Army Corps talks Lake O release plan changes that could help spare the Caloosahatchee

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is making "optimizations" to a Lake Okeechobee management plan to help take some of the strain off the Caloosahatchee River.

Col. Andrew Kelly held a press conference Monday afternoon to announce the selection of what's known as Alternative CC and to allay some of the concerns that sprang up during the colonel's trip to Fort Myers last week.

"We're not deviating from the plan," Kelly said. "We're not creating a new plan. We're building on a foundation to make it even better."

Kelly said the Army Corps' goals include working better with the Seminole Tribe of Florida and paying more attention to the ailing Caloosahatchee River.

"When we looked at that, we noticed and heard loud and clear that it had too much stress, especially in the high flows, to the Caloosahatchee River and estuary and we have to address that as we move forward in Iteration 3," Kelly said. "The first way is we're going to look at potentially sending additional water south."