Water-Related News

Groups push for reduction of harmful discharges from Lake O

Environmental groups and political leaders are urging the Army Corps of Engineers to maximize flows south from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades and Florida Bay.

The clock is ticking as different groups push for the Army Corps to get Lake O’s management right. They see it as a chance to send more water south to the Everglades and cut those harmful discharges east and west.

Those discharges contribute to harmful algal blooms and can throw our estuaries off balance, but change is on the horizon.

“That’s equitable for both the heartland communities here in the central portion of the state, here along Lake Okeechobee, as well as the coastal communities who have really taken the brunt of the impacts from the discharges from Lake Okeechobee,” said James Evans, environmental policy director at the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation.

“You have a representation from across the board saying