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Comparing and Understanding Fresh Water Plumes, SLR/IRL

Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch
Fresh water plume at St Lucie Inlet 9-3-15. (Ed Lippisch)
Fresh water plume flowing past Sailfish Point at St Lucie Inlet 9-3-15. (Ed Lippisch)

Fresh water plumes flowing out of estuaries into the ocean are, of course, noted all over the world. There are even accounts from early Florida pioneers in the 1800s documenting such phenomenon. The difference with the “freshwater plumes” in our area of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, is that the watershed has been radically altered over time to take on more than its fair share of water and the plumes are not just sediment and organic material but often toxic.

GES DISC: World View Fresh Water Plumes/Estuaries: (http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/education-and-outreach/additional/science-focus/classic_scenes/10_classics_rivers.shtml)

As we are aware, canals C-44, C-23, C-24, and C-25 expanded the watershed of the SLR/IRL by more than five times its God-given capacity, plus in the case of C-44 the overflow waters of Lake Okeechobee. Yes we live in a “swamp.” But our South Florida swamp has been over-drained.

Canal C-23: (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/southeast/ecosum/ecosums/c23.pdf)
Canal C-24: (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/southeast/ecosum/ecosums/c24.pdf)
Canal C-25: (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/southeast/ecosum/ecosums/c-25.pdf)
Canal C-44: (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/southeast/ecosum/ecosums/C-44%20Canal%20.pdf)

Drainage changes to the SLR. Green is the original watershed. Yellow and pink have been added since ca.1920. (St Lucie River Initiative’s Report to Congress 1994.)

Today I will share photos my husband Ed Lippisch took on September 3rd, and September 7th, 2015, and then contrast then with a few taken in September of 2013 during the “Lost Summer.” My point being, even our rain plumes, like “now,” are not natural to our watershed as the watershed has been expanded so much. Add Lake Okeechobee to it, and a really bad summer like 2013, and the plumes are visibly “different.”

Of course lighting and timing have a lot to do with a photograph.

A photograph is an image in time; it is not necessary “scientific,” but no one can say, a picture doesn’t “speak a thousand words.”

9-3-15 SL Inlet.
9-3-15. SL Inlet.
9-3-15 Close up freshwater plume exiting SL Inlet.

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9-7-15 By Over Stuart Harbor looking north towards the North Fork. Plume seeming to be coming from South Fork, C-44. (bottom brown) (Ed Lippisch)
Over Rocky Point looking to Sewall’s Point, 9-7-15.
SL Inlet near Jupiter Narrow’s opening 9-7-15.
Sailfish Flats between Sewall’s Point and Sailfish Point 9-7-15.
Sailfish Flats…9-7-15.
Sewall’s Point storm approaching, 9-17-15.
SLR near Willoughby Creek a polluting outfall into river, water from Airport and surrounding area….This is just on the west side of South Sewall’s Point, 9-7-15.

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Map. Sewall’s Point is the peninsula. Inlet is to east. (Google maps) 2013.
Plume in 2013, during the LOST SUMMER along Jupiter Island coming form SLI.C-23, C-24 , C-44 and mostly Lake O.
9-13 St Lucie Inlet with plume exiting…JTL C-23, C-23, C-244 and mostly Lake O.
Plume in 9-13 coming form C-23, C-24, C-44 and mostly Lake O. (JTL)

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To read a historical account of a fresh water plume in South Florida in the 1800s by pioneer Charles Pierce, click here: (http://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/2014/05/14/charles-pierces-account-of-the-great-rain-of-1884-and-how-it-relates-to-the-indian-river-lagoon/)

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Thank you to my husband, Ed, for taking these photos!

I will be taking a blog break through September 14th to go to Apalachicola with UFs NRLI. See you upon my return!

 jacqui

 

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