Monthly Archives: November 2021

The C-44 Canal-Before It Was Born

With all the fanfare this week regarding the filling of the C-44 Reservoir, I thought I’d share the C-44’s “birth certificate.” It’s pretty old. This photograph below is from the Florida Archives in Tallahassee and is part of a series of survey maps stating “Survey by G.V. Scott and J.D. Weems. Made under direction of F.C. Elliott, Chief Drainage Engineer, Tallahassee, Florida. July 6, 1915.”

-1915 historic blueprint for the St Lucie Canal, Florida Archives (click for larger image) At first glance, the giant photo of the survey is hard to read. The blue background and white lines are a bit dizzying. So I printed the survey out and colored it trying to get an idea of what was what. Looking below, from left to right, we can see Lake Okeechobee. We can also note the cut-in of “Chauncey Bay,” and the saw grass/glades marsh running both north and south connecting with the Halpatiokee Marsh and Allapttah Flats on the east side of “high pine” culminating south at Annie, near today’s Indiantown. This survey reveals the once extensive and beautiful, virgin, slash-pine forests that covered most of our lands. imagine the wildlife! We can also see the crooked black line, running east, that was to become the St Lucie Canal or C-44. We notice the “Green Ridge” clearly separating sprawling Lake Okeechobee from the petit St Lucie River to the east of the “Cane Slough,” an area that today must be drained lands somewhere around Kanner Highway and Bridge Road. If you study the “blue birth certificate survey,” there area many other notations, but those mentioned are what I colored.

It’s amazing isn’t it? There are no boundaries except the one’s we make. In 1915 this area not only was a forest, glades, slough, and marsh but was mapped as Palm Beach County. Today the region contains Martin, St Luice, Okeechobee and Palm Beach counties.

How amazing this Florida Jungle must have been before we tamed it. Before we drained it. I especially wonder what the Cane Slough looked like. Headwaters of the St Lucie? The fishing must have been magnificent!

As Thanksgiving approaches, I wish to state that I am thankful that I belong to a generation of people trying to restore these lands rather than trying to drain them. Water is lifeblood. I always remember, my dad’s friend Mr Hadad saying to me: “Jacqui we spent a hundred years draining the water off the lands, and we’ll spend the next hundred putting it back on.” We should think about this when we have a sip of water while eating turkey!

-1915 close up – St Lucie Canal overlay Cane Slough and a branch of the South Fork of the St Luice River, Florida Archives (click for larger image)

A River Kid Grows Up – Colton Moir

Colton Moir graduated from the Benjamin School in 2018. He is now twenty-one years old and a senior at Eckerd College in St Petersburg, Florida. He is the son of Jim and Kim Moir of Stuart, Florida and was one of the first River Kidz. I had a chance to interview Colton last week as part of my “Grown-Up River Kidz” series.

-Colton pictured with a cubera snapper he speared last summer. “Very tasty haha.”-Colton in 2014, 14 years old -presenting alongside Indian Riverkeeper Marty Baum. River Kidz’ GET THE MUCK OUT event, Harbor Bay Plaza, Sewall’s Point, FL. Photo credit, Nic Mader.-A bucket of MUCK from the bottom of the St Lucie River. This muck builds up due to polluted discharges from Lake Okeechobee, the C-Canals, and area runoff. It smothers seagrass as well as sea life, and is often referred to as “black mayonnaise.” As a River Kid, Colton often spoke about issues of muck.-Colton stands directly under the GET THE MUCK OUT sign, River Kidz, 2014 (click to enlarge.)

JTL: “Hi Colton. Long time no talk. It’s been a few years since we last spoke. You’ve grown up since your River Kidz days. Tell me about what you are doing at Eckerd College.”

Colton: “It’s been a bit of a whirlwind. I came into it thinking I was going to major in marine science, just because I’ve been around the ocean my whole life. My family is all marine advocates. I’m a huge environmentalist. I assumed I’d be going that route, but I found that chemistry and physics were not my forte, so I’ve switched to business administration with a minor in entrepreneurship. All of the projects I’ve done so far revolve around the environment. Like what I’m doing right now is helping create an oyster farm in Grand Cayman, and trying to get a reef-ball project up and running for every-day homeowners so they can have living, custom-made reef ball creations in front of their homes to enjoy instead of a hardened shoreline seawall.”

JTL: “Wow Colton, that’s fantastic. Creating a business model out of a River Kidz’ participated practice. Let’s talk about these reef-balls. Are they like a living shoreline?”

Colton: “It would be more along the line of a living seawall. The biggest issue I notice with traditional seawalls is the undercutting that waves create- having the reverb effect – once they hit the seawall -over time, you are losing your property line- you’re losing shoreline, which is what the seawall should be protecting in the first place. I think that a lot of homeowners are noticing this and that in the future they will implement these wonderful things called reef-balls which will not only protect their seawalls from all this erosion, but also help the environment and the fish.”

-Young Colton, father, and volunteers placing reef-balls in St Lucie River, River Kidz, 2014.

JTL: “That is really interesting Colton and right in the line with your River Kidz’ background. Tell me more.”

Colton: “My original idea was to partner with the Marine Resources Council in Melbourne and have every reef -ball contain a red mangrove, but I found out that a lot of homeowners hate red mangroves.”

JTL: “Really? People hate red mangroves? “

Colton: “Yeah. They don’t want to lose their view. They don’t really understand that you can trim mangroves because they have always heard from friends and family that you can’t trim your mangroves, that it’s illegal. It’s not. So one of the things I am finding myself doing, is what River Kidz taught me, and that is to talk to people in small groups to educate and change the knowledge base.”

JTL: “Colton, I remember when you were eleven at the Environmental Studies Center in Stuart and you were literally teaching the adults about muck in the St Lucie River. The adults stood around listening – spellbound.”

Colton: “Yeah, as an only child, I don’t know if I would have developed those skills without River Kidz.”

JTL: “Colton how do you see the difference between your parent’s generation compared to your generation when it comes to the environment?”

Colton: “I would like to think my generation sees the the environment in a little harder light. There is more research that proves the detrimental effects that we as humans, as a species, have done to the planet. However, I think my generation is often more “social-media oriented, whereas you guys really got out there. I myself try to get out there too. I have done projects with River Kidz, with Tampa Bay Watch, and a bunch of other community groups.”

JTL: “Colton with all the talk about Climate Change do you feel hopeful about the future?”

Colton: “I do. Honestly, conversations like this give me hope. Through conversations I learn about positive change. For instance, I just got out of a lecture about a company that had been doing reef safe sunscreen products. It’s called “Stream to Sea” in Hardy County. When Covid hit, they had to change to make environmentally friendly hand sanitizer. It went from an environmentally-friendly goal for a smaller market, to one that included millions of people. If they hadn’t been doing environmental work in the first place, they couldn’t have achieved what they did. “

JTL: “It seems like change, or adapting, is the name of the game. Colton if you had a message for the next generation of River Kidz, what would it be?”

Colton: “I’d say get involved. Get more involved within the group. Go to Washington D.C. Go talk in Tallahassee. Go to commission meetings. Now that I’ve grown up a little bit, I know how beneficial it is for an adult to see a young kid talking about muck.”

JTL: “Thank you Colton, it was those River Kidz’ “teachable moments” that made all the difference to invigorating Florida water policy. And you continue to make a difference today! So great to talk with you.”

-Colton planting a red mangrove, 2021-Colton shared this photo of himself with his girlfriend, Kayla, and their dog, Availability also known as “Ava.” In spite of challenges, the future is looking bright!

Reversing the C-Canals’ Destruction

-C-25, Taylor Creek, Ft Pierce, FL July 20, 2013 Jacqui & Ed Lippisch

This aerial photo is an old one. Taken in July of 2013, it became one of the “poster-photos” in the fight to fix the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. This photograph is not of Lake Okeechobee water, but the polluted runoff of C-25, Ft Pierce, St Lucie County.

Yesterday, the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board approved the purchase of 1,583 acres to create a reservoir and storm water treatment area for the the C-25. This means, that over time, this horrible looking sediment-pollution plume will be lessened or even disappear. Good for the Indian River’s seagrass! Good for the hard working residents!

What are the C-Canals anyway? And why are we talking about them now?

When the modern River Movement began, brought on by the “Lost Summer of 2013,” the entire focus was on the discharges destroying the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon from Lake Okeechobee. The St Lucie/Indian River Lagoon deals with a “two-front war.” The C-Canals (C-44, C-23, C-24, C-25) and often toxic Lake Okeechobee that is discharged through the C-44 Canal along with basin run-off.

What ensued will make the history books:

~The people united against the Cyanobacteria laden Lake Okeechobee discharges that are considered the worst of all the discharges, and pushed for the EAA Reservoir, with the help of Senate President, Joe Negron, and others. The reservoir was approved by Congress in 2018. This was an amazing feat. The EAA Reservoir is ready to go under construction, and will allow more water to go south to the Everglades and less water to be discharged to the St Lucie and Calooshahatee estuaries. This was the first and most important goal.

So now, with that in place, (and continuing to fight for its completion), it is time for the River Movement to expand to the next level of destruction, the C-Canals. Although the betterment of these canals has been part of CERP since the beginning, they are just now seeing their day. All of them fall under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan category, “Indian River Lagoon South,” and there are four of the them in our region: C-44, C-23, C-24, C-25. “C” stands for Canal.

Remarkably enough, the C-44 Reservoir, in Indiantown will go on-line next week as the 1st major CERP project completed and as the first component of “Indian River Lagoon South.”

ACOE Indian River Lagoon South

Because of the ACOE moving forward, in the near future, other C-Canal projects will be completed: 1.C-23 and C-24, done together through the C-23/24 North and South Reservoirs, and the C-23/24 Storm Water Treatment Area; and 2. there is now land for the C-25 Reservoir and Storm Water Treatment Area. (Top of image.)

It is impressive that since 2019, not only was the first construction contract awarded for the EAA Reservoir – and that the SFWMD is building the EAA Storm Water Treatment Area, but that also from 2019-to present, the Army Corp of Engineers is “in design” on C-23/C-24 and, yesterday, the SFWMD bought land for C-25. This is all costing millions of dollars!

I know all of these numbers get confusing. The bottom line is that almost all is in place to to heal our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. (EAA Reservoir; C-44 Reservoir, C-23/24 Reservoir and now even C-25 Reservoir.)

Now we just have to get it all to the finish line.

This will take about ten years so long as all goes well and LOSOM’s outcome is palatable. I will talk more about this in another post.

In closing, for long-working Martin County Commissioner, Sarah Heard, I must mention the last and perhaps most important part of Indian River Lagoon South. The “Natural Lands” component. ~for the birds and other creatures. Part, like Allapattah Flats, is complete but there is more to acquire. See list below.

For now, please try to learn the C-Canals if you don’t know them. We will all need to know them for the the next chapter of the St Lucie River/ Indian River Lagoon!

Please see Jennifer Reynold’s, SFWMD presentation C-25 & IRLS

-C-25 2013

C-25 Image used often in Stop Lake O rallies! Rally at the Locks 2013, JTL

Lidar St Lucie #nolakeo

NOAA describes Lidar – Light Detection and Ranging- as a remote sensing method used to examine the surface of the Earth. My brother, http://eyeonlakeo.com, Todd Thurlow, shared such an image, of South Florida, during the October meeting of the Rivers Coalition http://riverscoalition.org. Looking at the image, Todd noted that the elevations displayed have not changed in over 5000 years. One can clearly “see” where the water used to go and not go. The tiny St Lucie River on Florida’s east coast was isolated from Lake Okeechobee by a ridge only to be connected to the lake in 1923 by the C-44 Canal -that can also be seen in this image. This why on the east coast we stand strong in saying #nolakeo. We never were and prefer to be unconnected.

Water in the Street – Building Resiliency

-Riverview Drive, Sewall’s Point , FL 11-6-21. Since about 2012, the street I live on floods during King Tides. As a peninsular community between the St Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon, many areas of the town are prone to flooding. For instance, when I was a kid, we used to play in waist deep water from Sewall’s Point Road up to Banyan Road during such events as Hurricane David in 1976. Later the town raised North Sewall’s Point Road and the flooding situation improved. However, over the following decades, areas that were “dry” are now often filled with water.

Like the street I live on, fifty years later, Riverview…

On January 20th, 2020, Florida Oceanographic invited John Englander to speak at the the Blake Library in Martin County. In his book High Tide on Main Street, he writes ” Rising sea level will be the single most profound geologic change in recorded human history.”

Whether you believe this or not, Florida believes it. Whether it’s places like Monroe County that has been “underwater” for years, or places like Martin County that are only recently experience King Tide and heavy-rain flooding, RESILIENCY is the name of the game.

Today, I share some links to some of our local and state resiliency programs. If you just pursue them, you will be impressed. Even the Army Corps of Engineers is building resiliency through a program trademarked Engineering With Nature. I think this is the key, incorporating nature, not just building against it. I think we’ve figured by now, without Nature on our side, we will never win. ~Does your street flood? What do you think about the rising popularity of Resiliency?

Resiliency Programs Martin County/State of Florida

South Florida Water Management District Resiliency Lunch & Learn October 20, 2021

State Legislature and Governor’s Office, State of Florida, 2021

Department of Environmental Protection, State of Florida, 2021

Martin County, Florida 2021

City of Stuart, Florida 2021

Town of Sewall’s Point, Florida 2021

-Sewall’s Point Park 11-7-21

Sometimes flying makes me nervous, but always worth it

Ed and I went up in the Baron recently on October 30th, 2021 and it was a little bumpy. Although I have flown hundreds of times with Ed since the “Lost Summer” of 2013, when I decided I needed to overcome my fear of flying in small planes, sometimes this feeling, again, gets the best of me.

There may be a little turbulence or a vulture goes wizzing by the windshield and I think to myself: “This is it. This is the day. “

No matter how turbulent it gets, Ed always appears unaffected. He trusts the plane, the engineering, the physics of flight. Me? As much of a wonderful miracle as flying in a small plane can be, it always seems a bit, what shall I say, “unnatural.” Every time we land I cross myself thankful for one more flight. Ed always laughs.

What makes me go up again and again? Because every time we go up, it reinforces how much there is to fight for, what a beautiful place we live in along the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. From the ground it is beautiful, from the air it’s something hard to describe. Some call this a relative of the overview effect.

I thought I’d share these St Lucie Inlet photos because they are impressive in their own right and also to compare them to what I posted yesterday on a flight from 10-27-21. As you can see light is everything. Appearances shift. On 10-30-21, around 11:00am it was overcast grey/green/blue over St Lucie Inlet Preserve State Park. It is also interesting to note the erosion on the south side of the St Lucie Inlet which was dug by hand as a permanent inlet in 1892 and created the St Lucie Estuary.

You’ll see that our German Shepard, Luna, was nothing but smiles! She reminds us we have so much to smile for!

-Ed’s selfie

-Luna is a very good flyer and never doubts the plane or pilot

-The air is great but there’s no place like home, Terra Firma!

Beautiful but…seagrass is the life

These pictures were taken by my husband, Ed Lippisch, on 10-27-21. It was such a busy few days, that I really did not get to look at them until now. The first thing that struck me was the beauty and the interesting geometric shapes. We certainly live in a gorgeous place. This year the river has suffered from tremendous run-off from the C-23, C-24 and C-44 canals as well as stormwater runoff from all of our yards, driveways, and streets. Fortunately, we did not have major, long lasting, discharges from Lake Okeechobee. Fortunately, we were not struck by a hurricane!

-10-14-21 SFWMD Ecological Update, Laurence Glen

I wanted to share this entire series of aerials as I think they complete a picture and give one the feeling of flight. The St Lucie Sailfish Flats look beautiful but please keep in mind that although you will see some dark areas on the sandbars that look like recovering seagrass, reports from Indian Riverkeeper, Mike Connor, and others, report various clinging algae more than lush seagrass beds. My brother, Todd Thurlow, has been reporting on the phenomenon of seagrass loss at recent Rivers Coalition meetings by comparing Google Earth images. You can go to his website eyeonlakeo.com to view in detail.

The St Lucie/Southern IRL has not had a “major event” since 2018 and worse, 2016, when the entire rive became a toxic soup due primarily to the discharges from Lake Okeechobee over an already impaired system. The ACOE and SFWMD continue to move forward on exciting projects that will help improve the river’s woes. The first of these to come on line will be the C-44 Reservoir in Indiantown. This ribbon-cutting will happen this month. I will be reporting on it and other components of CERP’s Indian River Lagoon South that are in motion. With Indian River Lagoon South and the EAA Reservoir there is hope. Actually there is more than hope. Our river one day, shall recover. Please do your part to refrain from fertilizers, and if you have one, keep a clean septic tank until you can go to sewer. Agriculture, too, must do its part, as we continue our journey to build a healthy water future.

What is the IDS? LOSOM postponed?

Last week was a big week for Everglades restoration. Today I will share two important “informationals” that you may have missed. Both announcements were made last Friday, October 29, 2021.

IDS- Integrated Delivery Schedule Final 2021, Army Corps of Engineers. 2021 SFER Integrated Deliver Schedule_Final Draft_29 October 2021. This colorful and somewhat overwhelming chart is updated each each year as a timeline for the Central and Southern Florida Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, or CERP.

The St Lucie and Loxahatchee watersheds as well as the EAA Reservoir are all noted on this schedule. The big recent additions are the C-23/C-24 Reservoir/STA components in St Lucie County and the Loxahatchee River watershed in southern Martin and Palm Beach counties. The C-44 Reservoir -that has been on the IDS for many renditions- is located in Indiantown and will be going on-line this year as the first completed major CERP project!

To study this chart, click on link above, familiarize yourself with the key at the top, note color coding by timeframe/Congressional approval, and type. It’s pretty cool once one figures out how to read it!

-Excerpt with Indian River Lagoon South’s C-23/C-24, C-44 etc…-Excerpt Loxahatchee River just authorized in WRDA 2020

Click here to see all slides from the ACOE’s IDS presentation: Public Engagement Workshop_IDS Final Draft_29 October 2021

II.

LOSOM – Lake Okeechobee System Operation Manual

By now you have certainly heard of LOSOM (Lake Okeechobee System Operation Manual) that is replacing LORS (Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule.) If you haven’t, basically the operation schedule for Lake Okeechobee is being updated in line with the anticipated completion of improvements of the Herbert Hoover Dike.

For over two years, the ACOE has patiently taken input from stakeholders and the public. They had originally expected to announce their final output on November 2, 2021, but have decided to postpone their final announcement until November 16, 2021. Why did they postpone? Read here: ACOE LOSOM press release. Even after November 16th the process will continue as the operations manual is written. LOSOM is on the IDS above and listed as a “Non-CERP” project (light blue at top.)

A lot of exciting things are happening for the St Lucie and for the Greater Everglades. Most definitely there is a reason for hope.

Keep the pressure on, be empathetic to all, and never forget how hard we have worked since 2013.