Consider the St. Johns River. It pours that same color water into the ocean at Jacksonville 24/7. Here's an article giving some background on why the water is the color it is.
http://www.jacksonville.com/article/20130128/NEWS/801258584
Talking to the old-timers ( 20-30 years ago) they tell the tale of how there were seagrasses everywhere, blue water, conch , oysters.... All thats gone to the folly of discharges...
That's the point I've been trying to get across to people. These present type discharges used to not happen and it isn't because of the farmers. The farmers have been there for generations. Rather than reflexively blaming the farmers, people need to be asking why the present discharges are necessary when they weren't 30 years ago.
do you know if anything changed in the Corps policy as far as releases? For example, 30 years ago did they discharge if the lake was 14.2 feet in June? Or did they take a wait and see approach what happened that summer and then discharged at a higher volume later? It is my understanding the dike is ok until about 16 feet but then seepage and inspections start.
I saw a presentation online of an If, Then, Else flowchart of discharge policy but don’t recall the start date
It said Pulse releases if the lake was between X and Y feet in June and if the outlook for the wet season was “wet”(like this year) to discharge..if the outlook was “dry” then don’t discharge until Z feet
If The Corp saw that algae in the lake why couldn’t they wait to see what happens later in the summer and do constant discharges at higher rates if that had to “catch up” instead of off and on low-moderate volume discharges so early?
anyway lake is at 14.48 ft up .02 inflow 4000 cfs with a trickle of outflow South
Heavy rain the Water Storage area south caused a slight rise in the water levels there..
forecast is a little wetter the next few days