Water-Related News

Smaller releases of polluted Lake O water are okay with conservation group

“Officials are forecasting (dozens of) named storms, the highest forecast ever released,” Bell said. “Conditions contributing to these more intense predictions were temperatures above all historical averages, and the change from El Nino to Nino, a strong African westerly jet stream, and the changes in the locations and strength of steering winds locally.”

As soon as lake water releases into the Caloosahatchee River were paused, “conditions have gotten very, very, very, quickly dry and the canal is almost entirely stagnate,” Bell said, adding that the Army Corps decided to take preventative measures and resume flows to the west.

Dave Andrews, the director of Captains For Clean Water, whose members just a week ago were writing nasty reflections on the heavy releases of the same water to the Army Corps, is now welcoming the water, albeit at less of a rush.

“It helps balance the salinity in the upper estuary, which is ultimately beneficial for the water quality in the Caloosahatchee,” Andrews said. “Getting water out of the lake within the healthy flow envelope is a good thing because Lake Okeechobee is too high right now, so lowering it by sending beneficial flows, that is really a benefit to us in helping to avoid a potentially toxic summer like we saw in 2018.”