Burning sugarcane fields in the Everglades Agricultural Area near Palm Beach County. This area south of Lake O used to be the Everglades and today is the EAA. This area is a constraint to moving water south. (Photo Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, 2014.)
The St Lucie and the Caloosahatechee estuaries are part of the Everglades as was the Everglades Agricultural Area….
A sugar refinery in the Everglades Agricultural Area, (EAA). Refineries are a constraint to moving water south. (Public photo.)Black Gold; the muck soils south of Lake Okeechobee that make the sugar industry wealthy. These soils are a constraint to moving water south. (Photo JTL, 2014.)Refinery near Clewiston– a historical town built of the sugar industry located south of Lake Okeechobee. This city and others are a constraint to moving water south but could benefit from ecotourism economy along with agricultulre. (Photo JTL, 2014.)
Gail M. Hollender, begins her book, “Raising Cane in the ‘Glades, The Global Sugar Trade and the Transformation of Florida,” by stating in Chapter 1:
“…at a point in time usually unspecified, the Everglades made the transition from “worthless swamp” to “cherished wetland.”
Nothing has affected to flow of water south to the Everglades more than the creation of the EAA south of Lake O. The EAA is a constraint. (Map SFWMD.)This satellite photo shows water on lands in 2005. One can see the lands in the EAA are devoid of water. This water has been pumped off the lands into the Water Conservation Areas, sometimes back pumped into the lake, and also stored in other canals. Nonetheless, there are ways to move more water south through these canals and by creating a reservoir to store, clean and convey water south (Captiva Conservation 2005.)Option Lands Map SFWMD River of Grass, Option 1 is 46,800 acres and shown in brown. Option lands could be purchased to help move water south of the lake to the Everglades. (SFWMD map, 2010)
In the 1970s there was a “cultural shift” regarding the importance of “environmental protection.” America recognized the destruction it has promoted in building the country, especially in terms of agriculture and development.
“Cultural shifts” are powerful, and drive the evolution of our world. I believe the “Everglades shift” will eventually drive the restoration of the Everglades as well as the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. It is what the people want…often the broad knowledge of history becomes an enemy to itself. So is it with sugar and the Everglades Agricultural Area. Just look at the photos above.
Nonetheless, sometime the “powers that be,” and their most important stake holders prefer to concentrate on why history should remain as it is, and has been, even if destructive, focusing on “constraints” rather than “possibilities” of the system.
This happened this past Thursday.
I was unable to attend the South Florida Water Management District’s (SFWMD) Water Resources Advisory Commission, (WRAC), (http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xweb%20about%20us/wrac) because I had a board commitment to attend FAU/Harbor Branch’s Indian River Lagoon Symposium.
I was somewhat taken aback when I returned from a long day at the symposium, looked at my computer, and saw an email from the SFWMD addressed to me, and all members of the WRAC entitled:
“System Constraints Follow-up Details – January and February WRAC”–“…a follow-up to your request to provide specific details associated with the constraints to moving water south through the system– with a professionally created 19 slide power point presentation.
“My request?”
NOT.
Slide 1 of the SFWMD power point presentation “Constraints to Sending Water South,” 2015.
Let me explain..
At the January WRAC meeting, (http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/xweb%20about%20us/gb%20application) I sat in as an alternate for Mr Joe Capra, and in the course of that meeting, a few members of the agriculture industry, as well as a couple of others who often support the agriculture industry, I will not state names but they are important, big players. I like and respect these people, but still— I must call them on this.
They asked the SFWMD to create a presentation showing the “constraints” for sending water south so that people would understand (why it can’t be done…) In other words, why those people along the estuaries should “shut-up.” Why we should preserve a destructive history.
I got my nerve up saying: “Where I come from, we don’t want to talk about constraints; we want to talk about possibilities; we want to talk about change….” implying the District should “show that too.”
Upon seeing the email, I realized the SFWMD did not honor my request, but did show the “constraints” asked to be shown by the agriculture industry. Oh well…usually when government suppresses people, their motivation actually increases.
So is it with me, and I imagine it is so with you…
Dear, SFWMD district, please remember: your core mission is to “manage and protect the water resources of the region by balancing and improving water quality, flood control, natural systems, and water supply.” I don’t see anywhere in here where it says we must keep things the same and focus on constraints.
Sugar Cane historic postcard, ca. 1906 glorifying and “romanticizing”the sugar industry. (Thurlow Collection.)Cartoon postcard showing a modern-day perspective–the cultural shift apparent–mocking the sugar industry and its effects on environmental protection of the SLR/IRL/Everglades. (Public, D. Goldstein, 2014.)
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTE:
“It is time we stopped viewing our environment through prisms of profit, politics, geography, or local and personal pride. It is time for us to work together—to accept the truth about our problems in south Florida, and to set about solving them. It is time for us to do all of these things—because you know as well as I that the alternative will be disastrous to our economy as well as to our environment.”
——Florida Gov. Rubin Askew, (served 1971-1979) Rubin included, by law, the mission of Florida’s water districts to envelop “environmental protection.”
National Geographic’s February 2015 issue has an article entitled “Treading Water,” which discusses among other things, sea level rise and the future loss/threat to sugarcane and oranges south and around Lake Okeechobee in Florida. (NG, photo of page 119.)
My husband Ed was out of town on Friday, so I thought I would get some reading done on something other than the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. That evening, with the dogs at my feet, I began reading the February issue of National Geographic magazine, a publication my parents filled our family home with, and I have kept subscribing to as a window to the outside wonders of our world.
After reading articles on the terrible trauma of “blast force” to US soldiers that served in Iraq and Afghanistan; Hawaiian identity and the sea; and the amazing microscopic revelations of mites; —–at the very end of the magazine, there was an article entitled: TREADING WATER about climate change, seal level rise, and South Florida.
The article focused quite a bit on a Dutch company that sees “profit rather than loss” in floating houses in trendy Miami, but also mentioned a few things that had little silver lining such as an insert on page 112, entitled, “Home on the Water.” This insert briefly noted the 2,100 miles of canals, (that we are all so familiar with), that have been built over the past century to drain the Everglades and empty the state’s water mostly into the Atlantic Ocean. (FOS, 1.7 billion gallon a day on average….)
According to the article, if there is two feet of sea level rise, conservatively predicted by 2060, the gates draining the lands around lake Okeechobee and the Everglades, “will no longer work…”
I’ll be 95 in 2060….hope I can get out of the nursing home to see….
National Geographic page 112. “Given two feet of sea level rise, more than 80 % of the gates will no longer work.”
The article also notes “two key” very threatened and very profitable agricultural industries: sugarcane and oranges.
National Geographic magazine’s February 2015 issue article “Treading Water,” shows locations of sugarcane in the Everglades Agricultural Area, and orange groves both north and south Lake Okeechobee. (NG, photo of page 119.)
Food for thought….
Sea level rise is a factor I deal with as a commissioner in the Town of Sewall’s Point and have been exposed to through the Florida League of Cities. The sea has risen before and it is rising again. Too bad humanity is speeding things up, but we are…
After listening to many state agencies and scientists speak on the issue, I personally do not believe Florida will be abandoned or”sink.” I think it will rise in new form, adapting to change as humanity has done for thousands if not millions of years.
Nonetheless, if I owned sugar groves in the Everglades Agriculture Area, I’d have an exit strategy; if I worked for the Army Corp of Engineers, or South Florida Water Management District, I would reexamine the plumbing; and if I were Florida’s governor, or legislature, I would be talking to scientists about the advantage of fresh water on the land south of lake, pushing back salt water coming up from below and providing drinking water in the future to all those people living on floating houses in Miami…
So much for reading about the “rest of the world”…our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon/ Everglades issues are inescapable!
Town of Sewall’s Point: (http://sewallspoint.org )—FEMA houses being lifted, flood map changes are just a few of the things the town is dealing with in regard to sea level rise.
Sunrise along the Indian River Lagoon. Photograph by John Whiticar, 2015.
“Sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset,
Swiftly fly the years,
One season following another,
Laden with happiness and tears…”
1st verse, of song from musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” 1964
The beautiful sunset and sunrise photos of our area’s photographers invoke a deep appreciation of our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, as well as the struggles and successes of our lives.
Sunsets and sunrises seems intrinsically linked to inspiration and reflection in all of us.
Thankfully, here in the Indian River Lagoon region, we can still see our sunrises and sunsets, although the health of our river, and thus our ability to enjoy the river, is “impaired.” This was scientifically determined by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) in 2000. (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/southeast/ecosum/ecosums/SLE_Impairment_Narrative_ver_3.7.pdf)
In Beijing, China, last year, the government erected a televised screen showing sunsets, as the people could not see their sunsets any longer— due to the tremendous smog in their city. What a price to pay for economic “success.”
China starts “televising” the sunset in Beijing, as the city is continually blanketed in smog, 2014. (Source earthfirstjournal.org.)
Oddly enough, on some level, we have experienced the same thing. On a level of world comparison, we have a “thriving economy;” however, somehow, over the past 100 years, we have “lost our river.” Yet in most of the adds one sees, the river still looks beautiful and healthy.
Right now, the Army Corp of Engineers (ACOE) is discharging water from Lake Okeechobee, while the South Florida Water Management District canals C-44, C-24, C-23, and C-25 are also dumping polluted water into our estuary. All of this extra water has been “engineered” to come here so agriculture and development can thrive. Us included…
Sunset, St Lucie River, 2014. Todd Thurlow.
So, right now there is “no other way,” and the ACOE and South Florida Water Management District are locked in a cycle of struggle to send more water south when the entire southern area south of Lake Okeechobee is blocked by the Everglades Agricultural Area— other than a few canals, to “send water south.” Plus the water is too dirty for the Everglades—but not for the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon that is already “impaired.”
The “mighty” Kissimmee too has been “engineered for the success of farming and ranches and development in its former watershed. It is being partially restored by the SFWMD; this is wonderful, a testament of the ability of the system to recover if given a chance….
And after all, it’s not so bad here right? We can still see the sun…..AGGGGG!
Let’s continue to turn this ship; let’s continue to fix our own yards, towns, cities, and counties; let’s keep pushing the State for a reservoir/flow way to store, clean and convey water south. As Eric Eichenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation said yesterday at the Rivers Coalition meeting, this is the “only way” as the Kissimmee River’s continued restoration is simply not enough to hold all the water.
“Sunrise, sunset….sunrise, sunset….”we are thankful and we are inspired….
The first verse of the River Kidz’ Song, written by River Mom, Nicole Mader, and the River Kidz goes:
“The River Kidz are here; Our mission’s quite clear; We love our river and ALL its critters; Let’s hold it all dear…”
The rest of this wonderful song can be found on page 36 of the new workbook below.
After over a year of creative preparation, and community collaboration, the River Kidz’ 2nd Edition Workbook is here!
After long contemplation this morning, I decided to share the entire booklet in my blog; but as WordPress, does not accept PDF files, I have photographed the entire 39 pages! So, not all pages are perfectly readable, but you can get the idea.
The really cool thing about this workbook is that it was written “by kids for kids,” (Jensen Beach High School students for elementary students). The high school students named the main character of the book after Marty Baum, our Indian Riverkeeper. The students had met Mr Baum in their classroom (of Mrs Crystal Lucas) along with other presenters and field trip guides like the Army Corp of Engineers, South Florida Water Management District, and politicians speaking on the subject…
The books will be going into all second grade public school classrooms and many private school classrooms beginning in February of 2015. Teacher training will be underway this February at the Environmental Studies Center in Jensen: (https://www.facebook.com/escmc?rf=132947903444315)
River Kidz will make the booklet available to everyone. Some will be given away, and some will be used to raise money at five dollars a booklet. To purchase the booklets, please contact Olivia Sala, administrative assistant for the Rivers Coalition at olivia@riverscoalition.org —-Numbers are limited.
In closing, enjoy the workbook and thank you to Martin County, Superintendent, Laurie J. Gaylord for encouraging the workbook and for her beautiful letter in the front of the booklet. Thank you to Martin County School Science Leader, Valerie Gaylord; teacher, Mrs Crystal Lucas; Mom, Mrs Nicole Mader; Sewall’s Point artist, Ms Julia Kelly; Southeastern Printing’s Bluewater Editions’ manager and River Dad, Jason Leonard; to River Kidz founders Evie Flaugh and Naia Mader, now 14/13; years old–they were 10 and 9 when this started,—- to the Knoph Foundation, and the Garden Club of Stuart, and to the hundreds of kids, parents, students, businesses, politicians, state and federal agencies, and especially to Southeastern Printing and the Mader Family who made this concept a reality through education, participation. (Please see page 34 below.)
Thank you to all those who donated money for the workbook campaign and to River Kidz over the years, and to the Stuart News, for Eve Samples’ column, and reporter, Tyler Treadway, for including the River Kidz in their “12 Days of Christmas” for two years in a row. River Kidz is grateful to everyone has helped…this is a community effort!
River Kidz is now in St Lucie County and across the coast in Lee County….
Remember, all kids are “River Kidz,” even you!
—-The workbook is in loving memory of JBHS student, Kyle Conrad.
The Florida legislature has dubbed 2015 as the “Year of Water.” But how exactly can Amendment 1’s “Water and Land Conservation Initiative” monies be spent, and how can we have a voice? (Water, public image.)
Hello again. Before I start, it is necessary quickly to review…:)
In yesterday’s blog, we discussed that when the South Florida Water Management District and the Army Corp of Engineers write or discuss “approved,” and “authorized,” projects, this does not mean they are “working on those projects” as the federal and state monies for those projects, like CERP and CEPP, may not have been “appropriated.” —Meaning the state and federal government has not given the agencies money to do the projects even though they have been “approved.” (http://www.evergladesplan.org/about/about_cerp_brief.aspx)
That’s a mouthful!
So basically, stakeholders are sitting around fighting about something that may never happen or might happen in 100 years.
Don’t get me wrong, the ACOE and SFWMD are working on projects, but not all of the 60 plus that are part of the Central Everglades Restoration Project/CERP. Rather, the agencies work and stop, work and stop, work and stop, waiting and hoping for more money to be APPROPRIATED for some of the projects, or maybe just one of the projects they are working on, before elections start up again, and the government officials change their minds!
Terrible isn’t it?
This is not the issue with Florida’s Amendment 1 monies. These monies will be here this year in 2015, and although it is not the 12 billion plus needed to accomplish CERP quoted in 2007, it is substantial monies, perhaps 700 million this year after debts, and billions over time? Amounts will depend on the real estate industry as monies come from “doc stamps on the deed:”
According to Scripps Newspapers, “The measure requires the state to set aside 33 percent of the money it raises through real-estate documentary stamp taxes to protect Florida’s environmentally sensitive areas for the next 20 years.”
Money to clean our dirty SLR/IRL water…(Water, public image.)
These state of Florida monies, will be real and will be doled out each year by our hungry, varied, and ever-changing legislature….
It will be great to have the money, but this will be a bloody fight for the Florida legislature.
Picture throwing a steak into a gathering of starved pit bulls. This is about the scenario…
Nonetheless, our elected legislative “pit bulls “have a responsibility to listen to their contingency while they are fighting, and this is why it is absolutely necessary that we all weigh in on issues of the polluted St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon and its surrounding canals; Lake Okeechobee; the purchase of US Sugar option lands for a reservoir to store, clean and convey water; and eventual type of “flow-way” south to the Everglades…
Option Lands Map SFWMD River of Grass, Option 1 is 46,800 acres and shown in brown. (SFWMD map, 2010.)
Let’s be good students and quickly review the language of Amendment 1 so we know who our competition is and how to outsmart them; I know it is always kind of boring to read this sort of language, and it is somewhat long, but read it; know it; use it to your benefit!
Amendment 1 added a Section 28 to Article X of the Florida Constitution:[3]
SECTION 28. Land Acquisition Trust Fund. — a) Effective on July 1 of the year following passage of this amendment by the voters, and for a period of 20 years after that effective date, the Land Acquisition Trust Fund shall receive no less than 33 percent of net revenues derived from the existing excise tax on documents, as defined in the statutes in effect on January 1, 2012, as amended from time to time, or any successor or replacement tax, after the Department of Revenue first deducts a service charge to pay the costs of the collection and enforcement of the excise tax on documents. b) Funds in the Land Acquisition Trust Fund shall be expended only for the following purposes: 1) As provided by law, to finance or refinance: the acquisition and improvement of land, water areas, and related property interests, including conservation easements, and resources for conservation lands including wetlands, forests, and fish and wildlife habitat; wildlife management areas; lands that protect water resources and drinking water sources, including lands protecting the water quality and quantity of rivers, lakes, streams, springsheds, and lands providing recharge for groundwater and aquifer systems; lands in the Everglades Agricultural Area and the Everglades Protection Area, as defined in Article II, Section 7(b); beaches and shores; outdoor recreation lands, including recreational trails, parks, and urban open space; rural landscapes; working farms and ranches; historic or geologic sites; together with management, restoration of natural systems, and the enhancement of public access or recreational enjoyment of conservation lands. 2) To pay the debt service on bonds issued pursuant to Article VII, Section 11(e). c) The moneys deposited into the Land Acquisition Trust Fund, as defined by the statutes in effect on January 1, 2012, shall not be or become commingled with the General Revenue Fund of the state.[4]
Did you read it? Did you see it? It says right there in the legal language: lands in the Everglades Agricultural Area and the Everglades Protection Area….
Let’s ask the legislature to support the SLR/IRL so we can have clean water…(Water, public image.)
Pretend you are a legislator: “Fix Lake Okeechobee and the estuaries, or beach re-nourishment?” Get it?
So let’s compete! $$$$ Contact the Florida Senate. They have set up a web site to take our Amendment 1 requests. Just click and fill out below. Thank you for supporting our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon!
Approve and Appropriate. What’s the difference? Isn’t the government working on fixing the Everglades? (Public image.)
“approve”
VERB
–officially agree to or accept as satisfactory: “the budget was approved by Congress” synonyms: accept · agree to · consent to
“appropriate”
VERB
—-devote (money or assets) to a special purpose: “Congress finally did appropriate money to the Everglades C-111 project after 15 years…” synonyms: allocate · assign · allot · earmark · set aside · devote
Sometimes, when I finally “get” something, I cannot believe it took me so long to understand. This has certainly been the case over the past six years when it comes to money, and projects, to help save the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon as part of the Central Everglades Restoration Project— known as CERP. (http://www.evergladesplan.org/about/about_cerp_brief.aspx)
SAVE THE WATER; SAVE THE SLR/IRL and the EVERGLADES. (Waterfest art, 2nd graders, City of Stuart 2013.)
Although the projects for CERP were “expected” to take 30 years, 15 years has passed, and not one of the projects is fully completed. The kids that made the poster above may be grandparents by the time a couple of the dozens or so projects, that are necessary to fix the Everglades SLR/IRL, are completed.
Today, I thought I’d share this post just in case you are a bit confused by this long time line, like me.
I think another aspect of difficulty in “understanding” all of this is that many projects are written about, and talked about, in the press,and by the state and federal agencies, as if they are “under way,” when they are really not, or its just government officials arguing over projects that may never be.
As all things in life, understanding this “mess,” may help us to overcome it.
Today’s lesson:
So, there are two words you will often hear: 1.”approval” and 2. “appropriate.”
Just because something is “approved,” does not mean it is “appropriated,” because in the world of government, “appropriate” means GETTING THE MONEY TO DO THE WORK, and “approval” just means a bunch of people at one point agreed something is a good idea.
Just like in a small town, a commission may agree the town needs new street lights, and advertise this in their newsletter, but the commission may never, over time, actually do what is necessary for the staff to buy the lights and get them installed–like giving the staff the money. This is complicated by election cycles every two, to four, to six years! New people may not agree with the previous monetary decisions that were “approved.”
Water and money….
Let’s apply this to the US and State Government:
In the year 2000, the US Congress “approved,” the Central Everglades Restoration Project to help fix the messed-up south Florida Everglades system that was created mostly in the 1950s and 60s after a big flood in 1947. Stakeholders celebrated at the time, that the “over drainage,” dying estuaries, and the drying up of the Everglades would be fixed, but this situation is still not fixed enough to make a huge difference….Also, all the people that were in Congress in 2000 are mostly gone, and there are different priorities now.
Nonetheless, today, the Army Corp of Engineers/South Florida Water Management’s shared website on CERP reads:
“The Plan was approved (by Congress) in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2000. It includes more than 60 elements, will take more than 30 years to construct and the current estimate in Oct 2007 dollars is $9.5 billion for projects ($11.9 overall including PLA and AAM).”
OK if you read this, you would think this might mean it was “approved” so it is going to, or is being done. This is not the case because the money needed to construct and complete these projects has not been APPROPRIATED (set aside.)
The streetlights were never purchased and put up!
The scenario becomes even more complex in some instances as the State of Florida may be bound by contract to also give money or “cost share.” And if the US Congress has not given their “approved” part yet, the State can’t really get going and give its part. Sometimes the State moves ahead anyway……
Anyway, so everybody is grumpy, and fighting, and it’s a big mess.
So the bigger question is after 15 years:
Even though we all have our hopes up that the US Congress will APPROPRIATE the money for the CERP project to help fix the Everglades and St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, and people worked very hard to achieve this we must think…
—-If we are true to ourselves, viewing history, we see a situation, like a bad relationship, where someone promises you something, but never gives it to you…you keep hoping but it never happens….
—-Finally, after many years, you start to realize that although you have a “promise,” YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO GET IT!
(Or that it is unlikely anyway, or that you will be dead if you ever get it….)
Not a fun realization, but such is life…so do you stay in the relationship or break it off? Or maybe just become less dependent?
So here we are…..and there is some light now…
In closing…
Although the state of Florida cannot afford to fix the Everglades all by itself; it is too expensive, in the billions and billions of dollars. With the advent of Amendment 1 passing by 75%, there may be some ability for Florida to do this.
But that is another blog, for tomorrow!
River Kidz Naia and Kiele Mader in front of the White House, 2013.)
Option Lands Map SFWMD; Purchasing optional lands would start the process of having enough land south of Lake Okeechobee to store, clean and convey water south. (SFWMD map, 2010)
Yesterday, reviewing Everglades/IRL history, we learned about Storm Water Treatment Areas (STAs) that clean Lake Okeechobee water going to the Everglades; today we will take a look at their “older brother and sisters” the Water Conservation Areas ( WCAs),changed but remaining parts of the Everglades, that deliver water to Everglades National Park, and are protected as part of the Everglades themselves…
The Water Conservation Areas, the three large red images in the photo at the beginning of this blog post, comprise 900,000 acres. For reference, the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) is 700,000 acres. As we learned yesterday, the STAs were built in 1994; the WCAs are were developed/created in 1948.
According to United States Geological Survey, (USGA,) the WCAs were developed as part of the (1948) Central and Southern Florida (C&SF) Project.
It followed tremendous flooding in 1947, and inspired the widening and deepening of the C-44, (St Lucie) C-43, (Caloosahatchee) canals, the building of C-23, C-24, C-25 in Martin and St Lucie Counties, as well as many, many, other projects around and south of Lake Okeechobee. The Army Corp of Engineers did what they were charged to by the state and the US Congress, and as usual they did it “too well,” over draining the state with the continued destruction of the northern estuaries. On top of that, today we waste on average 1.7 billion gallons of valuable water to tide every day. (Florida Oceanographic Society, Mark Perry.)
So anyway, the WCAs were also “created”during this time; they on the other hand are a good thing…
According to the USGA web site:
They were designed for use as storage to prevent flooding, to irrigate agriculture and recharge well fields and as input for agricultural and urban runoff.
They are also recharged by rain, but leeves were built around the WCAs so water flows into them and then slowly streams into Everglades National Park by the hand of man, not Nature…
The USGA also states that:
Historic flow of water and the quality of water through the WCAs have been greatly reduced. These conditions have resulted in decreased wading bird populations due to shortened hydroperiods, invasion of the native environments by exotic plants and fish, and conversions of sawgrass communities to cattail/sawgrass mixes.
Recently, Martin County’s Dr Gary Goforth (http://garygoforth.net), formerly of the SFWMD, and one of the primary creators of the STAs, has been revealing publicly at River Coalition meetings and SFWMD meetings that although more STAs have been built since 1994 to bring and clean water into the WCA/Everglades, less water is actually getting there!
2014 was the first year in ten years that a substantial amount of water (over 250,000 Acre Feet) was sent south. (See chart below.) This is odd isn’t it? And until last year, most of that water was EAA water used to water their crops, not “overflow” Lake Okeechobee water.
Dr Goforth’s chart showing amount of Lake O. water sent south to the STAs from 1995-2014.
I believe it was the public outcry that inspired the ACOE and SFWMD to send more water south last year through the STAs and WCAs.. .The problem lies with the SFWMD and ACOE mostly because in 1994, by law, phosphorus was limited into Everglades National Park. This is understandable, but adds to our St Lucie/Indian River Lagoon continued destruction.
Even with all of the STAs and the WCAs nature cannot take up all of the man-made phosphorus and nitrogen from farming and development. So what can we do?
We must return more of the EAA land to nature or at least “man-made” nature…we must purchase the option lands….
Option Lands Map SFWMD River of Grass, Option 1 is 46,800 acres and shown in brown. (SFWMD map, 2010)
With “my kids” at Pensacola High School, 1993, 9th grade English Class. (Photo courtesy of photography teacher at PHS.)
History shows that “things can change.” This doesn’t mean it will be easy, or perfect, but things can change.
Today is Martin Luther King Day, and as a former middle and high school English teacher, I have read Dr King’s speech “I Have a Dream,” many times together with my students, and each time, my eyes filled with tears at the prospect that these words could one day come true in spite of the pain and difficulty of “getting there.”
This held especially true when I was teaching in Pensacola, in Escambia County, which at the time was one on the very poorest counties in the state of Florida and may still be… I had two classes of “at risk” kids and my observation was basically that many of my students were “locked in the past” in their thought processes often quoting the Civil War and why things were as they were in their world.
Approaching Martin Luther King Day, we would read aloud Dr King’s speech, and I would tell them that although things are bad, they must remember, that years ago, things were worse, and most of all with the power of collective thinking, THINGS COULD CHANGE. And for that to occur, they had to believe it, live it, and be part of that of change.
I also taught my students some hard facts, noting that if they didn’t know their history, they would not have the tools, fire, or respect to create change in their world.
I believe that this lesson applies to river advocacy for the St Lucie/Indian River Lagoon as well. To make our advocacy work, we must know the history of Florida, the the Army Corp of Engineers, the South Florida Water Management District, agriculture, the EAA, development, and ourselves: then we must believe in change for the river, and we must be a part of that change.
Below are statistics of the history of the St Lucie River and releases from Lake Okeechobee, from 1931 to 2013. In 2014 there were no releases. Right now, in 2015, the ACOE has started again.
Thank you, to Dr Gary Goforth (http://garygoforth.net) for providing these numbers and an explanation of how he achieved them. The two columns are: “Estimated Releases to the River” (SLSR/IRL) and “Estimated Flow from Lake O to C-44 Canal.” Both are in acre feet. I use the first column often to compare and understand how much water has helped destroy our estuary over the years; ; I hope it becomes useful to you as well. And may we have a dream that things will get even better.
1931-2013 numbers for release from Lake Okeechobee to the St Lucie River. (Courtesy of Dr Gary Goforth, 2014.)1931-19601961-19951995-2013. (2014 = 0 to SLR)
Below is history and explanation from Dr Goforth:
History:
A state-authority – the Everglades Drainage District – constructed the St. Lucie Canal (later known as C-44) between May 28, 1915 and 1928. During this time they also built a lock and spillway at the Lake end of the canal and a lock and spillway at the present location of S-80. On June 13, 1923, water from Lake Okeechobee began flowing through the canal into the St. Lucie River.
In the 1930s and in the late 1940s the Corps enlarged the St. Lucie Canal, and it was then known as C-44.
In the 1940s the Corps completed S-80 – the St. Lucie Lock and Spillway – at the site of the original lock on the east end of the Canal. Flow data beginning 10/1/1952 for S-80 are reported by SFWMD.
In the 1970s the Corps constructed S-308 – Port Mayaca Lock and Spillway – west of the site of the original lock on the west end of the Canal.
Flow estimates:
I cannot find flow data for Lake releases to the Canal prior to April 1, 1931.
Between April 1, 1931 and September 30, 1952, Lake releases to the C-44 are reported by U.S. Geological Service.
I cannot find flow data for Lake releases to the C-44 between October 1, 1952 and December 31, 1964. However, flow data is available for S-80 beginning 10/1/1952, so I estimated Lake flows to the Canal for this period based on the S-80 flows and the correlation between concurrent observed flows at S-80 and S-308 (1965-2013).
Beginning January 1, 1965, Lake releases to the C-44 are reported by SFWMD.
I’ve also provided estimates of Lake releases to the St. Lucie River.
Lake releases are currently made to the C-44 Canal for two reasons: 1. Irrigation demand for agriculture in the C-44 Basin. This Lake water enters the Canal at S-308 but does not leave the Canal at S-80. 2. Regulatory releases from the Lake to the St. Lucie River.
Historically, some Lake water was sent to the St. Lucie River for perceived beneficial purposes – however today both Mark Perry and Deb Drum insist that Lake releases provide NO beneficial purpose to the River.
To calculate the Lake releases to the St. Lucie River, you need to compare the flow that enters the Canal at S-308 with the flow that passes through S-80. The minimum of the two flows is estimated to be the Lake flow to the River.
As an example, say 1000 gallons entered the Canal from the Lake on Day 1. The same day, no water passed through S-80. So for Day 1, the estimated Lake flow to the River is the minimum of (1000, 0) or 0 gallons.
As another example, say 1000 gallons entered the Canal from the Lake on Day 2. The same day, 500 gallons passed through S-80. So for Day 2, the estimated Lake flow to the River is the minimum of (1000, 500) or 500 gallons.
Using this method, we can estimate Lake flows to the St. Lucie River (Figure 2 and Table 2). Because flows were not available at both S-308 and S-80 for the period 1931-1964, I estimated these flows based on the correlation between concurrent observed flows at S-80 and S-308 during the period 1965-2013. Other folks (SFWMD or Corps) may estimate the flows differently based on different assumptions. —-Dr Gary Goforth
Generally speaking, during an El Nino, ocean waters are warmer and thus there is more rain. (Public photo)
Last night, my husband, Ed, walks into my office, sneaks behind me, looks at my computer screen with an El Nino water pattern photo on it, and says jokingly: ” What are you now? The weatherman?”
I look at him with a wry smile:”No, I’m not the weatherman; I am going to write about El Nino in my “Indian River Lagoon” blog tomorrow. I think the ACOE could start dumping into the St Lucie River soon. There’s a connection with El Nino, and it’s a terrible way to possibly start the new year.”
Ed leaves the room laughing…”Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch- weatherman!”
Well, Ed did make me laugh for the moment; but today, I am not laughing.
From what I have witnessed over the past few weeks, before I had a wonderful holiday break, as I hope you did, the scientists on ACOE Periodic Scientist Conference for Lake Okeechobee and the Estuaries, were alluding to releasing water from Lake Okeechobee to the estuaries. I have been thinking about this the entire break. This could happen, or not happen. And although the reasons are many and multi-layered, let’s start with a simple question.
“What is an El Nino?”
Apparently the word which literally means “Christ Child” (Little Boy) is derived from Spanish-speaking fishermen who noticed that sometimes, around Christmas, ocean waters get warmer, thus the name. Because the warmer waters are not as nutrient filled as the cool waters, this radically affects fishing, and bird life, as well as weather patterns—causing more rain during the winter season.
So, during the recent ACOE Periodic Scientist calls, that I sit in as an elected official, most recently on December 23, 2014, NOAA reported that there is a 65% chance that there could be an “El Nino” this winter. (http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/) Thus the projections for rain this winter are “high.”
For scientists from the Army Corp of Engineers and South Florida Water Management District tying to manage Lake Okeechobee, (http://w3.saj.usace.army.mil/h2o/reports.htm), this affects how they will manage the lake. The lake is now at 15.20 feet. This is almost a full foot higher than last year and high in general for this time of year. Usually at this time of year one would hope that the lake is going down so it will be ready to hold the waters of the next rainy season…
All things considered, now the ACOE/SFWMD might dump to “make room.” You’ve got to be kidding me?
Why can’t the ACOE send this lake water south?
According to them and the charts below, they can’t because they already sent so much water south in 2014. Sending water south is good. More water was sent south in 2014 than in many, many years before. Still….
Hmmm…. So am I supposed to feel OK about this? No.
It’s kind of like understanding why you are going to get beaten. You may understand, but it doesn’t make it hurt any less….
Also, one other thing they don’t mention is that the Storm Water Treatment Areas and Water Conservation Areas south of the lake are reserved first for the Everglades Agriculture Area’s (EAA) water….
In my opinion, this is not right….
It is also not right that the estuaries repeatedly get destroyed. We must fight on.
So take a look at these slides and “understand,” but may it give us ammunition to fight harder as part of our new year’s resolution for 2015, and definitely, not to accept our plight.
ACOE/SFWMD summary at last Periodic Scientist Call, 12-23-14.ACOE/SFWMD chart from PSC showing how much water they “could” have sent the SLR…12-23-14. Blue what LORS allowed. Red what they sent this year.(LORS 2008) Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule chart. Although the ACOE’s chart “tells” the ACOE that they can send the SLR 1170 cfs of water, and has for months, the ACOE has been sending 0.
Happy New Year. Happy 2015. 2014 was “progress” because of you. So let’s keep learning, and pushing for a third outlet south of the lake, and lands to hold that water, so one day in the future, we don’t have start the new year with an ax over our heads.
Below is the last message from the ACOE, regarding the next Periodic Scientists Conference Call, so tomorrow, will be an “epiphany.”
12-24-14: “The next periodic scientist call will be 6 January 2015 at 2:00 PM. We anticipate continued discussions regarding Lake Okeechobee levels, weather forecasts to include El Nino conditions, and dry season lake release strategy.” —ACOE
Home Page for new SFWMD website “Moving Water South,” 2014.
In case you have not seen it, managers at the South Florida Water Management District have created a wonderful new website entitled “Moving Water South.”
This website shows the incredible “work-around” the District performs to send water through the Everglades Agricultural Area, (EAA), to get water to flow south. The EAA, of course, is one of the nation’s richest agricultural areas and completely blocks the flow of water from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades. Since the 1920s, the EAA has been the primary reason for the Army Corp of Engineers building canals C-43 and C-44 for the “overflow” waters of Lake Okeechobee. These excess waters are then dumped into our precious estuaries of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon and Caloosahatchee. This destroys them.
If you go to the link above and view the website you will see a combination of ten different structures, (S); stormwater treatment areas, (STA); and water conservation areas (WC) that either basically send, clean, or hold water in its journey south.
They are as follows: Lake Okeechobee; S-354; S-351; S-352; C10A; WC1; WC2; WC3; STA3/4; and STA 2.
I really think this is a great site and as a former 8th and 9th grade teacher, I appreciate that it is something that can be visually shared with young people so that they can easily understand why our estuaries are periodically destroyed; the value, but difficulty of the EAA’s location; and why our Everglades are being starved of the amount of water they originally received.
My greatest hope with tools like this is that future generations will be able to figure out a way for us all “to have our cake and eat it too–” allowing enough water to go south so as not to destroy our estuaries, and allow the state’s long time best friend, historic “Ag” to do what it does, make money and feed people….
I definitiely commend the SFWMD for the transparency of the web-site; let’s take a look at what they are reporting today.
From Nov. 1, 2013, through Oct. 31, 2014, South Florida Water Management District operations moved approximately 339 billion gallons of water from Lake Okeechobee – that’s the same as 782,367 football fields filled with 1 foot of water or about 2.2 feet of water depth of Lake Okeechobee.
Holy Toledo! 339 billion gallons of water. Hmmm? How much is that?
After the 2013 Lost Summer and looking at the ACOE’s website for so long, I understand acre feet better….so how do we convert gallons to acre feet? (An acre foot is one foot of water standing on one acre of land…)
Thankfully, I have friends who can help me answer this question.
My friend, Dr Goforth, (garygoforth.net), a former long time employee of the SFWMD and designer of the Storm Water Treatment Areas told me:
“To convert from gallons to acre feet, divide by 325,872.”
All joking aside, thank you SFWMD for the website. By the way, it is important to recognize that the ACOE and SFWMD have “moved more water south” in 2014 than at least since 1995. Bravo!
In conclusion, in conferring with Dr Goforth, he thought it was a great site too, but mentioned it would be nice if the site explained how much water “made it to Everglades,” as this is a tremendous part of the overall goal.
Below is Dr Goforth’s chart showing water to Everglades among other complicated transactions. Like I said, thank God there are people who can read this stuff and do the numbers; all I really know is that sometimes there is an ocean of water coming into our estuaries and it needs to go somewhere else!
Dr Gary Goforth’s chart for moving water south to the Everglades, May-Oct. 2014.
*Thank you to Ted Guy for calling the Move Water South site to my attention!
12-20-14: After completing the above post, I am adding the chart below of Dr Goforth’s showing how much water by year comparatively moved south into the STAs from 1995 to 2014. I think it is a helpful visual and now I can reference this photo in Comments of this blog post.
Dr Goforth’s chart showing amount of Lake O. water sent south to the STAs from 1995-2014.
I am also adding this Option Lands Map as it too is referred to in the comments on this blog post as a way to send even more water south and create a type of flow way in the future….
This chart shows “the inherent variability in annual flows to the SLR/IRL.” (Dr Gary Goforth, 2014.)
One of the positive things that has come out of the negativity of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon situation, is building relationships with incredible people who care about our rivers. One of these people is Dr Gary Goforth.
Dr Gary Goforth, 2014. (Photo Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch)
I first met Dr Goforth last August when he spoke before the “Senate Hearing on the Indian River Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee Basin,” at the Kane Center in Stuart, organized by Senator Joe Negron. Dr Goforth was sitting next to Karl Wickstrom, founder of Florida Sportsman Magazine and outspoken member of the Rivers Coalition.
Listening to Dr. Goforth plead his case, I said: ” Wow, who is this guy?”
He spoke for the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon as a scientist showing the SFWMD and ACOE could move more water south, and he knew as he very much helped design the system! I came to learn that he in fact is the “father of the STAs (Storm Water Treatment Areas) in the Everglades Protection Areas and worked for the South Florida Water Management District for I believe almost 20 years. Now he is independent and has his own company. (http://garygoforth.net)
Having access to Dr Goforth is like having access to a “water issues computer” and I am continually blown away by his breadth of knowledge and that he is openly willing to share.
Sometimes our conversations go like this:
“Dr Goforth, I am looking at your chart, and my husband tells me never to speak in public when it comes to numbers…..but what does this mean……?”
He never makes me feel stupid, has the patience of a saint, and goes over the material until I get a hang of it.
The chart at the beginning of this blog entry is an example of complexities made simple through Dr Goforth. The chart, through color coding, shows “the inherent variability in flows” to the St Lucie River through C-23; C-24; Ten Mile Creek; C-44 Basin; Other Tributaries (a huge area around all the developed area of the river); and Lake Okeechobee Discharges. This is shown in AF (acre feet), or an acre of land with a foot of water on it.
Map of St Lucie Basin. Over the years, this basin has been expanded to take in water over 50% of its original footprint. (SFWMD/ACOE map 2014.)
Referring to the chart is enlightening and disturbing to note that for instance in 2005, almost 2,500,000 acre feet of water came into the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon; and in 2013, our “Lost Summer” about 1,250,000 acre feet came in. Other years shown on the chart between 1995 and 2013 with “worse” years than 2013 are 1998; 2003; and 2004. To somewhat put this in perspective, the huge EAA, or Everglades Agricultural Area, south and around the Lake Okeechobee is 700,000 acres. So for 2,500,000 acre feet of water, where would we ever find 2,500,000 flat acres of land to put this water on? We would not, and this is why “they” have to deal with volume and deeper storage areas. Mind blowing? YES!
The red colored blocks south of Lake O. are the EAA-700,000 acres of sugar lands and vegetables. South of the EAA are the STAs and water conservation areas .(SFWMD map, 2012.)
So getting back to home, why did we finally “freak out” and go over the edge in 2013, when the flows have been “worse” before? Well, I personally think social media is a big part of this, as well as the aerial photos that “showed” people” the true repugnance of the big picture; and like someone in an abusive relationship, after years and years, we’d finally HAD ENOUGH!
C-44, C-23 and C-24 basin runoff discolor the waters of the SLR/IRL while exiting the St Lucie Inlet over near shore reefs, 7-19-14. (Aerial photo, Ed Lippisch.)
Dr Goforth’s chart also shows that the annual flow to the SLR is 999,468 acre feet; and the average annual flow of Lake Okeechobee water to the SLR is 291,899 acre feet or 29% of the flow. I’ll round that up to 30% and say, “Yes, we here in Martin and St Lucie County have terrible issues with our own local runoff of C-23; C-24; Ten Mile Creek; C-44 Basin; and Other Tributaries; yes, in fact we are almost killing ourselves, SO ACOE and SFWMD PLEASE DON’T TOTALLY KILL US BY RELEASING POLLUTED WATER FROM LAKE OKEECHOBEE ON TOP OF OUR ALREADY HORRIBLE SITUATION!
With that said, I hope you learned something today and if you have time, take a closer look at the chart, it’s really educational; also, if you ever see Dr Goforth around town, go up to him and thank him and shake his hand. He is one of the most outstanding “River Warriors” of all!
Looking at the clouds over the St Lucie River, Roosevelt Bridge, Stuart, Florida. (Photo Jacqui Thurlow-Lipppisch 11-14)
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that…” Martin Luther King, Jr.
The situation for the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon remains a bleak one, but I am telling you, “I can see the light!”
At last week’s Water Resource Advisory Commission, (WRAC), of the South Florida Water Management District, (SFWMD), Dr Gary Goforth, (http://garygoforth.net) the great scientist watchdog of the District and former employee who designed and “built” the Storm Water Treatment Areas, (STAs) for the SFWMD, stood before the commission and gave thanks to the District and to the Army Corps of Engineers for “sending more water south” through the STAs to the Everglades in 2014, than since 1995.
273,188 acre feet in fact!
Although 273,188 acre feet of Lake Okeechobee water will not save the St Lucie, sending this much water south is an incredible move on the part of the SFWMD and the ACOE. Of course there is more work to do and the situation wouldn’t be as rosy if we had had as much rain fall as in the “Lost and Toxic Summer of 2013.” Nonetheless, those who worked hard for this must be given credit.
Doing so meant taking risks of breaking the WQBEL, or how much phosphorus can enter the Everglades Protection Area. Over a certain amount is a breach of federal law. Sending so much water south also meant irritating some powerful stakeholders, like the EAA and Homestead sugar and vegetable farmers who need dry feet to grow their crops and stored water to insure they can grow them…..
Dr Goforth’s chart showing amount of Lake O. water sent south to the STAs from 1995-2014.
The situation is difficult, really the”razors edge” as the “water going south” does not just include the waters of Lake Okeechobee but also the waters of the EAA that have precedence.
So….
This year was markedly different. Why?
Because of the pressure put on the ACOE, SFWMD, the Governor, DEP and others by the SLR/IRL and Caloosahatchee River Movements, the public, Scripps Newspapers, Martin County, St Lucie, and Indian River Commissioners, the IRL 5 County Coalition, and powerful “linked-in” politicians, like Senator Joe Negron and Congressman Patrick Murphy who are watching, and forcing the agencies to follow the requirements of state and federal policy to send water south even though it is a very slippery slope.
The clouds and sun are always moving….
Change happens slowly; it requires altering the culture and habits of institutions and society. Looking at what happened this year, is proof that this indeed is occurring.
I am a no “Pollyanna;” I know that what has to happen to save the St Lucie and Indian River Lagoon is tremendous, almost beyond comprehension, but in order to overcome darkness one must begin by recognizing the light…
THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN FOR MR LARRY ROBINSON AND HIS “CUB CLUB” THAT WILL BE FLYING INTO HISTORIC BUCKINGHAM FIELD AIRPORT CLOSE TO THE CALOOSAHATCHEE RIVER IN LEE COUNTY; I THOUGHT THIS MIGHT BE OF INTERESTS TO ALL.
Cub Club of Florida
When flying into Buckingham Airport near Ft Meyers, one will surely get a view of the beautiful Caloosahatchee River that runs from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico.
The river, named after the warlike Calusa Indians, has a great history and is unfortunately under great pressure due to man-made changes in its surrounding hydrology. The original lands of the watershed allowed for the waters of the Kissimmee Valley, near Orlando, to move south through the then winding Kissimmee River, into Lake Okeechobee, and then slowly make their way to the Florida Everglades.
Historic flow of Lake Okeechobee. (Map courtesy of Everglades Foundation.)
Before the late 1880s, the Caloosahatchee was not truly connected to Lake Okeechobee; its headwaters started at Lake Hicpochee, west of today’s Clewiston. Marshlands filled from Lake Hicpochee to Lake Okeechobee in times of heavy rain “connecting” the waterway but this was not lasting.
In the late 1800s investor and land owner, Hamilton Disston, following an old Calusa Indian canal, connected the river permanently to Lake Okeechobee by digging a wide canal. This was done in order to drop the level of the lake and drain the surrounding lands for agricultural development.
Disston was not completely successful but he did inspire others to complete his work in the early 1920s.
Redirection of the waters of Lake Okeechobee through the Caloosahatchee and St Lucie Estuaries. (Map courtesy of Everglades Foundation.)
People had been farming in Florida south of the Lake Okeechobee since the late 1800s as the muck was very rich and produced wonderful crops. But flooding was a constant issue.
After the horrific hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 that completely flooded the area south of the lake and took thousands of lives, the state of Florida begged the federal government for flooding assistance which resulted in the Cross State Canal being built from Ft Meyers to Stuart and the building of the Herbert Hoover Dike around southern Lake Okeechobee.
The canal allowed not only for east west navigation across the state, but also redirected the waters of Lake Okeechobee that traditionally flowed south to be sent east and west through nearby estuaries: the Caloosahatchee on the west and the St Lucie River/Southern Indian River Lagoon on the east.
After another great storm and flood in 1948, and repeated outcry of the state and public, the Army Corps of Engineers “improved the system” through the Central and South Florida Project by widening and deepening already constructed canals and by building many more.
By the 1960 the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), south of the lake, became the number one sugar and vegetable producer of the state and one of the top in the nation; fortunes were made in the post-wartime era.
Simultaneous to the success of the EAA, development exploded along the two estuaries, the Caloosahatchee, and St Lucie/Southern Indian River Lagoon. Both of these areas depended heavily on fishing, tourism, and real estate values for their economies so when Lake Okeechobee would overflow and billions of gallons of fresh water would pour into the estuaries disturbing the brackish balance, killing seagrasses, destroying fishing stock and wildlife, of course these cities along the coasts complained.
Over time, even more people have moved the Caloosahatchee and St Lucie areas, and the massive population of Orlando has complicated the situation as “Orlando’s” polluted water full of nitrogen and phosphorus from fertilized lawns and farmlands travels south filling Lake Okeechobee. Since the water cannot go south, it is redirected to the estuaries. As a result, the Caloosahatchee and St Lucie estuaries experience toxic algae blooms during heavy destructive discharges.
This “health and safety” situation came to a head recently during the summer of 2013 when the Army Corps released from Lake Okeechobee for five months straight: May 8th- October 21st. This time became known as the “Lost Sumer” as health departments warned citizens and pets to stay out of the water for months on end.
Due to public outcry, Florida Senator Joe Negron, chair of the Appropriations Committee, organized a “Senate Hearing on the Indian River Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee Basin” that included studies of both estuaries. Congressman Patrick Murphy invited citizens to Washington DC.
The east and west coasts and many politicians unified during this time, thousands rallied, and news of the toxic waters was told by local, state, national and global media.
The Florida governor, state legislature, US Congress, along with “water managers,” Army Corp of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District, felt tremendous pressure to find alternative ways to store water and clean water north of the lake and to “send more water south.”
Under the 2013/14 state legislative sessions the state legislature and federal government designated monies for both estuaries to help abate these issues. Part of the Tamiami Trail was even “opened” to allow more water to flow south and plans are being made to lift and open more areas in the future. University of Florida water experts are studying the issue.
Unfortunately, in spite of what can be done, this is just the tip of the iceberg as the amount of water that needs to be redirected away from the estuaries is enormous, truly beyond comprehension. This is why many believe Everglades restoration plans are taking entirely too long and that we must find a way to fully restore the Kissimmee River and create a third outlet south of the lake.
Plume from canal runoff C-44, C-23 and C-24, October 17, 2014. (All photos Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch and Ed Lippisch.)
Today, I will take you on an air tour, hopefully one of the last of this year’s rainy season. In Florida, rainy season corresponds with hurricane season that lasts June through November. Nonetheless, typically the rains start to wind down towards the end of October.
The Army Corp of Engineers has not released from Lake Okeechobee this year so it has given us an opportunity to see what the runoff in our area is “in and of itself.” I refuse to use the words “local runoff” because the St Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon’s runoff is over 50% of what is was before the Water/Flood Control Districts and the ACOE created since the 1920s in order to drain the land for development and mostly agriculture.
It is the runoff of these expanded lands that we are dealing with today, full of sediment, fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides, road pollution, and whatever is on people’s yards.
I think seeing how “bad” our canal runoff is also shows why WE CANNOT ACCEPT WATER FROM LAKE OKEECHOBEE on top of this already bleak situation of our own.
Green is original flood plain and yellow is expanded flood plain. Photo from A “Citizens’ Report to Congress” 1995, St Lucie River Initiative.
So anyway, enough of my lecture, let’s get started!
Ed in front of Cub Legend.
The tour starts at Witham Airport in Stuart.
Run off from canals and Willoughby Creek
The first thing one sees once up in the air off of runway 12, is the polluted freshwater pollution/sediment line coming around the tip of Hell’s Gate in the St Lucie River. This water is coming from the South Fork of the St Lucie River where C-44 is located and the North Fork area where C-24 and C-23 are located. This filthy water flows into the St Lucie River proper and then around the tip of Sewall’s Point, into the Indian River Lagoon, out the St Lucie Inlet and then into the open Atlantic Ocean. (See map/chart 3 above for canal locations and expanded watershed runoff.)
Close up of plume in SLRSewall’s Point
Continuing on, as one flies over the St Lucie Inlet and along the Atlantic Coast over Jupiter Island one sees the dark water in what is usually a turquoise blue ocean. It must be noted that although this runoff canal-plume is disgusting looking it is nothing close to how dark and sediment filled it was last year when the runoff included releases from Lake Okeechobee.
Beach along Jupiter Island
There was some fun stuff to see also. There were many sharks in the dark waters. Ed and I wondered if they were sneaking up on the fish in all the cloudy water, there were so many. We must have seen 20-25 large sharks. We also saw sea turtles and giant rays, and lots of bait fish and sea birds both in and out of the plume area.
Plume from canal runoff C-44, C-23 and C-24, October 17,2014.
As we approached Peck’s Lake, we could see the tip of the plume in the distance like a giant slug. The plume ended about a mile short of Hobe Sound Beach, in Jupiter Island.
Ed and I talked about how one house would have the dark plume waters and another only a few feet away had blue ocean…
Plume up closeAnother angle, tip of plumeLong shot with Peck’s Lake in background.Shot of ocean on the trip home showing edge of plume.
Well that’s the end of the tour. Hopefully you learned something or saw something new. And hopefully it is also the end of the rain for 2014. To learn more about these canals please see links below.
Another year, another rainy season behind us….
As we flew home, I was grateful to live in such a beautiful area and with every flight I become more determined to save it from the dirty waters of our canals and Lake Okeechobee. To destroy such a paradise is wrong.
McCarty Ranch is/was located in St Lucie County and will be the future water supply for the City of Port St Lucie.
The first time I heard about McCarty Ranch was from, at the time, City Manager Greg Orvac. It was 2012 and he invited me up to Port St Lucie to see all the wonderful work they were doing building areas to clean water run off and to learn about how the city was planning for its future water supply.
I was told that the idea of McCarty Ranch was that the city would build a water treatment plant to withdrawal the polluted agriculture tainted water in the C-23 canal before it gets to the river, hold it, treat it, and use it.
“Wow,” I thought. “This is wild, I have heard of things like this in other areas of the state, but right here at home?”
This is great news about cleaning the filthy C-23 canal water that is one of many canals along with Lake Okeechobee releases killing our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/southeast/ecosum/ecosums/c23.pdf) but there is also a tang of future “water wars” in this scenario as cities jostle for securing their future water supply.
Port St Lucie recently has become the 9th largest city in the state of Florida and has approximately 250,000 residents. By 2060 or so, they expect 400,000 or more. Three years before I was born, in 1961, a handful of residents petitioned the legislature for the fish camp area to become a city…
By looking at the Google map above, one can see that McCarty Ranch is located just above the C-23 canal east of Gatlin Boulevard. The C-23 canal is the “county line” between Martin and St Lucie Counties. I do not really know the details, and I think the city and county are still arguing over details in spite of a front page article in Scripps Newspapers today, but one would think the city will either have to also annex some of the lands below the McCarty piece or just have giant pipes connecting it to the C-23 through a small connected parcel. Either way, I am sure over time it will occur. They will build what they need to remove by South Florida Water Management District, (SFWMD), permit, water from the C-23 canal and use it for their citizens.
You may be thinking, the McCarty name rings a bell because you know or because I recently wrote a blog about Dan McCarty awhile back. The blog was about how I stumbled upon a grave in Palms Cemetery along Indian River Drive that read: “Governor Daniel McCarty.”
Yes, the ranch belonged to this prominent St Lucie County, former 1800s pineapple, then ranch and citrus family.
If you have the time to listen to the first video link below, there is a fascinating video interview with Mrs Peggy McCarty Monahan, the granddaughter of Charles Tobin McCarty, talking about her father, the brother of Dan, the governor, saying to her when she was a young girl: “Water is gong to be an issue, water is going to be the most important thing…”
Through these words he was telling her that one day the ranch’s proximity to the City of Port St Lucie would make it ideal for water storage and supply. Many of these old time ranchers preached this theme to their children knowing we had worked so hard to get the water off the land and one day we would be trying to put it back on…
Apparently there are lakes and mined areas on the property for water storage; I am unsure if the original McCarty idea included drawing water from C-23 canal; it very well could be, as C-23 was built in the 50s and 60s and waste tremendous amounts of water to tide in order to drain the surrounding lands for agriculture and development.
C-23 is one of the dirtiest canals dumping into the St Lucie River; it will be good to remove some of the water before it gets to the river but will there ever be a day when it takes too much or Martin County wants that water too?
Sounds far-fetched for sure, but all I know is that stranger things have happened along the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. Who would have though Port St Lucie would one day be projected to have over 400,000 people?
Aerial of what was to become the City of Port St Lucie, 1957. (Photo Ruhnke/Thurlow collection, courtesy of Sandra Henderson Thurlow.)
This aerial shows the area of the future almost 10,000 acres that will become the C-44 Storm Water Treatment Area and Reservoir. A landmark of this area is Indiantown Airport, a grass strip located above and north-east of the lake in this photo. So far the C-44 STA/R. project’s four mile intake canal has been built. The immense lands beyond, east, north and west of this area will become the STA and Reservoir.
I spend a good amount of time studying the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon; nonetheless, I am constantly amazed to learn what I don’t know. In a nutshell, the C-44 storm water treatment and reservoir is part of the Indian River Lagoon South Project to clean up the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon by storing and cleaning water from our huge C-44 basin.
The project is part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and even though I have read about it for years, I did not know how or the order of it being built. Today I will share my experience in learning just the beginning.
To look back a bit for the history, building the C-44 storm water treatment area and reservoir is combined effort of many years of work of local, state and federal governments and it is one of the most expensive water projects being built in the Florida, with an estimated costs of almost 4 million to complete.
I wanted to SEE this because it is so hard to understand it all.
So a few weeks ago my husband Ed, and his friend Shawn and I are flying over this area and I’m saying “where is it? It’s supposed to be here. I want to take some pictures. Hmmm? I don’t see anything…I was expected a big lake like thing off of the C-44 canal or something.”
Ed calmly, says: ” This is it Jacqui. Over the past years the ACOE has been working hard to build this new intake canal. We have seen it for years as we fly over. It must be built first probably; you can see the results.”
So we flew north over the four mile intake canal that finally stopped in a wilderness of agricultural lands.
Intake canal on east, agricultural lands on west.End of intake canal.
The intake canal was completed in July of 2014 at of cost of 28 million dollars. This is huge accomplishment and this is only the beginning. This is what we can SEE so far.
So what will we SEE in the future?
To get an idea as seen below, the FPL cooling pond off the east coast of Lake Okeechobee is 5,000 acres. The C-44 STA/R. will be almost 10,000 acres. So in the future, when one looks at a Google Maps, there will be another gigantic lake looking thing consisting of the STA (6300 acres) and the reservoir (3, 400 acres) east, north and west of the Indiantown Airport, the red dot below.
Area from Lake O following C-44 canal to St Lucie River in Stuart.Indiantown Airport along C-44 canal.Map of C-44 STA/R black. Basin in pink.Engineering map from ACOE/SFWMD showing where the cells of the C-44 STA/R. will be.
The monies and energy needed to build the C-44 STA and reservoir is and has been tremendous. In spite of one’s political affiliations or the project itself, we must recognize those who have recently helped ensure the success of the project: the SFWMD, the ACOE, Senator Joe Negron, Governor Scott, Congressman Murphy, the Martin County Commission and the public. I am sure there are many others that I do not know. This gigantic project has taken many years and has been no easy feat. Kudos to the decades of people who have worked to make this first step of the intake canal possible. I recognize your efforts.
Yes it is good to be positive, the C-44 STA and Reservoir is a great start, but it is important to also realize that the resovoir will hold about 50,000 acre feet of water. During some storm seasons we get much more than that just from the C-44 basin alone, and that is NOT counting releases from Lake Okeechobee.
We have a lot more work to do, to get to where we want to be, but finally we are beginning to SEE RESULTS of something getting built to help improve water quality, and that is something more than Martin County has ever seen before in its long fight to save its treasured St Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon.
The area of Ed and my back yard where grass has slowly been removed, planting areas enlarged, and mulched with leaves.
In 2010 the Town of Sewall’s Point passed a strong fertilizer ordinance, the first on Florida’s east coast. It was during this time, that I became “anti-turf grass.” Today when I look at a “beautiful” sprawling yard of green grass, all I see is fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, and heavy water needs that are contrary to a healthy St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon and a successful Florida future.
Native coontie.
In order to put my “money where my mouth is,” in 2010, I informed my husband that I was going to start removing the grass from our yard and mulching with leaves from our oaks, strangler figs, and other trees. As usual, he looked at me like I was slightly crazy, but as usual, he agreed.
This decision was made easier in that around this same time our well was starting to go dry and I had gotten estimates in from $5000 to $8000 to replace it. Not to mention the well guys said if they did drill, as it is well-known wells are going dry in this high hammock area of Sewall’s Point, and they were unsuccessful, Ed and I would still have to pay half.
“Not my kind of odds.” I thought, especially knowing water issues regarding wells, and salt water intrusion are only going to increase. Last week, in 2014, I changed the house over to “city water” as our well has finally died. I am very glad that over the past few years I have de-grassed the yard for the most part, a heavy water user, and filled it with Florida Friendly (http://www.floridayards.org) plants that do not require much watering. I am hoping to irrigate only once a week, or never, and just water by hand.
City water is expensive! The South Florida Water Management District states that “up to 60% of a south Florida homes’ water use can go to irrigation. That’s insane and a huge waste of water and money.
I have read that Florida produces 25% of the WORLD’S turf grass.(http://floridaturf.com/about/) Considering that, I’d say the state has an interest in keeping us “in grass.” This is a problem…a conflict of interest. I wish they were investing in inventing an attractive low-water/low-or no fertilizer, ground cover other than floratam type grasses; they would make billions, and help save the state’s precious spring, lake, and estuary waters rather than encouraging us to destroy them. The sod and fertilizer industries are multi-billion dollar industries that want to keep us “addicted.”
Well, I have broken free. 🙂
Back to my family, I have to say, also, that my brother-in-law, landscape architect Mike Flaugh (http://mikeflaughla.com) and my mother, always ahead of her time, also inspired me on this issues. As they too have de-grassed their yards years ago and their yards still look beautiful. Mike has “natively” and “Florida Friendly” landscaped some of the newest and finest homes in the area with no or little grass and these homes are examples of the “new yard,” “the conscious yard,” “the yard of the future.”
Today, I’d like to share some photos of my de-grassed yard in hopes of inspiring you, should you wish to be inspired, and hopefully are already! 🙂
Font of house is now ferns and other plantings.Creeping jasmine vine has replaced grass in the front yard. Loves shade or partial sun, but not full sun.Back yard where grass was removed and replaced with stepping stones and Florida Friendly plants.Front yard with stepping-stones and edged with ferns and plantings.Leaves from the trees in the yard are used as mulch, as they break down they enrich the soil.One area of the house in the front was left with grass for our dogs to run, and play, and…Bird houses for wildlife; wildlife increases dramatically once grass and chemicals are removed. The birds eat bugs.More native plants like this satin leaf started to germinate and grow once the grass was gone. I am letting more natives grow-letting the yard “be itself.”Native Beautyberry provides food for wildlife and color.Wild coffee grew like crazy in our area once the grass was out. It has colorful berries for wildlife and a shiny green leaf.Native firebush attracts butterflies.Golden dew drop with its pretty purple flowers is a butterfly magnet.Lantan, another butterfly and low water plant.Purple porter, yet another butterfly and low water native.Once grass was gone, this Mexican star, or something like that, started to come up all over the yard; it has a pretty yellow morning flower and is native.this century plant needs little water and has an interesting shape; native beach sunflower vine in rear.Crotants are not native but use little water and add color.Side yard…no more grass, with lots of blue flowering plumbago, also a low water, butterfly attracting, Florida Friendly plant.
“River of Grass” US Sugar Land Acquisition map. US Sugar website 2014.
Do you remember the historic Everglades restoration plan entitled the “Reviving the River of Grass?” In all honesty, “I do, but I don’t,” as I was just jumping into the boiling pot of small town politics at this time having run for my Sewall’s Point commission seat in 2008.
From what I recall, this was an amazing time, in that it appeared possible for the state of Florida to purchase lands south and around Lake Okeechobee so that overflow waters could flow south of the lake and thus not cause such incredible destruction to the St Lucie/Indian River Lagoon and Caloosahatcee estuaries.
The short version of this deal and how it changed is as follows:
2008: included 180,000 acres for 1.34 billion; 2009: included 73,000 acres for 536 million with option for remainder; 2010: 26,800 acres was bought for 194 million in cash, with option/s to purchase remaining 153,200 acres.
The clock is still ticking on these option lands and although it is not on the state’s agenda to buy these lands at this time, the recent sector lands’ land use change/s proposal has brought the US Sugar Lands Option and Everglades Restoration back into the limelight.
Even though our governor and state legislature would consider it a headache, now would be a good time for the people to push for the purchase of these lands.
Let’s learn about them and let’s begin by reviewing the history according to the deal’s biggest player, US Sugar Corporation:
“2008 through 2010 was a bittersweet time for U.S. Sugar – a company that has been farming in the Lake Okeechobee region for more than four generations. It was during this time period when the Company agreed to sell a considerable amount of its sugar cane and citrus acreage to the South Florida Water Management District for the “River of Grass” restoration project. U.S. Sugar is firm in its belief that the sale was for a good cause and is proud to be part of this historic opportunity to make extraordinary progress in Everglades restoration and restore much of the natural footprint of South Florida.”
History of the Agreement
2008 In June of 2008, an announcement was made that the South Florida Water Management District would purchase 187,000 acres of U.S. Sugar’s land (292 square miles or three times the size of the city of Orlando) located in environmentally strategic areas that would help restoration efforts for Lake Okeechobee, the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries and the Everglades. Under the terms of the original agreement, sufficient land would also be available for critical water storage and treatment as well as for allowing sustainable farming in the Everglades Agricultural Area and the Everglades to be sustainable.
Over the course of the next two years, modifications were made to the agreement. In May 2009, an amended agreement provided for the initial purchase of close to 73,000 acres for $536 million, with options to purchase the remaining 107,000 acres during the next ten years when economic and financial conditions improve.
2009 In 2009, a proposal for a scaled down acquisition was made due to the global economic crisis. Under the new contract, U.S. Sugar agreed to sell 72,500 acres of the Company’s land for approximately $530 million to the SFWMD. While the SFWMD finalized plans for the land, the Company would continue to farm the 72,500 acres through a 7-year lease that may be extended under certain circumstances. The agreement also provided the SFWMD with an option to acquire the Company’s remaining 107,500 acres for up to ten years.
2010 On August 12, 2010, a second amended agreement was reached for the South Florida Water Management District to buy 26,800 acres of land for $197 million along with the option to acquire 153,200 acres in the future.
In October 2010, the agreement for 26,800 acres was finalized and the following month the Florida Supreme Court struck down a challenge to the land acquisition stating that the purchase of U.S. Sugar lands fulfills a valid and extremely important public purpose in providing land for water storage and treatment to benefit the Everglades ecosystem and the coastal estuaries.
Arrows point to lands with a 2 year non-exclusive option of purchase 46,000 acres by October 12, 2015.
The next part gets confusing, and I don’t think I understand it all, but I will try to share what I think I know. This is the part about the Sugar Hill Sector Plan controversy and how it relates to the US Sugar Option and Everglades restoration.
First: So in 2010 the state purchased two huge pieces of land. This purchase, totaling 26,000 acres, is shown in black in the map above. I believe they are the piece in the upper right east corner and the piece below the lake all the way at the very bottom left.
Second: There was a 10 year option negotiated between US Sugar and the State of Florida to buy the remaining 153,000 acres. This is still out there.
Third: Another element of this option mentioned above is a “2 year non-exclusive option” to buy 46,000 acres by October 12, 2015. This requires the purchase of 46,000 acres of land and it is shown in the map above; the four arrows point to these lands. One of these arrows is pointing to the lands that are the proposed Sugar Hill Sector Plan Lands in Hendry County; it is the second arrow from the left.
Confused yet? Don’t feel bad, I always am!
Sector Plan lands, 44,000 acres, located in US Sugar option lands required to by bought by 2015 if purchased for Everglades restoration.
So it is these sector lands that the second arrow on the left side points to that are the proposed Sugar Hill development in Hendry County. These are the lands causing much controversy because they are located inside “option lands.”
Hendry County wants their land use changed for future economic development; for that I cannot blame them, this is the job of every commission. Nonetheless, the issue for the state and for those of us inundated with toxic waters from Lake Okeechobee every few years is that these lands were set aside for the “River of Grass Restoration Project.”
If the land use is changed from agricultural to residential/commercial its price will be much higher and realistically never purchased by the state of Florida for Everglades restoration.
Overlap lands between option lands and Sugar Hill.
To keep going with this, the map above shows that the possible US Sugar land purchase option lands and the Sector Plan lands of Sugar Hill. You can see in the black lined areas that there is an overlap by approximately 13,250 acres. These are the acres that are requesting land use change that are located within the option lands. So if it is only part of the lands, why the problem?
According to Mr Mark Perry of Florida Oceanographic who provided the maps for this blog entry, ”
The issue here is that the subsequent 2-year, non-exclusive option —46,000 acres (by October 12, 2015) must be bought in total and with changing “land use” on part of the lands, it may pose a problem for the State purchase.”
At this time many conservation groups led by the *Everglades Foundation have sent letters to Governor Scott stating stating:
“We are concerned the proposed land purchase can be jeopardized by a recent 43,000 development plan (The Sugar Hills Sector Plan…) We encourage your administration to revue the impact this Sector Plan may have on the ability of the state to move forward with the land purchase with special attention given to the fiscal impact a land use change could have on the market value of the option lands…”
Only time shall tell if development interests or Everglades restoration wins out. One way to help is to write Governor Scott at the website below. Thank you trying to learn all this and for continuing to fight for the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon.
*It was pointed out to me that it was the Sierra Club, not the Everglades Foundation that sent a letter inclusive of many environmentalist groups. The Everglades Foundation did send a letter but just from their board. Thank you Chris Maroney.
Local artist, Julia Kelly’s vibrant artwork will be featured in the River Kidz second edition workbook. Her work was also featured in the first edition in 2013. (Julia Kelly, Photo, 2014.)
In 2013, the first edition of the River Kidz workbook was produced with help from Mary Anne Conrad, teacher at Jensen Beach Elementary, Nic Mader, River Mom and Dolphin Ecology Project, Julia Kelly, artist, (http://juliakellyart.com), input from the “Kidz,” and me, Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch.
The workbooks were a great success and shared in many of the Martin and St Lucie County elementary and middle school classrooms.
Cover of River Kidz, “Paradise is Home” workbook, first edition. Artwork by Julia Kelly, 2013.
(In case you have not seen the first edition, electronic copies are available at (http://riverscoalition.org) at the bottom of the page.)
Now, in 2014-2015, a second edition will be released. Exciting! But what’s the difference and why so soon?
Well, long story short, one of the projects that master-teacher Crystal Lucas did with her Jensen Beach High School (JBHS) Marine Biology II Class last year, during the LOST SUMMER, was a “rework” of the first edition workbooks. The idea was to have the older kids teaching the younger kids. A collaborative effort and from their perspective.
River Kidz was started by two fifth grade girls in the Town of Sewall’s Point in 2011, Evie Flaugh and Naia Mader. The power of the movement is that it comes from kids. The overseeing adults of River Kidz wanted to keep that theme going, but to bring it to a new level.
The JBHS students were in a position to do this because with Crystal’s leadership they had had extensive studies of the Everglades, St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon in reference to discharges from Lake Okeechobee and the local canals, C-23; C-24 and C-25. This education involved attending the Everglades Coalition Conference, studies with the Everglades Foundation, air boat rides in Lake Okeechobee with legends Nat Reed and Maggie Hurchalla/SFWMD, classroom visits by the Army Corp of Engineers’ Lt. Col. Thomas Greco, Marty Baum, the Indian Riverkeeper and many local and state elected officials including myself.
The students even won first place in the Keep Martin Beautiful Environmental Stewardship Awards for their work on water issues!
Concerning the rewrite of the workbook’s first edition, the JBHS students decided first and foremost that there needed to be a mascot and a story. They determined the mascot should be named , “Marty the Manatee,” and yes, this was inspired by none other than Mr Marty Baum! (http://www.indianriverkeeper.org)
So artist Julia Kelly was task to come up with a character and she did, even though she refused to put a mustache on Marty as the students requested because she felt “we needed to be wary of anthropomorphizing the animals.” The steering committee agreed, and Marty was born! 🙂
“Marty the Manatee” by artist Julia Kelly, 2014.
Through the JBHS students’ eyes, Marty tells the story of his ancestors’ former home in all its glory with the mythical Pond Apple Swamp at the southern rim of Lake Okeechobee, clean rivers, and a life with animal friends throughout the northern and southern Everglades. He then goes into today’s struggle with overdevelopment, agriculture, sugar and agribusiness south of the lake, polluted water discharges, redirection of water into the St Lucie/IRL and Calooshatchee from Lake Okeechobee, and other drainage canals, loss of seagrass, algae blooms and friend “die-offs.” He gives ideas for a better, cleaner world and a happier future. There is hope! And that hope lies in the River Kidz, the future….
Marty the Manatee with all of his river friends. Julia Kelly, 2014.Apple Pond Forest.
The workbooks will be a beautiful collaboration of student and artistic ideas that are sure to inspire generations to come. The goal is to have a fundraiser-grand-release party in November at Blue Water Editions, a division of Southeastern Printing, the invaluable local company that will be printing the workbooks.
The workbooks are a collaboration, and River Kidz is a division of the Rivers Coalition. The steering committee consist of Nichole Mader, Crystal Lucas, Valerie Gaynor, Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch and Blue Water’s Jason Leonard.
Donations are welcome!
Bumperstickers promoting the workbook are available at Blue Water Editions, located at 4665 Se Dixie Highway, Port Salerno. (http://www.bluewatereditions.com)
More information will be forthcoming. But for now, enjoy the artwork and remember ALL KIDZ (and ADULTZ) are River Kidz!
Our mission is to “speak out, get involved, and raise awareness, because we believe kids should have a voice in the future of our rivers!”
Marty eating, swimming and thinking…Marty with friends and family discussing wounds from boat hits, polluted water, and lack of seagrass…teaching the kids how to build a better world for him and the kids through creating a better water environment.
The Central Florida Water Initiative is an area of Florida around Orlando that “does not have enough water.” Could they use ours?
We keep hearing: “Water is the new oil.”
This is hard to believe when one lives in Martin County and watches the destruction from too much fresh water into the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon from canals C-23, C-24, C-25, C-44 and releases from Lake Okeechobee. According to the Florida Oceanographic Society, 1.7 billion gallons of fresh water per day is sent/wasted to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico through the St Lucie, Caloosahatchee and other South Florida canals.
Well, there is one area of our state, not too far away, that is running out of water. Today, these counties are part of what is called the “Central Florida Water Initiative,” CFWI. They include: Seminole, Orange, Osceola, Lake, Polk, Brevard and Volusia.
I must divert for a moment because this is really something as this area holds the “headwaters of the Everglades.”
“Shingle Creek,” in Orlando’s Orange County, is generally considered to be the northernmost headwaters of the Everglades’ watershed. This is an area you probably drive right past upon a visit to Disney World. It was named after the cypress trees that were used to make roof shingles in the pioneer era and beyond.
In the 1960s and 70s, after the cypress trees were cut for the shingle industry, Shingle Creek and the other surrounding streams and lakes’ water-levels were “brought down” in order to allow more development. One of the ways this was achieved was through the Army Corp of Engineers’ canalization of the once long, serpentine, Kissimmee River. Canalization of the Kissimmee not only helped lower the lakes so they could drain, but also created lands along the now straight canal for ranch and real estate development.
Today, as we know, all that now dirty, unfiltered, water shoots down the Kissimmee into Lake Okeechobee and then is redirected to the St Lucie and Caloosahatchee so the sugar and vegetable farmers south of the lake have “dry feet,” as well… Thankfully, parts of the Kissimmee have been restored and society recognizes the canalization of the Kissimmee River as an environmental disaster. Our disaster.
Nonetheless, there is no way to completely undo what we have done, so now south of Lake Okeechobee and north of Lake Okeechobee often does not have enough water, while the Northern Estuaries sometimes HAVE TOO MUCH.
Where am I going with all this?
So fast forward, it is now 2014, and as I mentioned the “headwaters of the Everglades” and the counties surrounding it are literally “running ” out of water.
This is why the Central Florida Water Initiative, mentioned at the beginning of this write up, was formed.
An excellent article entitled “Central Florida Water Initiative, “A Regional Response to Avoid a Pending Crisis” written by attorneys Michael Minton, Laura Minton, and John Wharton, of Dean Mead for the Florida Engineering Society succinctly explains the history, goals, and future for the CFWI. I would like to share some of this article.
The article notes how from 2007-20012, the St Johns, South Florida, and Southwest Florida water management districts undertook an assessment of available groundwater for the seven counties listed at the beginning of this blog, noting insufficient quantities for the area’s projected growth— projected to be 6.6 million by approximately 2050. This would include an addition of 3,000,000 people to the population today.
Thus over time and through much coordination and work the CFWI was born.
After deep explanations, the article explains that the CFWI’s conclusions and recommendation include the following concepts: water is undervalued; continued use of just groundwater sources would cause unacceptable environmental impacts to the Floridan aquifer; the importance of conservation; the importance of alternative water sources, its expense and the coordinated regional effort that would be required to achieve such for the future.
The CFWI is obviously a complex effort thus I will not attempt to go into too great of detail. If you are interested, you can read more about it here:
What I must mention is that on the final page of the Dean Mead article something very interesting is stated:
“The Solutions Planning Team’s (STP) report is scheduled to be made public in Fall 2014. Once the findings of the SPT are approved by the Steering Committee, it is anticipated that the findings will be made available to the Central Florida Legislative Delegation. The collection of uniquely talented individuals who have volunteered their time and effort to serve on the committee has yielded many novel and creative concepts. Some of the creative opportunities look beyond the CFWI’s geographic boundaries and contemplate transmission of surface water from regions with excess water supply, to the detriment of their environment, to Central Florida to supplement the existing supply. These creative and innovative options are the type of out of the box thinking that long-term solution Florida’s water strategy and policy will require…”
I wonder and I hope they are talking about “us…”
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The Article, Central Florida Water Initiative, A Regional Response to Avoid a Pending Crisis by Dean Mead, was published in the JOURNAL of the Florida Engineering Society, to access this article you must be a member: (http://www.fleng.org/pubs.cfm)
SFWMD’s simplified publication list of RESTORATION PROJECTS, 2014.
If there is anything I believe in, it is the “power of the people,” and it has given me great pleasure to watch this American principal at work over the past year. For me, presently there is nothing more evident of this than a small, simplified pamphlet that was officially released at last week’s Water Resources Advisory Commission (WRAC) on Thursday, September 4th, 2014; it is simply entitled RESTORATION PROJECTS and could fit in your pocket it you folded it in half.
This little pamphlet was greatly inspired by the people, the river protesters in particular, at a meeting that occurred in September of last year and took place at Indian RiverSide Park, in Jensen Beach. At this meeting the WRAC met for its regular meeting within the South Florida Water Management District, but also to hear the voices of the protesters in light of the toxic releases from Lake Okeechobee during the summer of 2013. In August of that year over 5000 people had protested at the St Lucie Locks and Dam. The District took notice.
As did the press….
You may recall Kenny Hinkel’s video that went viral of many people at the meeting on their cell phones? You may remember locals speaking before the WRAC asking for clarity, in understanding exactly “what and when” the SFWMD was doing to “save our river.” You may remember people being mad. You may remember myself and others begging for a simplification of presentation as the presentations from the District are so erudite only a scientist can understand them.
Note the top priorities have to do with attempting to “send Lake O. and others waters south through the Tamiami Trail area and the Indian River Lagoon South projects in Martin and St Lucie County for water storage from polluted local canals. Great. And it may have been that way before, but we needed to see it on paper!
Many people deserve credit for this simple but huge accomplishment, the River Warriors and SFWMD staff in particularly but I must note that on the day of that meeting, it was Chief of Staff, Dan Delisi, who called me aside after that meeting and said: “That simplification idea…so the public can understand….that is a good idea….we will work on that.”
And they did.
Also, the queen of the publication is Ms Temperince Morgan who compiled tons of information and put it before the WRAC to be digested and fought over and did it with a smile.
And the greatest of all, the pearl in the oyster created by that constant irritation, that grain of sand, is the people!
You created this, you demanded this. You insisted your government talk to you in such a way that you “get it.”
Corruption is easily shrouded in complexity. Simplicity is the light, our light for a cleaner and healthier St Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon.
The collective teamwork of the SLR/IRL River Movement has had a tremendous effect on state agencies such as the ACOE and SFWMD. “KEEP THE GATES CLOSED!” (Photo of River Warrior and River Kidz mom, Cristina Maldonado, donning her homemade protest shirt at the St Lucie Locks and Dam River Rally. Photo Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, 2013.)
Today I want to share what I consider a huge recent success of the River Movement and our ability to network and work together to protect our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon.
On August 25th, Jensen Beach activist Jackie Trancynger sent out an email blast featuring a photograph taken by Paul Shidel of an awful looking algae bloom he found while photographing birds at Port Mayaca. Port Mayaca is where structure S-308 is located that allows water from Lake Okeechobee to be released into the C-44 canal to the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon.
Here’s the photo. You may recall reading about it in one of my previous blogs or seeing it in an email exchange:
August 24, 2014 photograph of blue-green algae bloom east of S-308, Lake Okeechobee/C-44 Canal area/ (Photo courtesy of Paul Shidel.)
So anyway after I saw the photo, I called Jackie Trancynger and got Paul Shidel’s email in order to verify the location of the bloom-certainly appearing to be toxic algae. Paul not only verified the location but provided a map!
Map of algae bloom’s location on east side of S-308, C-44 canal. (Paul Schidel.)
On Tuesday, August 26, I participated as I have for almost two years now, in the ACOE Periodic Scientists Call in my capacity as an elected official from the Town of Sewall’s Point at the invitation of Ms Deb Drum, who oversees Martin County’s Ecosystem Restoration & Management Division.
During this call I sent Paul’s photo and map to the ACOE stating concern that if S-308 were opened this possibly toxic algae would head straight into our SRL/IRL.
Then an amazing thing happened..
The ACOE ask the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to test the algae.
Yesterday, Deb Drum from Martin County reported that the testing came back positive as “Microcystis, a toxic blue-green algae.” The county in turn notified the ACOE that the algae exists in that location to document their concern. If the ACOE were to open the locks at S-308, the algae could travel downstream with the water flow into the SLR/IRL. This knowledge could actually make a difference in a decision of the ACOE to open up those structures.
Wow. Thank you Paul!
I have complained before on the ACOE call about toxic algae being released from Lake Okeechobee as the SLR/IRL does not seem to “go toxic” from its local canals, but only when Lake Okeechobee’s waters are unleaded to our shores. Toxic algae has been seen in the area between S-308 and S-80 many times but we need to start documenting this. Documentation is a powerful tool in changing the tide of destruction.
So thank you for your teamwork! Together we can help KEEP THEM CLOSED! The “Gates of Hell” that is…
Subject: Lake Okeechobee, Okeechobee/Glades/Hendry/Palm Beach/Martin Counties: Florida CyanoHAB Tracking Module has received a record update
On August 27, 2014, Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Southeast District staff sampled an algal bloom found in Lake Okeechobee. A single grab sample was collected of surface scum at the Port Myakka Lock (C-44.) Following are the laboratory results for this sample:
Result: Class Toxin potential * The dominant taxon was: Microcystis aeruginosa Class Cyanophyceae yes
Other taxa present: Dolichospermum circinale ** Class Cyanophyceae yes Pseudanabaena sp. Class Cyanophyceae undetermined Eudorina elegans Class Chlorophyceae – Pediastrum simplex Class Chlorophyceae – Glenodinium sp. Class Dinophyceae
* Information based on literature searches and personal communications; information is continually being updated. “Undetermined” refers to specimens for which the lowest practical level of taxonomic identification is genus and some, but not all, species within that genus have the potential to produce toxins or toxin information not available for the identified species but is available for genus level.
Color graph showing land use and development in South Florida by 1972 made possible by drainage and re-plumbing of Lake Okeechobee waters to the northern estuaries. (SOFIA, Robert Renken team 2000.)
To understand the impacts on the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon, it is necessary to look in beyond our boarders. One of the most telling documents helping to explain why the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon is forced to take the over flow water of Lake Okeechobee (which in some years, since 1923, has been above 2,000,000 acre feet) is a document entitled “Synthesis of the Impacts of 20th Century Water Management Land Use Practices on Coastal Hydrology of South East Florida,” by Robert Renken and other scientists for the 2000 Greater Everglades Ecosystem Restoration Conference.
Today I will show parts of this document as “food for thought.”
Chart 1, 1900.
As one can see above, in 1900, Lake Okeechobee overflowed naturally to the Everglades to Florida Bay. The green on the eastern coast was a Florida forest.
Chart 2, 1953.
By 1953, the year after my Thurlow grandparents came to Stuart from Syracuse, New York, the Everglades Agricultural Area, (EAA), just south of the lake had caused the destructive redirection of Lake Okeechobee waters; this water was directed to the northern estuaries, the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon on the east, and to the Calooshatchee on the west. More agriculture can be seen in dark brown along the eastern coast and south to Homestead. Forests in some areas remain (green). The yellow is urban development. There is some urban development but it is not extensive.
Chart 3, 1972.
By 1972, when I was 8 years old growing up in Stuart, the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) now mostly sugarcane, south of Lake Okeechobee, had morphed to gigantic proportions (dark brown), agriculture had also expanded along the eastern coast, and coastal development (yellow) had grown and moved into the eastern Everglades.
Chart 4, 1995.
By 1995, when I was 31 years old, and teaching English and German at Pensacola High School, the EAA had achieved its 700,000 acreage south of the lake, and although there remained extensive agriculture (dark brown) along the east coast, excessive urban development had taken over many of these lands (yellow.)
Today, there is nothing but more rapid population growth projected for this area. There were 5,564,635 inhabitants of the Miami-Dade metropolitan area as of the 2010 Census; it is the most populous in Florida, and southeastern United States. It is the eighth-most populous area in the entire United States. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_metropolitan_area)
For me, this rapid population and agriculture growth is rather depressing, but I will say Ed and I had a great Cuban meal in West Miami at Islas Canarias Restaurant over the Labor Day weekend…
At the end of the day, this area is going to need more water. With a growing population, documented salt water intrusion, and sinking aquifer level this part of the county will not stand the test of time unless it has more fresh water. Perhaps they would reconsider re-plumbing the canals making releases to the estuaries?
“Move the Water South” may just start being chanted from Miami…
Cover of NOAA/DEP “Draft”Indian River Lagoon System Management Plan, 2014.
My husband came home from the airport yesterday, I was on the couch in the living room reading. “Have you had a good afternoon?” He asked.
“Awesome,” I replied. “I have been reading the most wonderful document that contains all of the important information about the entire Indian River Lagoon.” I energetically held up my gigantic copy of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and NOAA- Indian River Lagoon, Draft Report for 2014. (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/coastal/sites/indianriver/plan.htm)
Ed smiled and looked at me like he usually looks at me in such instances. “That’s great,” he ironically replied, “government publications are my favorite too, how exciting…”
I am not always enamored with government publications, but I am with this one, especially as it is not finalized yet and the agencies are taking comment from the public.
What I like best about the document is that is deals with the entire lagoon, not just one section, including the lagoon’s four aquatic preserves: 1. Banana River; 2. Malabar to Vero Beach; 3. Vero Beach to Ft Pierce; and 4. Jensen Beach (really just south of the City of Ft Pierce) to Jupiter Inlet.
Locations of the IRL’s four aquatic preserves
According to the document, “each of the four aquatic preserves comprising the IRL System was classified by the state of Florida as OFWs or “Outstanding Florida Waters, “in 1979 (Rule 62-3-2.700 (9) F.A.C.
I was 15 years old at that time. I remember those waters and how they shaped and enriched my life growing up here in Stuart. To think that these “Outstanding Florida Waters,” are now “impaired” makes me sad and makes me angry.
It has been coming for years, but in 2011 through 2013 the lagoon system really “crashed” with the “super-bloom” and brown tides in the central and northern lagoon, killing more than 60% of the area’s seagrass and leading to two federally designated “Unusual Mortality Events” of the endangered manatee, and the protected bottle nosed dolphin.
And also in 2013 the months long toxic algae outbreak in the southern lagoon… This occurred due to blue-green “microcysis aeruginoas” algae water released by the ACOE from Lake Okeechobee, into the St Lucie River/IRL system. The SLR/IRL system was already over stressed from discharges coming from local canals C-44; C-23; C-24 and C-25…the lake Okeechobee water was the nail in the coffin so to speak.
I think there is a disconnect here. Aren’t these waters protected?
According to the publication, the mission statement of the Florida Coastal Office/Department of Environmental Protection is the following:
1. protect and enhance the ecological integrity of the aquatic preserves;
2. restore areas to the natural condition;
3. encourage sustainable use and foster active stewardship by engaging local communities in the protection of aquatic preserves; and
4. improve management effectiveness through a process based on sound science, consistent evaluation, and continual reassessment.
I will refrain from bashing of the Department of Environmental Protection as I do not think our fair state’s leadership over the past hundred and fifty plus years has helped them attain their mission. How do you “direct” an agency to protect something and then simultaneously promote over drainage of natural systems, channelizing, overdevelopment along the lands of these once “outstanding waters,” and allow water districts to over-grant permits for aquifer withdrawal for more agriculture and development?
Another irony I have to add here is that these once “outstanding waters” are what helped bring people to our locations and supported their high real estate values. That is changing as some people are now leaving. Last year, in the Town of Sewall’s Point, although the real estate market improved overall in the county, our property values only increased 0.13%. As a “desirable” water front community with some of the highest property values in the county, this came as a surprise and is certainly directly linked to the “lost summer” and toxic waters of 2013.
The state of Florida needs to “wake up.” The Town of Sewall’s Point is a microcosm for the rest of the state. So what can we do to help? Speak up!
Please if you have time and interest, check out Indian River Lagoon System Management Plan, Draft Report 2014 below. Even if you don’t read it all, which is almost impossible, keep it as an electronic resource, and MAKE A COMMENT to the DEP. Even if it is just one that you appreciate that they are reevaluating their management plan and how much the IRL means to you.
It is only through the continued pressure of a caring public that the Indian River Lagoon will be resurrected and its “living waters” will run through our cities again.
Intricate islands of the central Indian River Lagoon estuary near Vero. (Photo Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch/Ed Lippisch, 2013.)
Recently, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, located in St Lucie County, (http://www.fau.edu/hboi/) released their “Our Global Estuary,” U.S. National Workshop, Draft Report.
The new program founded in 2013, is incredibly interesting. Harbor Branch, right here in “our own back yard,” has taken a world leadership role in one of the planet’s most important issues, one we all know quite well, the anthropogenic pressures that threaten the ecological benefits of estuaries. Harbor Branch is opening scientific dialogue on these pressures and the evolving technology that may help “save” them, by scientists sharing their experiences on such issues, scientists from all over the world. (http://ourglobalestuary.com)
Dr Megan Davis, Interim Director of Harbor Branch, co-chairing with Dr Antonio Baptista and Dr Margaret Leinen, along with other local and world scientists are leading this project.
It is noted in their publication that “comparing and contrasting estuaries and management approaches worldwide is essential to capturing and a gaining from lessons learned locally.”
The report also notes and I quote that “estuaries are vital to the planet and their extraordinary productivity that supports life in and around them…Nearly 90% of the Earth’s land surface is connected to the ocean by rivers, with much of the water that drains from lands passing through wetlands and estuaries…cleaning species like mangroves and oysters are being limited by stressors caused by humans, such as water withdrawals, hydropower operation, navigation, and the release of fertilizers, contaminants, and municipal wastes. These pressures are increasing and threatening the balance of the systems.”
As one reads on, the report discusses that population growth and land-use choices not only near the estuaries but also many miles upstream can have a significant effects on estuaries. It is noted that “as farm production methods have evolved to increase yields, more nutrients have made their way to the water causing algae overgrowth to the point of suppressing seagrass. These pressures can cause disease and death in fish, marine mammals, birds, and other animals.” Land development also impacts estuaries with its runoff and diversion or redirection of water.
The largest estuaries in the world are listed in the report are not in the United States. 1. Ganges, Indian, Bangladesh, Nepal; 2 .Yangtze (Chang Jiang), China; 3. Indus, Indian, China, Pakistan; 4. Nile, Northeastern Africa; 5. Huang He (Yellow River), China; 6. Huai He, China; 7. Niger, West Africa; 8. Hai, China; 9. Krishna, Indian; and 10. Danube, Central and Eastern Europe.
Personally, I had only heard of half of those places and it made me think about the millions of people living around estuaries all over the world and how much I really don’t know. How small we are comparatively…
Although of course the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon is not one of the largest river basins in the world, we were listed under “Estuaries are Receiving More Attention” along with Chesapeake Bay. The section notes water quality is compromised in part by excess nutrients and inland freshwater discharges and diversion of water that historically flowed south through the Florida Everglades. It notes seagrass die offs, manatee, pelican and dolphin mortality, septic, agriculture and lawn fertilizer issues…
About half way down the paragraph under Indian River Lagoon, it says: “Public outcry and accompanying media attention achieved critical mass in 2013, helping convince several municipalities to enact more restrictive fertilizer ordinances and the state legislature to appropriate over 200 million in support for observation and systems remediation for the Lagoon and Everglades.”
Wow.
Once again, like the Dr Seuss children’s book, Horton Hears a Who, where the residents of Whoville together shout WE’RE HERE, WE’RE HERE, finally to be heard, the Treasure Coast is noted for its efforts, this time in a document that will be shared around the world!
Thank you to Harbor Branch for its continued leadership and efforts in ocean and estuary research and thank you to the people of the Treasure Coast or “Whoville” who have been heard and continue to help save the Indian River Lagoon.
Sunrise, Indian River Lagoon, Jensen Beach, John Whiticar, 2012.
There are two times of day that the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon is in her glory, sunrise and sunset. At these times, the “river of light” seems both new and ancient. With the reflection of the sky on the water all the sadness of the river’s demise and destruction seems to fade. We are inspired.
The photos I am sharing today were all taken family friend, Mr. John Whiticar, of the famous local “Whiticar Boatworks” family, (http://whiticar.com).
John’s work captures the beauty of the Indian River Region in a way that is both personal and etherial. I thank John for allowing me to share his photos. You may have seen some of them on Facebook throughout the past years. He has also taken some horrific photos of the lagoon’s destruction, but today I will focus on the beautiful.
May you have a wonderful weekend, and when that moment comes and you see the hand of the Creator upon the waters, please say a prayer or make a wish for a better future and for the rebirth of this spectacular place.
Sunrise/Sunset photos St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. Beautiful.(Photos by John Whiticar.)
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I will be taking a blog break August 11-15th as I will be attending the Florida League of Cities Annual Conference. I am the chair of the Environmental, Energy and Natural Resources Committee for 2013/2014. (http://www.floridaleagueofcities.com)
Yesterday’s August 3rd, “2nd Annual March Against the Lake Okeechobee Discharges,” was remarkable. One year later, after the toxic releases from Lake Okeechobee, and the putrid discharges from our local canals, the grass-roots momentum has not stopped and is expanding with respectable allies.
Some 1500 people, artists, news agencies, and many politicians (in office or running to be) came with political signs, costumes and with children in tow. They sat in the baking sun and dead air, under one lone oak tree if they could fit, to listen to almost two hours of “educational speakers” and then to march to the locks. I was inspired.
Most jaw dropping for me, was to see the conservative and well spoken Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Chief Legal Officer, Robert Lord, (http://www.martinhealth.org/executives) for Martin Memorial Health Systems, climb the stairs and pledge the institution’s support for our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon and publicly note the institution’s concern for the SLR/IRL’s related health issues.
“Wow.” I thought. “Now this is a turning point. They can’t call us tree huggers anymore…”
I did not write down what Mr Lord said, but I stood there at his feet basically and watched him. I have known the family for my whole life. His father was a famous Country Western singer/later developer Bobby Lord, and I went to school with Cabot, Rob’s younger brother. Rob noted that he is “sixth generation,” and that his family grew up in the area, and that he, as a child, enjoyed our area and these waters. They were wonderful days. He noted his dear family friend Jo Neeson, a river supporter and organizer of the event, and all the fun they had growing up here. He then said something to this effect:
Robert Lord, MHS, 2014.
I am here today to speak on behalf of Martin Memorial Health Systems. We are concerned…We cannot prove that the many health issues- that have taken place- happened because of contact with river water but we can state that all of these people had contact with the water during the discharges….we are concerned. We are concerned for the health of the people and for the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon. For Martin Memorial, I am here today to say we support the movement for the river…
With such support and honest revelation, how can our state and local agencies such as the Army Corp of Engineers, the South Florida Water Management District, the Department of Environmental Protection and the State Department of Health ignore our cries?
They can’t. The hiding is over. The years of allowing destruction of our most precious resource, water, is done. The “cat is out of the bag,” “Pandora’s box is open.” Let’s keep talking and keep pushing and give our children a place to fish, swim, boat and see the magic of a dolphin break the waves…
Thank you Martin Memorial Health Systems and the other who will be coming along as well….
Yesterday’s speakers:
– Sierra Club
– Rivers Coalition
– Stonecrab Alliance
– Florida Oceanographic Society
– Indian Riverkeeper
– Maggy Hurchalla
– Fly & Light Tackle Angler
– River Kid
– Treasured Lands Foundation (Land and Legacy, Amendment 1)
– Miccosukees tribe & Love the Everglades Movement
-Jonathan Flick- Pro Surfer
-Brent Mienhold – Pro Surfer
-Jordan Schwartz – Ohana Surf shop owner
– River Kidz
– Save the Manatee
– West Coast Resident
– Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Martin Memorial Hospital Services
-Others
System Status Update is a presentation slide from the ACOE periodic scientist calls. It shows how much water is going east/west and south, in this slide, from the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) to the Everglades.
Today I am going to share an entire 25 piece slide presentation from the Army Corp of Engineers’ Periodic Scientists Call, 7-25-14. It’s a lot of slides, but I think you’ll enjoy trying to interpret them, and I’ll help the best I can. These presentations include a lot of information and show how the ACOE decides how much Lake Okeechobee water is going to go the estuaries, south, to the Everglades, and held, or released, to other places. This information is UNCLASSIFIED so I can share it.
I first was invited to sit in on these calls in 2012, as I was former mayor and continued commissioner, as today, for the Town of Sewall’s Point. I have talked about this before in my blog but I will restate. I felt like a complete idiot for the first six months as the ACOE kind of speaks in their own language. A military language.
Eventually, I started to catch on, and even gained the confidence to comment. Although not a scientist, as an elected official I am allowed to give succinct perspective.
These calls take place approximately every two weeks depending on the circumstances. During the terrible 2013 releases from Lake Okeechobee into the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon and the Caloosahatchee, calls took place every week. “Stakeholders” from the lakes south of Orlando to the Everglades participate in these calls. Representatives from agriculture, the state agencies, counties and others are present.
Here is the entire presentation from the last call on July 25, 2014.
In the slides one sees weather outlooks; inflows/outflows (west, east, south) from Lake Okeechobee and/or the southern flow of water from the EAA or Storm Water Treatment Areas into the Water Conservation Areas and Everglades; position/historical analysis of water levels in the lake; Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule (LORS) guidance for releases; estuary salinities; basin and lake runoff/releases into the estuaries; ongoing emergency storage of water…
In all honesty, it’s a lot for me. I mostly pay attention to the level of Lake Okeechobee and how much they may or may not decide to release into the St Lucie River/IRL. Here the LORS guidance said they could release 1170 cfs cubic feet per second into the SLR/IRL but the ACOE chose not to. Yes, many times the ACOE actually cuts us a break. But when the lake is really high, over 15 feet or so, there is no break.
I also pay more attention to how much water is going south, as this would help alleviate our situation. It appears to me that usually the water “going south” is from the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), not from the lake, as in this presentation, the canals just south of the lake are not noted or say “0.” Understandably, the agriculture people like to hold the water in the lake, in case a drought comes, as they need water for their crops.
I will never interpret these calls like a scientist and some the scientist may cringe when I make my non-scientific statements. But that’s OK. I am “trying.”
I think the ACOE and shared South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) slides have gotten better and show more information than when I first started attending. I think they know the people and some politicians of Martin and St Lucie Counties, really all over the state now, are watching like hawks and demanding more disclosure and transparency in how the ACOE and SFWMD decide to manage Lake Okeechobee and surrounding areas.
I do hope you find this information interesting and not overwhelming. You can find some of it on the ACOE Facebook page (Jacksonville District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) or on their website (http://www.saj.usace.army.mil).
Personally, I still find the info for the SLR/IRL hard to find. I wish the ACOE would devote a special area on their website to us like the SRWMD has because the more we as citizens can easily learn and pay attention, the better chance we have, one day, for a healthier St Lucie River Indian River Lagoon for our children.
Map for the “Performance Configuration” co-authored in 2009, incorporating Plan 6 ideas for sending more water south.
First thank you to Dr Gary Goforth for providing much of this historical data.(http://garygoforth.net)
There is a lot of controversy surrounding the idea of “sending water south,” mostly because in order to do so privately owned lands would be taken out of sugar productivity. This post is meant to share some of the history of ideas over the years to do so, not debate it.
As we all know, before the lands south of Lake Okeechobee were drained for the budding agriculture industry in the late 1800s onward, when Lake Okeechobee overflowed, ever so gently its waters ran over the southern lip of the lake through a pond apple forest, creating a “river of grass” that became the Everglades.
In the 1920s at the direction of Congress and the State of Florida the Army Corp of Engineers (ACOE) redirected these overflow waters that had functioned as such for thousands of years through canals C-44 to the St Lucie River and C-43 to the Caloosahatchee.
This achieved better flood control for agriculture and development but has caused an environmental disaster for the northern estuaries and for the Everglades.
The environmental destruction and safety issues of the Herbert Hoover Dike were noted early on. As far as the destruction of a local industry, the fishing industry in the St Lucie River was the poster child. This and many other reasons caused many people over the years to seeks “improvements,” to the overall ecological system.
One of the first was the 1955 ACOE Central and Southern Florida Project Part IV. It was a proposal evaluating different options (plans) for “increasing lake outlet capacity. One component was “Plan 6,” a one mile wide floodway extending from the Herbert Hoover Dike to one mile into Water Conservation Area 3. For this report, Plan 6 was the recommended improvement. Dr Gary Goforth notes discharges to the St Lucie would have been lessened about by half, but “not eliminate lake discharges to the St Lucie River.” In the end, the entire plan was not acted upon as many tax payer paid plans are not…but Plan 6 was not forgotten…
Photos taken of 1955 ACOE CSFP Report courtesy of Dr Gary Goforth.Floodway 1955
Various references to Plan 6 and a floodway.
Dr Goforth also notes a “more robust plan,”a plan co-authored in 2009 by Karl Wickstrum, Paul Gray, Maggy Hurchalla, Tom Van Lent, Mark Oncavgne, Cynthia Interlandi, and Jennifer Nelson. (See first photo in this blog.) This plan is referenced by Mark Perry in his well known “River of Grass” presentation.
Mark Perry’s drawing in his presentation for “River of Grass,”used today, 2014.
The Art Marshal Foundation (Art was one of the great conservationist of the early 1960/70s environmental movement and has a wildlife preserve named after him) also notes in their literature that Plan 6 is traceable to the Marshall Plan-1981.
“Marshall Plan 1981 to Repair the Everglades, Why Plan 6 Will Work.” Marshall Foundation publication 2013, Version 2.2.
Most recently in 2013, the Rivers Coalition published on its website “Plan 6 Flowway, River of Grass, Missing Link.”
You can learn more about this version of the plan by clicking on the above link.
All of these plans, I believe, are one way or another based upon the 1955 ACOE Report. it may not have come to fruition but it certainly provided a lot of inspiration!
Also last year, Senator Joe Negron was able to secure $250,000 for a University of Florida study that should occur in 2014 for “Sending more water south.” Wonder what their plan will recommend?
If history repeats itself, even more Plan 6 versions will be created. In any case, let’s keep pushing for change to save the estuaries and find some way to move more water south. And thank you Army Corp of Engineers for the inspiration…
Paint colored shocking green algae at the gate entering Lake Okeechobee, 2009. (Photo from video by Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch.)
I am well aware that the St Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon have location specific e. coli bacteria problems, as well as “overall water quality problems,” due to our local canals. This summer has been a great example of such with our SLR/IRL waters colored putrid brown all the way to the St Lucie Inlet just from releases from C-44, C-23, and C-24 canal basin runoff releases.
This is why it is beyond my comprehension, that with such terrible local water issues, our state and federal agencies can legally and in good conscious, “if necessary,” on behalf of flood control, release more nutrient, sediment filled waters into our SLR/IRL through Lake Okeechobee when they know that those waters often contain Microcystis Aeruginoas, a cyanobacteria that can produce health threatening toxins through its blue-green algae blooms.(http://www.doh.wa.gov/CommunityandEnvironment/Contaminants/BlueGreenAlgae.aspx)
Various 2013 SLR photos of microcystis aeruginoas, cynanobacteria. (Bob Voisenet, Mary Radabaugh, Jenny Flaugh, Douglas Ashley, Gary Hendry.)
In 2013, the Martin County Health Department, through spokesperson, Bob Washam, urged residents to avoid contact with the algae in the entire estuary from the St Lucie Canal to the St Lucie Inlet. Luckily with our local, “yuk” releases, we have not had that situation occur yet in 2014.
I have had two personal experiences witnessing these blue-green blooms. The first was during a boat ride into Lake Okeechobee, September 5, 2009, and the second was last year (2013) with the Everglades Foundation team, at the St Lucie Locks and Dam when the ACOE was releasing. As we walked over the gates, I clearly saw bright blue-green algae on the side of the dam allowing in Lake O water. Believe it or not, the SRWMD was testing the water right there… Mark Perry from Florida Oceanographic was with me and I ask him:
“Mark, is that “toxic” blue-green algae?”
Mark replied:
“Yes, blue-green algae can be toxic is most prevalent in fresh water systems. It is often in the lake.”
“And they are releasing it into our river?!”
I stood there in a daze….amazed.
Then I recalled the boat trip I had taken with my husband and dogs in 2009, and how we had seen the blue-green algae clearly along the edges of the locks while going into the lake and I had videotaped it. I am including some photos I took of that video below.
When Senator Rubio visited Stuart on behalf of the SLR/IRL, I told this story….I have told it many times at many official meetings to no avail. I think it a significant issue. Anyway…
So far this year, with the releases from our local canals, toxic algae, or Cyanobacteria, has not been reported in the SLR/IRL. It could be in the future, but it is less likely than when the ACOE is releasing from the lake. Why? Because often when they release from the lake it is TREMENDOUS amounts of freshwater, even more than comes from our local canals. Plus the blue-green algae is already in the lake as its fresh.
According to Bob Washam, blue-green algae was first reported around 1995 and it was blue! They thought it was a paint spill. The outbreaks have been more common since this time the worst being in 1998. Whether blue or green in color, it is bright. Very bright. You can see it.
How could our government, in essence, “poison its own people,” and how can we allow this, especially when we can see it?
We must push our government for change. Health, safety and welfare is something we rightfully deserve. Send the water south.
West of the red line shows the edge of what was once the Everglades in South Florida. Development has crept and continues to creep over this edge. (Photo/map courtesy of Chappy Young,/GCY Inc. Surveyors, 2014.)
We in Martin and St Lucie Counties make up what is referred to as the “Northern Everglades.” Before the Army Corp of Engineers, (ACOE), changed the course of Lake Okeechobee’s waters in the 1920s and directed it to go east and west through canals to the estuaries, Lake Okeechobee’s water would slowly crest over the southern edge of the lake and flow south. For many, myself included, the long term goal of saving our St Lucie/IRL and Caloosahatchee estuaries includes recreating a type of “flow way, or floodway south” to Everglades National Park. The parched park needs our water just as Nature intended.
There are many challenges to this scenario but the most visual are the following.
The first is the Everglades Agricultural Area, (EAA), 700,000 acres located just south of the lake; the second is east coast development that has crept in over the years “into the Everglades.”
The red colored blocks south of Lake O. are the EAA,700,000 acres of sugar lands, vegetables, small historic agricultural communities, and infrastructure. South of the EAA are the water conservation areas in purple and green. (SFWMD map, 2012.)The red line surrounding Lake O. shows the Everglades wetlands that historically filtered the water before it got to Florida Bay. As we can see humankind has “filled in” a lot of this. (SFWMD map, 2012.)
I have written before about the “seepage barrier” an underground permeable wall that runs along the east coast to keep the water out of these developed areas through pumps that send the seeping water back inside the Everglades. Crazy. If needed, the EAA also pumps its ground water and surface water off its lands to keep the level as needed for the crops. They are assisted by the SFWMD. This is a historic relationship. It is how our state was “built.”
This satellite photo shows in blue the water on lands in 2005. One can see the lands in the EAA just south of the lake are devoid of water. This water has been pumped off the lands into the water conservation areas, sometimes back pumped into the lake, and also stored in other canals. The water would flood the crops if it were on the lands. (2004-2005 SFWMD aerial photography.)
The above photo shows the EAA dry while surrounding lands are wet.
I really do not have an answer of how to build a flow way through all this agriculture, infrastructure, and development as I am not a scientist. But I have not given up the idea. I have faith one day there will not be another choice.
What I confidently can say is that we all know water is valuable, “the new oil.” Water issues whether they be pollution or the need for water usage in a growing state demand attention and we know with the future coming we should not build anything else inside those red lines. No port, no windmill farms, no more development, no more agriculture.
FWC map for 2060 projected population growth, state of Florida, 2011.
If the the Florida Wildlife Commission’s map is right and Florida’s population in 2060 is around 36 million, (today it is 19 million), we are going to need more fresh water. Also if we are to save the northern estuaries and the Everglades so our children have some semblance of what the planet once was, we must redirect more water to go to where it once did, south.
Let’s draw a new line for water. A line that clearly shows we know its value not just to agriculture and development, but to the environment, and the children of the future.
Caulkins Grove off of Citrus Blvd. in Martin County is a pilot project of the SFWMD for water farming. (Photo Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch 7-18-14.)
On Friday, July 18th, Dr Gary Goforth (http://garygoforth.net/resume.htm) and I met at Indian River State College just after noon. I jumped in his truck, wearing my dress and heels, and we drove the back roads to find our destination. Our destination was long time Martin grove, Caulkins Citrus, located off Citrus Boulvard, near Indiantown, adjacent to the C-44 canal which of course connects to the St Lucie River/IRL and to Lake Okeechobee.
Kevin Powers, of the South Florida Water Management District governing board, longtime Martin County resident, and family friend, had invited Gary and I to see a pilot project of “water farming.” Water farming is idea that has been in the works for the past few years and is now finding its reality. If it works, thousands of acre feet of polluted water along the C-44 canal, in this case, will not find its way to the St Lucie River/ Indian River Lagoon. Farmers are paid for this service and their lands are not sold to development.
How could this be? Farmers “growing” water?
First we have to go back a bit.
In a Stuart News article dated April of 2013, Doug Bournique, executive vice president of the Indian River Citrus League, is interviewed by reporter Paul Ivice. Ivice writes:
“Diseases, (greening and canker), hurricanes and urban expansion have all cut into Florida’s citrus acreage which is down 38% from 1996…Nowhere in Florida has acreage fallen as sharply as in Martin County. It has less than 15% remaining of the 48,221 acres in production in 1994. The county has suffered the greatest loss for four consecutive years and and been declining sine 1994.”
A diseased citrus tree stands in what was once a thriving orange grove, Caulkins Citrus. (Photo JTL.)
As the citrus industry is dying, so is our economy. While farmers figure out what else they can grown on their land, the idea for some farmers to hold precious fresh, all be it polluted, waters on their lands came into being. This helps the river and it helps the farmers and it helps our local economy. Boyd Gunsalus, among other scientist at the SFWMD, has worked long and hard for the past many years on this concept.
Caulkins Citrus is in a prime location and were one of the farms that competed for a bid to try out the new technology and receive a DEP/SFWMD grant.
An example from Google Maps showing C-44’s close proximity to Citrus Blvd. Hwy. 76 is south of canal and Citrus is north.
When Gary and I arrived we were met by Tom Kenny, Kevin Powers, and Ronnie Hataway. After introductions, they explained to us how the “farm”operated, how it was created, their hopes for the future, and gave us a walking and driving tour. It was pretty amazing if not surreal. Egrets and herons perched in the dying orange trees surrounded by water. A deer track was at my feet. Water was everywhere and from what I was told could one day go to the horizon.
Although Gary and I had been somewhat skeptical, we left feeling very hopeful and impressed.
So how did they create it?
Basically the grove is fallow due to poor health, and although the farm is much larger, (thousands of acres) a berm was constructed around a few hundred acres of the grove for the pilot study. Then water was/is pumped from the C-44 canal into the old grove. The berm holds the water inside.
The water can go as high as four feet but according to Mr Kenny it is percolating so well through the soft sandy soils that basically the pump can stay on all the time. The nitrogen and phosphorus and other pollutants are cleaned and eaten by healthy bacteria as the water filters through the earth.
The pilot’s long term goal is to hold 6600 acre feet of water but things are looking like they will be able to hold more. The water is slowly filtered into the water table replenishing the aquifer about 40 feet below. Caulkins is installing a number of apparatuses that they call “wells” that will read where the water is going and what is happening underground. If things work out, Caulkin’s acreage to hold water will be expanded.
Various photos of the SFWMD pilot water farming project at Caulkins Grove: fallow orange groves surrounded by berm, pumps bringing in water from C-44 canal right next door, sandy soil, and deer track.
Although this is wonderful, we must note that it would take many water farms to offset the water flowing into the SLR/IRL.
Dr Goforth states in a recent writing: “For the 34 days between June 13 and July 17, approximately 51,000 acre feet of C-44 runoff was sent to the St Lucie River…”
With that in mind, if a water farm similar to Caulkins could hold 10,000 acre feet, we would need five just to hold the water that has come in this summer SO FAR from C-44 basin runoff. Of course in time, 2020 maybe, the C-44 Storm Water Treatment and Reservoir and Storm Water Treatment Area will be one line, and hopefully working, and that is said to hold about 56,000 acre feet. (http://www.tmba.tv/broadcastanimation/everglades-restoration/everglades-restoration/)
In the end, really though, no one knows how much water can be held until these projects are working. Hopefully all of them, like Caulkins Grove seems to be so far, will exceed expectations.
As we tied up our tour, shook hands and left the property Mr Hataway said, “I have been telling them for years to keep this fresh water on the land….”
Mr Kenny noted, “The goal is to have less water going into the river and out the inlet…”
It is an ironic twist of fate. We worked for 100 years to drain the lands so we could grow agriculture. Now we are trying to keep the water on the land for the health of the river, because fresh water is extremely valuable, and because the citrus industry needs a new crop.
Words such as these about “keeping the water on the land,” especially from successful agriculturally minded businessmen, are an inspiration to me, and give hope for a better water future.
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After the fact, I am including this 2 page summary provided to me by the SFWMD when I asked about costs on behalf of blog reader George Gill. Click to enlarge.
C-44, C-23 and C-24 basin runoff discolors the waters of the SLR/IRL while exiting the St Lucie Inlet 7-19-14. (Aerial photo, Ed Lippisch.)All Photos were taken 7-19-14 and are showing C-44 basin runoff along with C-23 and C-24 runoff off. Pictured are Sewall’s Point and Sailfish Point along the SLR/IRL. Water exits at the St Lucie Inlet going mostly south to Jupiter Island over nearshore reefs. The plume is significant but not as large as the summer of 2013 when the ACOE was releasing from Lake Okeechobee as well. (Photos by Ed Lippisch.)
The river looks awful right now as the photographs taken Saturday, 7-19-14, by my husband show. Why? They are not even discharging from Lake Okeechobee…yet.
We have terrible problems with our local canals and adding the Lake discharges on top of it is a crime. The state, federal and local governments are working slowly to improve the situation through CERP (Central Everglades Restoration Project) projects but improvement is very expensive and cumbersome.(http://www.evergladesplan.org/pm/projects/proj_07_irl_south.aspx)
The C-44 Storm Water Treatment Area/Reservoir the governments are working on now will cost millions of dollars and store only some of the discharges from the C-44 we are getting today. But there must be more. We must learn more. We must keep pushing and helping our governments move along.
The best way to do this is to know how to read the information on water discharges yourself.
Last summer, when the discharges from Lake Okeechobee threw our already ailing river into toxic status, Boyd Gunsalus, one of the the leading scientists (and certainly coolest) at the South Florida Water Management District, showed me how to find the water discharge statistics, and today, in case you do not know, and are interested, I am going to show you.
FIRST THE LAKE AND C-44 BASIN
This link (http://w3.saj.usace.army.mil/h2o/reports.htm) of the ACOE at Lake O. will show you the level of the lake, and whether the ACOE is releasing from the C-44 canal, and or Lake O.
Go to the site above and on the right hand side you will see, St Lucie Lock, S-80 Spillway. Click on it. A chart will come up arranged by dates. (The data is always one day behind.) Look for FLOWS CFS (cubic foot per second) in the 3rd column. Today’s is 260 cfs. : 20JUL14 14.46 0.58 260 0. 00 270 0.0 7 30.07 1018. 2 0.00
Now go back to the same link and look at, Port Mayaca Lock, S-308 Spillway. Click on it. Again look for 3rd column, FLOWS CFS.. Today reads “0.” The gates from the lake to C-44 are not open. 20JUL14 13.55 14.40 0 0.00 270 0.0 9 30.04 1017.3 0.33 0.00
Now if both S-80 and S-308 are open you have to add the numbers together to know how much total cfs are coming into the SLR/IRL. And to figure out how much water is coming in just from the lake, subtract the S-308 number from the S-80 number which will always be larger.
To learn how high Lake O. is go back to the link, go to the chart and hit CURRENT LAKE OKEECHOBEE LEVEL. Today it is 13.66 feet. “Current Lake level is: 13.66 (ft-ngvd)”
OTHER CANALS
OK, now for C-23, C-24 and C-25.
Now, go to this link, the SFWMD’s web site: (http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page/portal/sfwmdmain/home%20page) 1. Look for the tab “Managing and Protecting Water;” look under and to the left of this tab for a small title reading “Scietists and Engineers,” click on this and go to LIVE DATA. 3. Go to the top link “Water Conditions-Regional Realtime Data, Status of Water/ Control Gates.” 4. Go to FT PIERCE and click right on the Ft Pierce link. A confusing chart will come up.
Look for these things:
1. S-49. S-49 is the opening for C-24.
2. S-97. S-97 is the opening/gate for C-23
3. S-99. S-99 is the gate for C-25.
Mind you C-23 and C-24 run into the St Lucie River’s north fork and main area and C-25 dumps directly in the IRL at Taylor Creek close to the Ft Pierce Inlet. So C-25 is not coming through the SLR and St Lucie Inlet like the rest of the sludge but it is important to know C-25 too as it is heavily destructive to the IRL.
OK, if you have been able to follow me so far. Once you open the SFWMD pages and get to FT PIERCE and see the weird chart, find the corresponding gate numbers I gave you above, and click on the the second row’s PLOT little box and arrow. Once this opens up, you will see a chart corresponding to discharges that looks like a wave or like boxes. The hight of the box or wave corresponds to a number on the left side of the chart. For instance: Today, S-49 (or C-24) is 450 cfs; S-97 (or C-23 ) is around 350cfs; and S-99 (or C-25) is around 100 cfs.
(I know there are a duplicate gates sometimes but I ignore them and just read one. They seem to say the same thing.)
Now to add up the cfs for “today:” C-23=350; C-24=450; C-44 at S-80 =260; S-308 from lake, 0. Today’s total incoming discharge water is around 1060 cfs cubic feet per second coming into the St Lucie River/Southern Indian River Lagoon.
Last week it was twice or three times this much. The discharges occur after it rains, long after and then finally slow down like they are now.
I do hope this has been helpful and that your head is not spinning or that you can save the links and instructions and try it when you have time. Call me if you have questions and want to learn, 772 486 3818.
It is important for the public to keep up with this and let the ACOE and SFWMD know we are watching what they are doing, so one day I don’t have to choke when I see the tab “Managing and “PROTECTING” water.
Harold R. Johns, posing with a large tarpon, early 1920s, Stuart, Florida, St Lucie River. (Photo from Stuart on the St Lucie by Sandra Henderson Thurlow.)
When the pioneers permanently opened the St Lucie Inlet in 1892, it killed the freshwater grasses that filled the waterways creating a brackish estuary that due to the convergence of tropical and temperate zones, and the nearby warmth of the Gulf Stream, became “the most diverse estuary in North America.” (Gilmore)
After a short period of time, sportfishing thrived in the area, and fishing guides called Stuart the “fishing grounds of presidents” as US president, Grover Cleveland, vacationed and fished the area in 1900 and years after.
In spite of long standing issues with the health of the estuary, as late as the 1970/80s Dr Grant Gilmore of Harbor Branch documented over 800 species of fish living and breeding in the then healthy seagrasses around Sailfish and Sewall’s Point at the convergence of the St Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon. This was a larger variety of species in one place than any other area in United States. (Gilmore)
“Goliath Grouper” called “Jew Fish” at the time, Stuart. ca. 1920s. (Thurlow Collection)
Going back to the the 1930s, the 1938 Blue Book, a popular annual fishing publication of the time, lauds fishing throughout the entire Stuart area:
“The City of Stuart located approximately 20 miles south of Fort Pierce is world renowned for its fishing. Located as it is…it offers a variety of fishing similar to Fort Pierce but somewhat more pronounced, particularly with regards to the tarpon, sea trout, snook, channel bass, bluefish, crevasse jack, pompano and ladyfish. It’s fresh water fishing is particularly good far into the back county among the Sloughs with their tributary and drainage canals to Lake Okeechobee and the many drainage canals through this territory. These Sloughs and Canals offer splendid fishing for black bass, as well as for the larger game fish from the salt water, such as th snook and tarpon, that make their way into Stuart Harbor and on up into the both and south branches of the St Lucie River. –Particularly good fishing for these species can be had at the St Lucie Locks about 12 miles inland south of Stuart…”
All photos from Stuart on the St Lucie, Sportfishing chapter, by Sandra Henderson Thurlow.
It is interesting to note that although the Blue Book piece, written in 1938, celebrates Stuart’s fishing, one can find evidence of tension regarding the releases from Lake Okeechobee in the literature of the day as early as 1925.
Fearing the onslaught of development in the booming twenties and the changes brought on by the connection and building of the C-44 canal from Lake Okeechobee to the South Fork of the St Lucie River, beginning in 1923, the South Florida Developer’s, November 10th, 1925 headline reads:
Article 1925, South Florida Developer. (Thurlow collection.)
“Fish Will Leave the River As City Grows, Fisherman Assert, Sewage and Oil Sure Death to a Favored Sport is Verdict.”
The article quotes commercial fishermen who know that the over abundance of fresh water from Lake Okeechobee will chase away the salt water fish and that the oil on the water from development, perhaps from cars and road runoff, if excessive, won’t allow the fish to sufficiently breathe.
Fishing guide Phil O’Brian is quoted as saying: “I know the ways of the sea fish. They can’t stand fresh water; and they won’t stand sewer water. We have the fresh water now mixin’ in from Lake Okeechobee and we’ll soon have the sewer water.”
These pioneers are probably rolling over in their graves should they have learned about the story of the St Lucie/Indian River Lagoon most recently.
The St Lucie River was labeled “impaired” by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection in 2002 mostly due to pesticides and heavy metals from agriculture and urban pollution runoff accumulating in the sediment from all area canals, especially C-44 and Lake Okeechobee. In a way, just like the 1920s fisherman foresaw…
The fight against the area canals and Lake Okeechobee continues today, and if by the grace of God we can undo some of the hands of history, the St Lucie and Indian River Lagoon will surely heal herself and we once again could be the ” Fishing Grounds of Presidents…”
…but then we might have to get rid of that green and sprawling golf course at the Floridian.
Parts of the Okeechobee Waterway or Cross State Canal, (partially C-44), is managed through a partnership of F.I.N.D.and the U.S. government, ACOE. (Photo Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, 2009.)
The Intracoastal and Okeechobee Waterways are important navigation channels and part of our country’s heritage.
Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway from Maine to South Floida. (Map, public.)
Okeechobee Waterway from Atlantic to Gulf of Mexico. (Map, public)
The history of navigation in the United States is a long one that is difficult to put into perspective within the context of today’s modern world. Military, commercial and communication centers were imperative goals to the newly established United States and remain so today, but these things are now taken for granted and have also inadvertently caused massive environmental destruction.
The Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway is a 3000 mile inland waterway along the east coast of the US from Maine to Florida. The Okeechobee Waterway is a few hundred miles across the state, from Stuart to Ft Meyers, linking the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico through canals and Lake Okeechobee.
These canals are directly supported by the public though a tax. If you look at your tax bill you will notice you are charged a .3045 mill to maintain the Florida Atlantic and Okeechobee Intracoastal Waterways. After a long evolution, today, the state’s Florida Inland Navigational District or FIND is the entity that acts in cooperation with the US Government, Army Corp of Engineers, to oversee these tax funds in order to maintain these important canals that serve many purposes. Some we don’t like…
One of the purposes of the Okeechobee Canal, built in the late 1920s and “improved” many times since, by being deepened and widened, is to release water from Lake Okeechobee into the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon when Lake Okeechobee gets too full, as the lake has been diked for the safety of agricultural lands and urban communities living around and south of the lake.
The mission of FIND is very broad actually; if we look at the mission statement of FIND it reads:
“The Florida Inland Navigation District has two primary missions: (1) to perform the functions of the “local sponsor” of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway project and a portion of the Okeechobee Waterway project in Florida, both of which are State/Federal navigation projects, and (2) provide assistance to other governments to develop waterway access and improvement projects. As the local sponsor of the Waterway, the District provides all lands required for the navigation project including rights of way and lands for the management of dredged materials removed from the waterway channel during dredging activities.”(http://aicw.org/index.jsp)
FIND is overseen by commissioners from the twelve counties along Florida’s east coast. Commissioners are appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate. Our local commissioner is friendly and well known, Mr Don Cuozzo.
Don Cuozzo
FIND also serves other purposes very close to the people and local communities that I do care about, such as providing grant funding for local waterways improvements, and maintaining the important manatee signage and protection zones. We all know this iconic and endanger species, a gentle, distant relative of the elephant, is often stuck by speeding boaters.
Award winning photo seen in National Geographic story on south Florida waters, 2012.) (Photo by Paul Niklin, friend of Nichole Mader.)
Thank you to FIND, but it sure would be nice if we could FIND another way to for the lake’s water to go than through the St Lucie/Indian River Lagoon.
For 2013, Ed and I paid $13.31 to FIND. Although I would prefer not to support the Okeechobee Waterway atrocity, I do like manatees, boating, and the Town of Sewall’s Point has benefited from FIND grant programs as well. So, I guess, for now, Ed and I will pay the tax; but one day, I have the feeling, I might just rebel!
This chart shows that even though more Storm Water Treatment Areas (STAs) came on line (red) in 2004, actually less water is “going south,” (blue). Why? (Chart by engineer, Dr. Gary Gorforth, formerly of the SFWMD, 2014.)
The first time I saw Gary Goforth speak (http://garygoforth.net/services.htm) at Senator Joe Negron’s Senate Hearing on the Indian River Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee in 2013, I was very impressed. He was sitting next to Karl Wickstrom, the founder of Florida Sportsman Magazine, who I sit with on the Rivers Coalition Defense Fund. I knew if Dr Goforth had Karl’s “blessing” he belonged to an elite group of people in the River Movement, as Karl, who I love, is understandably critical of everyone.
I came to learn that this accomplished and well spoken man, had worked at the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) as a Ph.D. engineer, most of his esteemed career and in fact “built” the Storm Water Treatment Areas (STA) in the Everglades Agriculture Area (EAA) as head engineer for the district’s projects in 2004 on onward. Today he runs his own engineering company here in Martin County independent of the district. (See link above.)
Map south of Lake O. showing EAA, canals, STAs, and Water Conservation Areas, (WCAs.) (Map SFWMD, public.)
An STA is an area that filters water through vegetation taking up nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen and even pollution before it goes into a water conservation area and then to the Everglades. It is an area engineered to do what Mother Nature did before we transformed her into farmlands and urban landscapes.
Aerial of STA in EAA surrounded by sugar fields, northern area. (Public photo.)
When the Everglades Forever Act was passed by the Florida legislature in 1994, and after Governor Chiles “laid down his sword,” the SFWMD was required to build more STAs to filter the polluted water running into the Miccosukee lands and Everglades further south. The Miccosukee had sued the US government and the SFWMD, (a long, famous lawsuit starting in 1988), as specifically the high phosphorus from fertilizers and pollution from the EAA’s sugar farms was destroying their reservation’s waters and fauna and therefore all that lived there. The law suit accomplished two major things. It called for 10 parts per billion phosphorus rather than 200 plus so the STAs were built and it called for a certain amount of water to go south to sustain the life of the Everglades.
So in comes the law regarding amounts: In chapter 3773.4592, Florida Statues, “1994 Everglades Forever Act” the SFWMD was directed to send an additional 28 % water to the Everglades, including 250,000 acre feet of Lake Okeechobee water based on base flow statistics from 1979-1988. The Everglades needs water to live.
It is confusing, but although the STAs can send both EAA water and lake water south to the Everglades, the SFWMD gives the EAA water (from the lake, used to water their crops), priority in moving south. Lake water goes south only if the STAs have room….
OK. Here is the kicker.
Although in the recent past, the EAA spent tons of money removing toxic chemicals from the lands they had to give up for STAs and although the tax payers spent billions of dollars building the STAs on those lands for cleaning EAA water and Lake Okeechobee water, Gary Goforth’s charts and engineering show that since 2004, actually less lake water is going south to the Everglades. And most of the water going south is EAA water, very little Lake water comparatively ….Why?
Well, from what I think I understand, even though all this money has been spent in the EAA and tax payers building the STAs, the EAA and SFWMD who work together, are “scared” to send too much water south because if they go over the 10 parts per billion phosphorus limit (an annual limit) they could be sued again. Thus they hold the EAA water in the STAs letting it dribble out and therefore there is no room for Lake O’s water most of the time.
Hmmm?
As Dr Goforth points out, it is the St Lucie River and Caloosahatchee that do not get what was legislated for them: a minimum of 250,000 acre feet of lake water sent south a year.
As stated in an email to me:
“The 1994 Everglades Forever Act (Florida legislation Ch. 373.4592, F.S.) directed the South Florida Water Management District to send an additional 28 percent water to the Everglades, including 250,000 acre feet of Lake water. The 1979-1988 base period flows to the Everglades included an average of 100,931 acre feet from Lake Okeechobee – resulting in a targeted increase of Lake water to the Everglades of 148 percent.
For the most recent 10-year period (May 2005-April 2014) an average of 71,353 acre feet of Lake water was sent to the Everglades – or an average decrease of 29 percent from the 1979-1988 base period.
So – the target was a 148 percent increase – and the reality was a 29 percent decrease. This was in exchange for a billion dollars of public funding for the STAs. Who holds the State accountable?” Gary Goforth
Another chart showing the same ideas.) (Gary Goforth 2014.)
If you are like me, this all may remain confusing, but I think the point is made… I hope so anyway.
“Legally, not enough Lake O water is going south.”
This is a serious situation. Really, only the people can hold the state accountable, but do we really want to sue again? Can this be resolved?
Many say it is impossible to send the water south at 10 ppb. This may be the case. Nonetheless, I say the Miccosukee Indians finally won something after generations of sadness to their people, after being forced to live on a postage stamp, so as “tough as it sounds,” I believe the EAA, the SFWMD, and the state of Florida have some more work to do.
Girlfriends from the Martin County High School Class of 1982 celebrating our 50th birthdays in Sanibel/Captiva, the area of the Caloosahatchee River, Lee County, Florida.
This past weekend, my girlfriends from high school decided to travel across the state to celebrate our 50th birthdays!
It was a great time. We stayed in the area of the Caloosahatchee River which is the sister river the the St Lucie River. Both rivers have been plumbed to take overflow waters from Lake Okeechobee that Nature meant to flow south to the Everglades. The Caloosahatchee, in fact, is the “bigger sister,” in that when the rains come, she takes three to four times as much polluted, fresh water as we do—she is longer and larger than ourself. Ironically now, year long, the river needs constant small releases of fresh water from the lake as she becomes too saline. The system is suffering as is the St Lucie.
Caloosahatchee River was the first estuary to be channelized and connected to Lake Okeechobee in the late 1800s by Hamilton Disston. (Photo, CRCA)
“Caloosahtchee” means “river of the Calusa,” after the native peoples who lived and thrived there thousands of years ago.
So how does the Calooshatchee compare to the St Lucie? Well, according to the Caloosahatchee River Citizens Association, (CRCA), as sea levels receded after the last ice age, a series of lakes connected by wet prairies fed a tiny lake in the center of a valley feeding a “tortuously” long, crooked river that flowed slowly west to the Gulf of Mexico. So the Calooshatchee like the St Lucie drained to the sea but was never “connected” to Lake Okechobee.
But then entered “modern man.”
In 1881, investor and business man, Hamilton Disston, bought four million acres of Florida lands for development and agriculture getting the state out of debt. His first project was to drain the land around lake Okeechobee.
He dynamited the water fall between Lake Flirt and the Caloosahatchee and connected an old Indian passage from the Caloosahtchee to the lake. With that and the dredging and channeling of the mouth of the Kissimmee, the lake dropped tremendously, and although Disston committed suicide in a bathtub after the Panic of 1893, he inspired those following him to continue the drainage machine that has formed the Florida we know today.
After the floods and hurricanes of 1926 and 1928 the Caloosahatchee was straightened, deepened, and widened, draining surrounding agricultural lands and controlling flood waters. The “improvements” continued again in the the 1950s as more people moved into the area.
The story of the Calooshatchee is very similar to the St Lucie.
On another note, one of the most interesting parts of getting to the Caloosahatchee with my friends was driving “under” Lake Okeechobee taking Highways 441, to 80, to 27 and passing through the sugar towns of Belle Glade, South Bay, Clewiston and La Belle. It was a three and a half hour drive from Stuart to Captiva and most of the drive was through the Everglades Agricultural Area.
The Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) is 700,000 acres south of Lake Okeechobee. To drive through them one drives just south of the lake.
As we were driving through we were amazed to think that historically the waters of Lake Okeechobee went south, as today, south of the lake, it is sugar fields for as far as the eye can see! And for many, many miles you are driving right next to the dike.
“This is kind of weird…”
Mile upon mile of sugar fields is the view while traveling south of the lake.Southern dike around Lake Okeechobee looks more like a hill of grass.
I reminded my friends of the hurricane of 1928 and the thousands of migrant workers that were killed with no alert of the coming doom. The small dike around the southern lake certainly did not look like it would hold if another monster storm came. We talked about how clueless we were as kids to the environmental effects of agriculture on our St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon compared to what the children are learning today.
Of course we need agriculture but to have 700,000 acres completely cut off water flow south of the lake is an accident waiting to happen and a death sentence for our St Lucie Indian River Lagoon and for the Caloosahatchee.
As I talked about a possible third outlet to the lake, I told my friend Jill not to speed because if we were stopped, and I was in the car, we would all certainly go to jail!They laughed knowing I am an advocate for the St Lucie/Indian River Lagoon an often contentious issue when it comes to sugar farming.
Once in Captiva, we had a great time, paddle boarding, riding bicycles, swimming, and going out in Sanibel/Captiva Island.
Such a wonderful time would not have been possible had the Army Corp and South Florida Water Management District been releasing masses of polluted, fresh water from Lake Okeechobee. United we are on both sides of the state, that there has to be another option for Lake Okeechobee’s water coming through our estuaries–we are sisters!
A beautiful sunset over the convergence of Pine Island Sound and the Caloosahatchee , our sister river.
Gubitorial candidates wrote directly to the residents of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon area on May 8th, 2014 in the Stuart News.
I didn’t pick up Sunday’s Stuart News until Monday, as I had been out of town. Sipping my coffee and holding the old fashioned paper, I love so much, my lips curled in a broad smile. The opinion page juxtaposed articles by two candidates running for Florida governor: Nan Rich and Rick Scott.
These letters were not just broad sweeping letters; they were thoughtful and personal, they mentioned the River Warriors and direct stories of inspiration from local residents. Don’t get me wrong, I know it is an election year, but nonetheless, it is simply amazing. In one year, since the discharges from Lake Okeechobee and our local canals turned our world upside down, and news of such “went viral,” the people have accomplished the most impressive of our forefathers’ American expectations. Expectations that years of social conformity and acceptance of over-development and pollution had overridden. The people of the Indian River Lagoon have stood up to their government.
The rebellion of the southern lagoon corresponded to the northern lagoon’s massive deaths of manatees, dolphins, pelicans and loss of almost 100% of its seagrasses. These die-offs and toxic algae blooms in the north, actually began happening in 2011 but did not come out publicly until the uprising in the southern lagoon blended the two tragedies.
I know for many of my friends the politics of the River Movement is hypocritical, frustrating and painful. I feel the same way. In fact lately I have been a bit depressed over the whole thing. But I am getting out of it. Boy is it a pleasure to see that paper, to be in the drivers seat, to have “them” writing letters, visiting, and actually thinking that there is no longer a “golden ticket” to pollute. I have been in Martin County many years, and on “this level,” “this” has never happened before.
Finally, even Senator Rubio is getting heat in the press; long standing Senator Nelson is happy he’s been around, but also nervous he is part of the lagoon “establishment;” Charlie Crist is taking out his old notes about US Sugar; Senator Negron is promising more for the lagoon in 2015; Congressman Murphy is regrouping and studying the Farm Bill after the ACOE refused CEPP on his watch; and the future speakers of the Florida house and senate are making their cases for the future of “water.”
Many times the lagoon has been defiled by our government, in fact 2013 was not the worst its ever been. But I am telling you, this time it is different because of “us.” This time we have exposed them. This time we are asking truly for government to do what it is supposed to: “protect the health; safety and welfare” of its people. This time we are united in a brotherhood and sisterhood of diverse backgrounds and interests. This time we have reached a tipping point, as has the lagoon.
And most important for change, this time, “they” are watching and listening to us.
Please take advantage of this opportunity. Don’t turn your back because the politics are so repulsive to watch. Look to the sky—look to the river ——write a letter or make a call and say : ‘thank you; we are happy you are taking an interest in the lagoon; I will be weighing who to vote for based on who really has the desire, passion and an honest heart.”
These politicians may never be able to reach perfection, their world is pretty insane, but be grateful they are paying attention, and know you are a force for change in a way never before. Drive your points home!
The delay of CEPP, the Central Everglades Planning Project, may end up symbolically being the beginning of Florida’s 4th Seminole War as people fight for water to move south. (Photos public.)
I really did not want to write about the failure of the Central Everglades Planning Project, CEPP, as I have been trying to forget about it. The whole thing is so depressing to me. However, last night, before I went to bed, my husband said, “Dan thinks you should write about what’s going to happen now that CEPP did not make it into the WRDA bill…” So, I had a long series of nightmares, now it’s morning, and for Dr Daniel Velinsky, I will do the right thing, and try to write this piece.
First some history.
It is well documented that Florida’s three Seminole Wars were the longest, bloodiest, and most costly of all the Indian wars fought by the United States, fought on and off between 1814 and 1858. In the end, no treaty was signed and the few hundred remaining native peoples hid in their well known Everglades swamp to resurrect themselves as today’s Seminole, Miccosukee, and unaffiliated Independent Seminole Tribes.
They never surrendered and today their successful 1980s/1990s law suit against the Federal Government and the State of Florida requiring the polluting of Everglades Agricultural Area run off water onto their lands, to be reduced from sometimes over 300 to 10 parts per billion/phosphorus, in my opinion, is a key reason, along with its tartiness and other issues, why CEPP was not included in the Water Resources Development Act, WRDA, bill by the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers.
I can hear the D.C. ACOE now: “Even if we had the designated land, the mass of water could not be sent south—it’s too dirty. We need so much more land to clean it. So we’ll build all this structure but we won’t be able to send but a dribble of water south…Florida has to lessen the water quality requirements or …”
Well first of all, I say “kudos” to the Seminole and Miccosucci for holding the state responsible for cleaning up its water, even if it is an”impossible” number to achieve under present circumstances. I’d say in the karma department, “we had it coming.”
So now what do we do? Well in my opinion a type of war is going to start, and I liken the people of the St Lucie River/Indian River Lagoon to the “Fourth Indian War Warriors.” We will not surrender.
The failure of CEPP to pass will historically be the beginning of this war. And like the Indians of the 1880s, we were indirectly lied to, and part of it was our fault for believing what we were told, knowing the facts of history.
We all watched and participated along with the South Florida Water Management District and the Jacksonville Army Corp of Engineers for three years, putting full concentration of resources and creativity– forcing dedicated staff from both agencies to produce a document, CEPP, that the US Army Corp of Engineers more than likely knew, would never make it. So now, “they” want us to continue rallying for another two years for next WRDA bill. “Oh sorry maybe it will be seven years….”
I don’t think so.
Guess what? The people are tired of waiting. They put their money on the state and federal governments’ horse, and our horse wasn’t even allowed to run.
Do you feel the chain pulling and digging into your neck? I do.
This tactic is not new, and honestly I think it is simply part of a dysfunctional federal and state government. Let’s look back.
In the 1990s governor Lawton Childs had the state halt the famous water quality law suit and actually “laid down his sword” in a courtroom-how courageous, but look where we are now; in the mid 2000s Charlie Christ’s “Sugar Land Deal” was downsized due to the Economic Crisis of 2008 and other politics; before that, Jeb Bush started the “Acceler8 Program to quickly complete eight of over 60 Central Everglades Restoration Plan’s (CERP) projects. The SFWMD, functioning under the governor, worked diligently like they did recently for CEPP–the eight projects were not completed; and since 2011/12, under the Rick Scott administration, the entire focus was on CEPP, which also would have bundled some of the CERP projects to begin “moving faster” and to “move the water south.” After years of laser like dedication, for now, the project is “dead.”
Florida has water quality and quantity issues brewing like a hurricane, and our Indian River Lagoon area will be the eye in November of 2014, as former governor Charlie Christ runs against Governor Rick Scott. The race would have been messy anyway, but now it is going to be war as the different sides configure how to “send the water south” with out CEPP. Start thinking about how you want to send the water south or stored, and “never, never, never give up.”
“End of the Rainbow,” South Florida. (Photo by John Whiticar, 2013.)
As we approach hurricane season, we must prepare for rain. Florida is more like Africa than the rest of the county in that there are really only two seasons: dry and rainy. “Officially,” rainy season runs from June 1st to November 30th, and dry season is from December 1st through the end of May.
One of the most interesting accounts I’ve ever read of a “great south Florida rain” was published in 1886 by pioneer Charles Pierce, member the famous Hannibal Pierce family, to which our illustrious Indian Riverkeeper, Mr Marty Baum belongs. We along the St Lucie/Indian River Lagoon are part of the south Florida great rain system and there are reoccurring themes whether here or farther south, as l think you’ll see as I share the story.
Charles Pierce is most well known for his book “Pioneer Life in Southeast Florida” written about the years 1870 through 1894, and published by Miami’s University Press in 1970. It is a five star classic. According to a write up on the book, during this era of Florida history around 724 people were living between Stuart and Miami.
My mother, historian Sandra Thurlow, shared an excerpt that Charles Pierce wrote for the Broward Legacy in 1886, as he was living and overseeing the Biscayne House of Refuge at the time.
According to Pierce:
“In October of 1884 occurred the greatest and longest rainfall ever known on the east coast since its earliest settlement. It poured down for eight days and nights, slacking at times for a few minutes, but never stoping; then came down harder if that were possible. The whole southern part of the state was inundated…
On the eighth day the rain stopped and the next day came in bright and clear, and the sun shone brightly on a rain-soaked Florida…
I was on the east porch looking out to sea…looking up the coast to the northward, I caught the glint of something white about four miles away. At first, I thought it was a sea gull, then it looked like striking fish. I was not certain which it was, so I went for the old long spyglass to get a close up view of the scintillating white. What the spyglass revealed surprised me. The flickering white I had seen was now clearly shown to be whitecaps or breaking seas at the head of a dark body of water rushing down the coast….a mass of dark water some hundred feet in width rushing along to the south and with breaking seas over running the blue water in front.
It was a strange sight and at first we all wondered where it came from. My father Hannibal solved they mystery when he said, ‘It is fresh water from the New River Inlet.’ Could that be possible? It was fourteen miles away but there was no other solution to the phenomenon.
What a mighty volume of water must be coming out of the inlet and with tremendous velocity enough to overcome the resistance of wind and sea for so many miles. By night of that day the entire ocean in sight of the Station was covered with dark coffee-colored freshwater from the New River. Not a bit of blue water to be seen in any direction. Biscayne Bay was fresh for nearly a month after the week of rain.”
Incredible. So even before humankind diked and channelized the entirety of south Florida, when it rained heavily, the black wave of fresh water pushed forth through the south eastern inlets to the ocean; it did not just “go south.” We see a similar but not as intense phenomenon today, although drainage has been modified, when a heavy rain gushes through the St Lucie Inlet, Ft Pierce or Jupiter Inlets. In any case, when one hears a story such as Mr Pierce’s it makes one wonder, with all that water, during a really “great rain” a rain that comes only once in a few hundred years, will our manmade structures hold?
We all know the Army Corp of Engineers, along with support from the South Florida Water Management District, is working diligently to harden the dike around Lake Okeechobee, but it seems that a third outlet, a flow way south, from the lake to the Everglades surely would alleviate some of that natural pressure, the pressure Charlie Pierce describes as a
“tremendous velocity…”
If he were alive today, I wonder what Mr Charles Pierce would think?
