Huge amounts of Toxic Green Algae are in the lake this year....
Because of flood Control decades ago...Water can flow into the lake many times faster then it can leave even if all outflows are opened...high water levels put pressure on the aging dike.
This year had record rain in May causing high water levels on the lake and to the water storage areas to the south..
There are three ways to get water out of the lake..west, east and south
West and east can release the most water through the rivers but the toxic slime will go with it...
The Corp opened up those east and West routes after the Record May rains...slime is everywhere now all the way to the coast
The Corp like to keep the level pf the lake between 12.5 and 15.5 feet..it's at 14.5 feet today...which is almost a foot above normal for this time of year..
The Tamiami Trail mentioned in the article..dammed up the water storage areas to the south blocking the natural flow to the everglades....it can only be pumped south now...they did raise 1 mile of the trail last year but many more miles are planned but will take years of construction
Rainfall from a tropical system can raise the lake very fast..Irma last year raised the lake 3.5 feet in a month to over 17 feet...
The lake is much higher this year then last at the time
So the corps would like the lower the lake level now by releasing water East and West but is under public pressure not to because of the green algea
background articles
Massive and toxic algae bloom threatens Florida coasts with another lost summer
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article213849429.html
90 percent of Lake Okeechobee covered with algae
http://cbs12.com/news/local/90-percent-of-lake-okeechobee-covered-with-algae
Anyone here speak bureaucratese?
They have released it all south apparently and we on the west coast have TOXIC gulf water full of TOXIC algae bloom and red tide in Fort Myers and beyond. You had better believe we are more than sick of this. This is the worst, but this has been going on now for way too long. There are going to be repercussions at the voting booth. People are pissed beyond words.
I think they should turn it into biofuel.
I guess the Indian-Town Marina is SOL?
Flood control decades ago that successfully transformed Florida from fetid fever swamps into productive land has been partially undone by environmentalists resulting in the present mess.
Very informative !
Fertilizer runoff from sugarcane and orange groves triggers algal bloom.
Both are also a result of bureaucratic policies to prop up domestic agribusiness at the expense of consumers.
All of southern Florida was once a vast natural watershed that (a) could be flooded at any time, (b) acted as an outlet for flooding off any higher ground, (c) and was a natural break against tidal storm surges to any land further inland. The natives new that, built settlements inland and let the watershed alone to protect them.
Then modern civiization decided Florida ought to be one of the most populace states, and what nature made and needed had to be accomodated to that human occupation.
Go to pet store, buy a few hundred thousand Chinese algae eaters or Plecostomus fish, turn ‘em loose and say buy bye to algae.
They will now be called the neverglades
Big Sugar is a large part of the problem.
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.
In the fwiw dept, my dad help build the dike and locks in Clewiston, etc.
5.56mm
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?
Sounds like a job for Skink.
Love, Carl