How Much Water Has Flowed Backwards From C-44 to Lake O?

My recent post about “Holding Lake Okeechobee’s Algae at Bay” got a lot of responses with a few questioning whether the algae bloom in Lake O off Port Mayaca was caused by the waters of C-44 flowing back into the lake.

(https://jacquithurlowlippisch.com/2019/08/19/holding-lake-okeechobees-algae-at-bay/comment-page-1/)

~A valid question.

I do not know the answer to this question, but I do know flights over the C-44 canal in 2019 have shown no visible algae blooms, but many in the lake with some right off Port Mayaca. Nonetheless, we know the  C-44 is full of nutrient pollution.

Today I want to share a chart from my brother Todd Thurlow’s website http://eyeonlakeo.com/ as well as our back and forth on the issue of how much water has been put into Lake Okeechobee from C-44 so far this year rather than going into the St Lucie River. The ACOE can flow C-44 flow both ways…

Be sure to read “Summary of Query Results” below for the answer.

Todd: Jacqui, I changed my DBKey on my daily spreadsheet to S-308 just to see what it would spit out.  See below.  It looks like S-308 has sent a net 17billion gallons of C-44 basin water (over 54,000 AF) into Lake O this year.  I am pretty sure that means we get a “free” 17billion gallons in our direction before it is considered “Lake Water”.

Jacqui: Todd did the ACOE start sending the C-44 canal water back to Lake O May 29th? Looking at the chart this is what I see. 

Todd: There has been little flows all year as can be seen on the chart too but the big flows started on May 13 at -2042cfs.  There was a pause between June 4 and July 30.  Then is started again with a few days off here and there.  Here is the data that is summarized in that chart.

The May 29 date that you might see (its actually May 20) is where the “Cumulative Total Discharge” graph crosses the zero axis?  That is where the net flows for the year were back to zero.  In other words, it took from May 13 to May 20, 8 days of westward flow, to cancel out all of the net eastward flow for the year.

SFWMD canal and basin map. C-44 can run east to the St. Lucie or west to Lake Okeechobee.

These DEP canal summaries are no longer available on-line but remain good references even though written in 2001.

 

 

1 thought on “How Much Water Has Flowed Backwards From C-44 to Lake O?”

  1. Good review. When the Lake is low the backflow will occur and often the water is from local rain storms that sweep a lot of “stuff” into the C 44. This water is much higher in nutrients than Lake water unless the Lake has been roiled by a wind storm and the muck stirred up. The fact is, back flow from the C 44 is little different from “back pumping”. Local basin water being sent to the Lake instead of flowing away from the Lake in the canal. Thanks for looking for facts! Newton

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