Monthly Archives: September 2023

A Surprise Visit From the S.F.W.M.D.

Drew Bartlett, Executive Director, SFWMD.

Yesterday, I attended the Rivers Coalition meeting. It was a nice surprise to see so many members of the South Florida Water Management District as they were not listed on the agenda. “The District visitors” included Drew Bartlett, Executive Director; Laurence Glenn, Division Director, Water Resources; Sean Cooley, Chief Communications and Public Policy Officer, Office of Communications and Public Engagement; Kathy LaMartina, Regional Representative, Orange, Osceola, Polk, St. Lucie and Martin Counties; and Governing Board Member, Cheryl Meads, At large East Coast, St. Lucie, Martin, Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.

Cheryl Meads, at large governing Board member SFWMD.

The Rivers Coalition Meeting itself was entitled“Get the Muck Out of Here” and featured Joe Gilo, Lake Okeechobee Restoration Initiative, and Len Lindahl, McVicar Consulting/Diatom Project. Both presentations focused on improving water quaintly in the lake, an essential goal. Very interesting, but the presentations and question/answer sessions were cut short due to time.

Having the South Florida Water Management District as a guest is a rare honor thus they spoke before the planned speakers. Mr. Bartlett shared lake level facts and why water from Lake Okeechobee cannot be sent south when the Water Conservation Areas are already full. He mentioned that the new A-2 Storm Water Treatment Area is meant more for Lake Okeechobee Water. I wasn’t sure why he called it the “A-2” as we all know it as the “EAA STA.” No matter what it’s called, we all know that Mr. Bartlett is a talented executive director.

Mr. Glenn talked about the intricacies of managing the health of the Storm Water Treatment Areas and their legal job to cleanse the runoff water and meet water quality standards for the Everglades Agriculture Area. (Thus their water has priority to go through the storm water treatment areas first – hmmm?”)

Over the course of the meeting, what made the biggest impression on me, was when Drew Bartlett introduced Cheryl Meads as governing board member -“local representative.” Over the course of the past couple of years, Cheryl has moved from Islamorada, in the Florida Keys, where she first lived when appointed to the South Florida Water Management Governing Board, to Martin County and owns other properties in nearby counties. Cheryl and I both served as at-large members living in Martin County.

Although I was reappointed by Governor DeSantis for a second term serving on the South Florida Water Management Governing Board, I was not reconfirmed by the Senate and my term expired on June 19, 2023. Since that time, there has been no representation for “that seat” and we have all been waiting for a new appointment by the Governor. In August, three members were rereappointed: Chair Chancy Goss, Vice-Chair Scott Wagner, and Jay Steinle. It was thought that at that time, “the empty seat” would be filled. It was not.

I have to assume that yesterday’s gesture of Cheryl Meads being introduced by the Executive Director as the “local representative” implies that she is being directed to represent the Treasure Coast. Cheryl is a wonderful and environmentally oriented person as are all of the present governing board members. However, she is not a homegrown, fighting, St. Lucie River Warrior. At large members represent the entire east coast and when covering the “primary outlet” for the destructive discharges of Lake Okeechobee, the St. Lucie River requires special knowledge and attention. Please share with Cheryl your experiences and concerns. She is your new District voice!

Finding II. ~Relevant to Management Determination for the Everglades Agricultural Area, Draft Copy, 1975

**Toxic Lake Okeechobee, June 11, 2023 , Ed Lippisch**

Today I share Finding II. of “Conclusions of the Special Project to Prevent the Eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee Relevant to Management Determination for the Everglades Agricultural Area,” Draft Copy, 1975.

This information was gathered by my husband and I at the State Library and Archives of Florida in Tallahassee.

I recently I posted Finding I.

Again, I state how important it is that this historic documentation is not stored in our state archives like something out of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” but rather ready and available to the public. Otherwise, history is rewritten by those with most the power and influence.

For instance, today, one will ofter hear in regards to pollution in Lake Okeechobee, –from those working for and in the EAA,– “The Everglades Agriculture Area (EAA) doesn’t backpump anymore. Our water is cleaner when it leaves than when it came in.” (basically, we are not responsible for the condition of Lake Okeechobee, others are….)

What is missing in this response is that in spite of its numbers the Everglades Agricultural Area remains responsible for damages that plague Lake Okeechobee TODAY.

If you smoked unfiltered cigarettes from the 1940s through the 1980s and then, because of a law suit, the University of Florida and the South Florida Water Management District helped you create “Best Management Practices” that did a great job cleansing your smoke through giant air filters, (like Storm Water Treatment Areas filter the EAA’s dirty water of nitrogen and phosphorus,) would it be correct to say the damage in your lungs has disappeared?

No. The damage in Lake Okeechobee from backpumping is still there and continues to be built upon. The filthy backpumped water of the past is a major reason for the pathetic condition of Lake Okeechobee today. It is time for the EAA and its masters to take responsibility for this and to stop hiding behind their modern day state sponsored improvements.

~begin text:

“With regard to eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee drainage water from 30 percent of the EAA land area is back pumped into Lake Okeechobee during the wet season. An average of 330,000 acre-feet of water entered the lake annually at Structures S-2 and S-3 from the Miami, Hillsboro and New River Canals . In addition drainage districts and the private interest pump approximately 150,000 acre feet of water into the lake from various locations. The EAA irrigation demands draw an average of 438,000 acre-feet from the lake annually…”

Conclusions of the Special Project to Prevent the Eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee Relevant to Management Determination for the Everglades Agricultural Area, Draft Copy, 1975.

Finding II.

Water Backpumped from the Everglades Agricultural Area contributes significantly to the cultural eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee.

The following research evidence is proffered in support of Finding II.

(page 23.) Joyner (1974) found that water pumped from agricultural areas to the southeast is generally the poorest in quality of all water entering Lake Okeechobee….

(page 24.) Brezonik further states: It is clear from the data that Lake Okeechobee presently receives an abundant supply of nutrients. Both nitrogen and phosphorus loading rates or near or above all the (dangerous) levels reported in the scientific literature. (Table 2.) If all backpumping were ceased, the nutrient loading rates would decrease by about 20 percent. This would still leave area loading for nitrogen above the dangerous values, but the volumetric rate would be slightly under the dangerous volumetric rate of Brezonik and Shannon (1971). The photophores loading without backpuming would be lower than all but Vollenweider’s (1968) dangerous rate….

Aerial Update 7-17-23 SLR/IRL

Today I share aerial photographs taken by Ed Lippisch on September 17 around 9:30 am to 10am. The great thing about a photograph is that it speaks for itself! We have avoided a recent tropical storm or a hurricane’s impact on Lake Okeechobee, but the lake remains high at 15.41 feet as reported today by the SFWMD. Stormwater and canals C-23, C-24 continue pollute and discolor the estuary. Remember no fertilizer use during rainy season or if you’re like me EVER! Stay vigilant as hurricane season runs from June 1st through November 30th. Your eyes in the sky, J&E

https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/2178049/30_Glenn_EcoCond_Report_September2023_Final.pdf

Keep your eye on lake O!

ST. LUCIE RIVER/INDIAN RIVER LAGOON at ST. LUCIE INLET

S-308 at PORT MAYACA, LAKE OKEECHOBEE, and C-44 Canal aka St. Lucie Canal

Studies Based on 1953 Revealed Lake Okeechobee was becoming Dangerously Hyper-Eutrophic

Today I share an excerpt form “Conclusions of the Special Project to Prevent the Eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee Relevant to the Management Determination for the Everglades Agricultural Area,” Draft Report, State of Florida 1975. It is important that historical information like this is available to the public. It is mind-boggling that in 2023, seventy years since 1953, the issue of eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee has only worsened. Every year the estuaries are plagued by the threat of discharged toxic algae. Reports like this one lie buried in Florida’s state archives in Tallahassee. Most legislators have probably never read it. What has been done to improve water quality is not enough.

Finding I.

Lake Okeechobee is presently enriched and moderately eutrophic. If the present trend of increasing nutrient loads from the drainage basins is not reversed, the lake could become hyper-eutrophic within the foreseeable future.

The following research evidence is proffered in support of Finding I.

In 1953, Dr. H. T. Odum sampled the phosphorus content of Lake Okeechobee and tributaries to the lake. Although not enough samples were taken to have statistical significance, the values of the samples were well below levels consider to be eutrophic.

In 1953, the lake’s watershed was essentially undeveloped. The fact that the lake had low phosphate values in the water column indicates that the lake was not eutrophic in 1953. Water quality samples taken since 1953 have all shown phosphorus values higher than those taken by Odum. This indicates that present levels of phosphorus in the lake result from man’s drainage and land-use practices in the drainage basins.

Finding II. to follow….

Learning About What Killed Lake Okeechobee and is still killing it

Today I am including notes from: Draft, A Summary of Progress of the Special Project to Prevent the Eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee, 1975, inspired by my last post. This draft report eventually led to de-chanalizing a substantial portion of the Kissimmee River, the halting of backpumping by the Everglades Agricultural Area, the beginning of Best Management Practices for Agriculture, and conservation for drinking water.

It must be noted that it was the Central and Southern Florida Plan of 1948, after the great flood of 1947, implemented by the Army Corps of Engineers that channelized the Kissimmee River and created the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA). It took me years to understand this. The EAA and its flood protections were created by our federal government. Then acting in lockstep our state government morphed the Everglades Drainage District into the Central and Southern Flood Control District to manage the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District-which included the Everglades Agricultural Area. In 1975, around the time of the Draft publication, the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District was been renamed the South Florida Water Management District. The intensions of the Draft were good, but conflicts of interests continue today with management of the EAA, on both the state and federal level.

Think about it.

So once it was decided the Everglades Agricultural Area could no longer back pump into Lake Okeechobee due to the lake’s eutrophication, the EAA’s government sponsored pollution led to the law suit that now requites all Everglades Agricultural Area “runoff” to go through the Storm Water Treatment Areas to be filtered before it gets to the Conservation Areas thus Everglades National Park. “Lake Okeechobee water” on the other hand sits cooking toxic algae in the still sick lake, before it is sent polluted, unfiltered to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries and residents of those estuaries have no legal standing.

Hmmm?

The Everglades Agricultural Area south of Lake Okeechobee was created and is protected as part of the ACOE and SFWMD’s C&SFP, c. 1948-61.

Begin quotes from text, 1975:

Water back pumped from the Everglades Agricultural Area contributes significantly to the cultural eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee. (pg. 23)

The major causative factors of the present cultural eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee are:

Canalization of the tributary rivers of streams (especially the Kissimmee River).
Backpumping of highly enriched waters from the Agricultural Area, south of th lake , into the lake during the wet season.
Upland drainage practices in the lake’s watershed.
Inadequate nutrient conservation, livestock management, and other agricultural practices in the watershed.
Management and regulation of the lake and its tributaries which diminish their ability to absorb nutrients. (pg. 5)

In view of the fact that the cessation of back pumping would result in a reduction of the lakes present water budget by some 12-14 percent and that water conserving is one of the over-riding management objectives for the South Florida region the committee recommend further that “runoff water from the Everglades Agricultural Area be stored in or near the EAA for subsequent re-use as irrigation water.” This will alleviate the present need to use an average of 350,000 acre feet of water for the lake for irrigation in the EAA and balance the loss of the present 330,000 acre feet contributed to the lake by back pumping. (pg. 10)

Legal and Administrative Aspects of Management have been created and charged with managing various aspect of the region. The present management structure evolved in piecemeal response to growing management problems. Agency responsibilities often overlapped and conflicted and there is no balanced, integrated, or well directed management program for the region. (pg. 11)

Since 1948, the major resource management agency in South Florida has been the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District which was created to manage the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project constructed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. (which includes the EAA.)

Killing Lake Okeechobee~at least since 1971

I recently received some very interesting comments about a post I wrote in 2022 featuring state archived documents. The title? “Summary of Progress, Final Report on the Special Project to Prevent Eutrophication of Lake Okeechobee.” I decided to share the post again in a different way.

Sometimes looking back makes you wonder if you are going forward…

The hand written corrections and typewritten format on the document really bring it home:

Paragraph two: “The lake has been and is being degraded. Poor land and water management practices in the drainage basin threaten to further degrade and destroy the lake’s indispensable values. This was recognized as early as 1971…”

1971?

Milky Atlantic to the C-43 Reservoir and Port Mayaca

Yesterday, September 2, 2023, my husband Ed flew from Stuart to La Belle located along the Caloosahatchee River. I asked him to take some aerials of the C-43 Reservoir that although having some tribulations will one day will be similar, but larger, than the St. Lucie’s C-44 Reservoir. Ed agreed and a took some interesting pictures. Ed also took some aerials of the St. Lucie/Indian River Lagoon that was whipped up and milky looking from eight foot seas pushing sand into the inlet from the Atlantic Ocean.

Check out Todd Thurlow’s amazing site, EyeonlakeO, which in “real-time” measures Lake Okeechobee at 15.38 feet, even after Hurricane Idalia. Hurricane season has at least two more months to go, so we are not home free yet. The ACOE and NOAA are vigilant.

We continue to be your eye in the sky! See you next week. J&E

I. C-43 Reservoir under construction, along Caloosahatchee River. 9-2-23, about 10:55 am. EL

II. St. Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon with strange milky look due to high seas, 9-2-23, about 11:30 am. EL

III. S-308 Port Mayaca, Lake Okeechobee visible blue green algae (cyanobacteria) has lessened with cooler weather, but lake water is terribly polluted and blue-green algae remains just dormant. Presently there is no discharging by the ACOE from Lake O into the SLR/IRL. Runoff from C-23, C-24 and C-25 and area runoff continues. 9-2-23, 11:20am. EL

Not Jimmy Buffett…

I hadn’t even opened my eyes this morning when Ed yelled up the stairs: “Jimmy Buffett died.” I picked up my phone from the floor and there was a text from my brother, from my mother, and from my sister. We went back and forth recalling favorite songs and even a concert. Days of youth in a world so different than today.

I put down the phone.

In disbelief I stared at the wall thinking “Not Jimmy Buffett!” A tear formed in my eye as a flood of memories rose to the surface, especially about my late father.

Middle and high school, days working as a receptionist at his law firm over summer, driving in with him dressed in tie and suit fulfilling the sometimes thankless job of father and provider. We’d get in the car and I just hoped he’d play Jimmy Buffett. It would make us sing. It would make us laugh. It would make us forget. It would make us remember. It bound us as father and daughter and as Floridians.

I’m sure you have a lot of memories connected to Jimmy Buffett too.

Once I saw Jimmy Buffett live, not singing, but giving advice…

Today I repost a blog post from May 15, 2015. It was Ed’s niece Darcy’s University of Miami graduation day. The commencement speaker? None other than Dr. Jimmy Buffett. I hope you’ll enjoy rereading this post as much as I did and the speech at the end? Just like his music, it will make you want to sing along…

Rest in Peace Jimmy, and thank you.

Please click on link below to hear-

JIMMY BUFFETT’S COMMENCEMENT SPEECH UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI