Hi everyone. I wanted to share an email written to me by Todd Thurlow yesterday that really made me smile. It shows that we are getting closer to the ACOE halting Lake Okeechobee discharges to the St Lucie River as the lake level is approaching where the Corps wants it to be prior to next hurricane season. And today was so sunny, not a cloud in the sky, surely the lake is even lower. Check eyeonlakeo.com. Have a great weekend!
Jacqui,
With the top of the Eco envelope flat at 14.5ft between 3/15 and 4/1, it looks like we are catching up and could get down in the envelope soon.
(By my calcs – I had to interpolate the top and bottom on my own a while back with no publicly available table to find). The 0.27ft number also appears live on the banner of eyeonlakeo.com. I hadn’t looked at it in a while until I was talking to Lt. Col. Polk today at Rivers Coalition and checked it on my phone. We are only +3.2 inches above to Top, as shown on the banner.
Todd
Keep up the good work you two!
So proud of you!
Thank you Theresa!!!
We’re happy that this looks good for the East Coast. The West Coast want the lake level to reach 11.5-12′ by June 1st since our water was inundated by nutrients from Hurricane Ian and we can ill afford cyanobacteria laden discharges this summer. We need a respite…
Praying for you all every day. Hang in there.
So far in March 2023, the Lake O. water level has dropped an average of 0.031 feet per day. That is almost twice the rate of water level drop that was happening in February 2023, at 0.017 feet per day. In January 2023, the water level drop was only 0.011 feet per day.
About 2/3rds (about 6,000 cfs) of the water ‘outflow’ from Lake O. in March 2023 has been in the form of evaporation/evapotranspiration. The EAA is taking between 2,000 and 3,000 cfs daily now, in March 2023.
Let’s hope the rate of Lake O. water level drop is even greater in April 2023. It makes sense to end the Lake O. discharges to the St. Lucie River estuary, since that 500 cfs flow only accounts for about 5% of the water volume leaving Lake O. now anyway.
Blake Faulkner.