The water system for South Florida starts in the chain of lakes, just south of Orlando. This water runs south, along the canalized Kissimmee River, making it to Lake Okeechobee in just a few days, a trip that took months before the snake like river was turned into a canal by the Army Corp and the State of Florida in the 1960s. The now unfiltered water is full of pollutants, nitrogen and phosphorus it picks up along the way.

The giant lake, once open to the south to nourish the Everglades, has been closed off by a dike since the late 1920s. Thus when the lake water rises too high for the “safety” of agriculture, mostly sugar, south of lake, the water is diverted east and west through the estuaries: the Caloosahatchee and the St Lucie.

From this diverted water, billions of gallons goes to tide through the Gulf of Mexico on the west, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. Along the way, the estuaries are destroyed of all life and the economies of the surrounding cites are decimated. Look at the town of Sewall’s Point above…There are toxic algae warnings from the state; salinity so low oysters and seagrasses have died off by 99%; no one has ben allowed in the water for three months. Wildlife suffers. Business and recreation are at a standstill.

The estuaries have been the dumping ground for Lake Okeechobee since the 1920’s when the estuaries were canalized by the State of Florida and the Army Corp of Engineers. People have fought against this before but this time it is different, a “Riverlution has begun…

This blog is dedicated to the “Riverlution” of Martin County, Florida, 2013. May it educate and inspire you….

You have already created great change…but you shall not be satisfied until there is a flow way south of the lake and storage north of the lake. This is the goal.

For the Estuaries,
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
Commissioner, Town of Sewall’s Point

The water system for South Florida starts in the chain of lakes, just south of Orlando. This water runs south, along the canalized Kissimmee River, making it to Lake Okeechobee in just a few days, a trip that took months before the snake like river was turned into a canal by the Army Corp and the State of Florida in the 1960s. The now unfiltered water is full of pollutants, nitrogen and phosphorus it picks up along the way.

The giant lake, once open to the south to nourish the Everglades, has been closed off by a dike since the late 1920s. Thus when the lake water rises too high for the “safety” of agriculture, mostly sugar, south of lake, the water is diverted east and west through the estuaries: the Caloosahatchee and the St Lucie.

From this diverted water, billions of gallons goes to tide through the Gulf of Mexico on the west, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. Along the way, the estuaries are destroyed of all life and the economies of the surrounding cites are decimated. Look at the town of Sewall’s Point above…There are toxic algae warnings from the state; salinity so low oysters and seagrasses have died off by 99%; no one has ben allowed in the water for three months. Wildlife suffers. Business and recreation are at a standstill.

The estuaries have been the dumping ground for Lake Okeechobee since the 1920’s when the estuaries were canalized by the State of Florida and the Army Corp of Engineers. People have fought against this before but this time it is different, a “Riverlution has begun…

This blog is dedicated to the “Riverlution” of Martin County, Florida, 2013. May it educate and inspire you….

You have already created great change…but you shall not be satisfied until there is a flow way south of the lake and storage north of the lake. This is the goal.

For the Estuaries,
Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
Commissioner, Town of Sewall’s Point

Water flowed from the chain or lakes north of the Kissimmee to the Everglades