Water managers concerned about high level of Lake Okeechobee

Lake Okeechobee remains high despite some drier weather in recent weeks.

The month of January brought well below average rainfall, according to the report presented by Chief District Engineer John Mitnik at the Feb. 9 meeting of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Governing Board. “Everybody is still reeling from the excessive rains back in September,” he added.

He said the projected data for Lake Okeechobee indicates “there’s roughly a 50% chance come June 1 that lake stages will be somewhere between 13 and 14 feet.”

Lake Okeechobee was 15.59 feet on Feb. 9. He said the lake is not coming down as quickly as many people had hoped.

“The lake’s got some challenges ahead of it as far as lake stage and operational management,” he said.

The district is moving water south from Lake Okeechobee through Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) into the Water Conservation areas (WCAs), he added.

Since the start of the current water year on May 1, 2022, more than 2 billion acre feet of water has flowed into Lake Okeechobee. That’s roughly equivalent to about 4.5 feet on Lake Okeechobee. (Water Year 2023 is from May 1, 2022 to April 30, 2023.) Much of that water came from the north, as flood waters from Hurricane Ian were pumped south into the Kissimmee River to relieve flooding in the urban areas of Orlando/Kissimmee.