Documenting the Discharges, 3-17-19

*Please note all comments become public record.

1.Ed and the Super Cub 2019. Our “eye in the sky” since 2013.
2.Tip of South Sewall’s Point looking north to Hell’s Gate. Witham Field, Stuart, west.

We continue to document the discharges…

Yesterday, 3-17-19, my husband, Ed, flew the Super-Cub over the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon ~ twenty-one days after the ACOE started discharging from Lake Okeechobee on February 24, 2019.

When Ed arrived home, I asked, “So how was it?”

“Brown,” he replied.

“Like dark coffee brown, or kind of like that weird mixed greenish-brown?”

He looked at me, and smiled. “Jacqui, it was brown.”

“OK, I said, I’ll take a look at your photos.”

So here are the photos from Ed’s flight from Witham Field in Stuart, over Sewall’s Point and Hutchinson Island, then out west  to S-80 to see the “Seven Gates of Hell” where you can see the one gate discharging now at an average of 250 cubic feet per second, down from an average of 500 cubic feet per second. As you can see from the SFWMD chart below, there has been other runoff locations as well, but the majority is from Lake Okeechobee.

ACOE Press Release: 3-14-19, ACOE, showing decision to go to 250 cfs to SLR/IRL. ACOE says they are “pulse releasing,” however, these are not the “pulse releases” we are familiar with during prior discharge destruction events, as the number never goes to 0, it just goes up and down. https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/Media/News-Releases/Article/1784910/corps-to-continue-lake-o-release-plan-with-minor-adjustments/

Thank you to my husband Ed, for showing us that right now, the river is brown.

ACOE, Periodic Scientists Call, 3-12-19, http://w3.saj.usace.army.mil/h2o/reports.htm

 

3. Approaching the SL Inlet, algae covered remaining seagrass beds
4.Sandbar formation inside of SL Inlet
5.Blurry but shows boats at the Sandbar and that weird green brown color
6.Sailfish Point and SL Inlet algae covered remaining seagrass beds
7. Ernie Lyons Bridge, IRL with SL inlet and Hutchinson Island in distance
8. S-80 along C-44 Canal or the Seven Gate of Hell, boats going through locks, “250” cubic feet per second coming though

The following phots are of Caulkins Water Farm, a former orange grove that died due to citrus greening that now holds water from the C-44 Canal. This is a wonderful thing! As local ag-man Mr. Hadad, told me once, “Jacqui we spent 100 years taking the water off the land, and we’ll spend the next 100 years putting it back on.” The later photos are of S-80 again with view of C-44 canal leading west to Lake O.(https://www.facebook.com/CaulkinsWaterFarm/)

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The following photos are when Ed headed back to Witham Field going once again over the St Lucie Inlet over the Atlantic Ocean. You can see the water looks blue north of Sailfish Point north of the inlet with nearshore reefs visible. Plume is also visible south of St Lucie Inlet. Also in photos is the winding Jupiter Narrows and St Lucie River in the area of Stuart and Rio. You can see Langford Landing with scraped orange soil and docks built into river still under construction since 2015.

Thank you to my husband Ed, our eye in the sky!

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8 thoughts on “Documenting the Discharges, 3-17-19”

  1. The more you can label what we are seeing the better. Perhaps if the photos were numbered we could ask specific questions. Are the bright green island-looking areas in the first photo in the Caulkings Grove group duck weed?

    Reply

  2. Thank you and your husband for documenting the devastation being caused by algae from Lake “O” . I have discovered a Japanese company that has a product that is being used commercially in the far East to control algae. I am hopeful that you can help this company identify the proper entity to conduct research of this product in your “back yard”.
    I have no financial interest in this company;just a desire to help find a way to make an inroad to the control of this mess.
    Thank you for taking the time to read this. Best Regards: Jerry Hetfield

    Reply

  3. I wouldn’t even call it “brown.” It may be brown by the time it gets to the inlet, but in Stuart, it is black; just like the Okeechobee muck it is. Worst right in front of your property on Overlook Drive; 10-12 feet deep in Okeechobee ”ooze.” I played in that neighborhood and lived in the river. I hate to even look at it now. I almost bought a house next to Kevin Henderson, but my wife said living there would keep me depressed. She was right. The beautiful sunsets can’t overcome the dead black river.

    So, we need to stop the discharges and start sucking out the muck and sending it back to the sugar farmers who actually need it. Think how rich their fields would be if we just flooded them during high rain times instead of wasting all that muck in the river. I see the SFWMD is going to hire a general counsel. I wish you would hire Alex Gillen. He knows more about water issues now than just about anyone I know. He would be awesome if he took the job.

    Reply

  4. Thank you Ed and Jacqui for documenting the consequences of the discharges on our environment.

    Reply

  5. All that muck McStucky is seeing could be seagrass if you would put the calcium back on the shores. Nothing good is ever going to happen with you continuing down the path you have chosen unless you want poison water everywhere with toxic chemicals preserved in acid.

    Reply

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