Lake Okeechobee water releases will continue to come to Southwest Florida

The water releases from Lake Okeechobee will continue heading west down the Caloosahatchee River to Southwest Florida. That’s according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Thursday (Nov. 19th).

That puts our beaches and canals at risk for murky water or algae.

The Corps says it committed to stopping releases as soon as possible when they started last month, but, because of November’s rain, it’s a long road ahead to end them.

Tea-colored water continues to lap against the shore of the Sanibel Causeway. Another sign of both the Lake Okeechobee releases and local runoff we’ve had for weeks.

Colonel Andrew Kelly is the District Commander with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District. He said, “When we initiated releases, we were absolutely committed to stopping the releases as soon as possible.”

But now the lake is at 16.34 (Feet-NGVD29), meaning the Corps has no choice but to release water to the estuaries.