by a
US Army Green Beret Captain from “Nam”
He explained that the MEKONG DELTA was the perfect
ancient model of how to maintain a river like Mississippi.
He explained natural seasonal rural flooding would increase farming with ground nutrients
Big Sugar is a large part of the problem.
Invasive species.
Nope.
Nothing good ever comes from anything “managed” by the Army Corps of Engineers. How they’ve got their hands into manifold domestic “water conservation” issues is hard to understand.
Thanks for the map.
My favorite book about Florida has a chapter or two regarding the building of the dykes around Lake Okeechobee.
A Land Remembered, by Patrick D Smith is a work of historical fiction about a Florida family over 100+ years.
Absolutely beautiful descriptions of the wildlife and fauna.
Rick Scott is running for the US Senate. He is a take-no-prisoners campaigner. His home is in Naples so he has clout and credibility on this.
Not saying this gets us to the proper solution, but at the end of the day, “It’s all politics”. And the voters are just a means to an end.
In the fwiw dept, my dad help build the dike and locks in Clewiston, etc.
5.56mm
Converting south and central Florida into productive land is a process that began over a century ago and was very successful.
Stop and think. Why is it only recently, in the past few years that these big algae blooms have been occurring in Okeechobee? Might it have something to do with environmentalists dismantling the old flood control system???
not form dismantling flood control
from 2016
n recent decades, Lake Okeechobee has been been loaded with excessive amounts of nitrogen and phosphorus from a variety of sources, including fertilization runoff from farms and urbanization, according to John Campbell, spokesman for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Jacksonville District.
Such nutrients, along with other environmental factors (such as warmer temperatures), promote the growth of blue-green algae, also known as cyanobacteria.
Toxic Algae: Complex Sources and Solutions - Full Episode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DVkHW2W0yE
A Land Remembered is my favorite book also. I’ve read it three times this year. It would make a great movie. I can’t understand why it hasn’t already been made into one.
All I need to know is when POTUS Trump will be blamed for making the Army Corp of Engineers blow up Levees to punish the poor Black Folk.
Remember during Katrina how the topic of POTUS Bush blowing up the Levees was discussed as plausible Reality?
NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla - Repairs on the Herbert Hoover dike near Lake Okeechobee will be fast tracked after the Trump administration and congress approved 500 million dollars for the project.
Once completed, the lake will be able to store more water when levels get high, rather than sending it south through the Caloosahatchee River.
https://www.fox4now.com/news/local-news/lake-o-dike-funding-wont-solve-algae-problems-right-away
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