HEALTH

Army Corps of Engineers: Lake Okeechobee coming back down but discharges will continue

Tyler Treadway
Treasure Coast Newspapers

Despite Lake Okeechobee's drop again, the Army Corps of Engineers announced Thursday afternoon discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers will continue.

And the discharges could continue "probably more than a couple of weeks," Col. Andrew Kelly, Corps commander for Florida, said during a call-in news conference 

Lake Okeechobee water begins moving through the Port Mayaca Lock and Dam on Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2020, in Martin County. The St. Lucie River estuary is due to receive about 1.16 billion gallons of lake water a day for "close to a month," according to Col. Andrew Kelly, the Army Corps of Engineers commander for Florida.

Lake O has been yo-yoing since Oct. 14, when discharges began and the lake's elevation was 16 feet, 2½ inches:

  • Down to 16 feet ¾ inch Nov. 7, the lowest elevation since the discharges started 
  • Up to 16 feet 5⅜ inches Nov. 13, the highest point after Tropical Storm Eta crossed south Florida
  • Down to 16 feet 4⅛ inches Friday, the most recent elevation

The lake was 1¾ inches higher Friday morning than when the disharges

More: Army Corps starts Lake Okeechobee discharges to St. Lucie

Dry weather

Although not officially, for all intents and purposes the rainy season is over and the dry season is here, said Kevin Rodriguez, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Melbourne.

"We can't say at this point when the official date was that the rainy season ended," Rodriguez said, "but the cold front that came behind (Tropical Storm) Eta really kicked out all the moisture. so it's very likely we're in the dry season."

That doesn't mean rain is gone until next summer, Rodriguez said. "We'll still have fronts come through bringing rain, but they should be less frequent than normal."

The area of Central Florida between Okeechobee and Orlando, where rainfall runoff drains into Lake O, isn't forecast to have "any significant rainfall in the foreseeable future," Rodriguez said.

And as for the rest of the hurricane season that ends Nov. 30: "There's nothing much to talk about in the tropics," Rodriguez said.

Five-day tropical weather outlook

No algae threat

There appears to be no threat of blue-green algae blooms in the St. Lucie during the current round of discharges. 

A satellite image taken Monday showed little or no blue-green algae on Lake O, although the area near the Port Mayaca Lock and Dam was obscured by clouds.

No algae was seen by a South Florida Water Management District crew Monday at the Port Mayaca Lock and Dam, where lake water is discharged toward the St. Lucie, although it was detected in a water sample taken at the site.

More: Algae bloom toxins in air can linger 2 hours, travel 10 miles

Lake Okeechobee discharges

Since discharges began, about:

  • 35 billion gallons of water has poured through the St. Lucie Lock and Dam into the St. Lucie River, enough to cover the city of Stuart with 16 feet of water
  • 20 billion gallons of that has been from Lake O
  • 15 billion gallons has been from the C-44 Canal watershed in western Martin County.

Over 27.6 billion gallons of water has flowed into the Caloosahatchee River estuary in the last week, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation.

The Caloosahatchee's daily average flow over the past week has been 5.3 billion gallons, with an average of 2 billion gallons coming from Lake O.

The estuary has received high-volume, environmentally damaging flows for 66 days, the foundation reported.

Tyler Treadway is an environment reporter who specializes in issues facing the Indian River Lagoon. Support his work on TCPalm.com.  Contact him at 772-221-4219 and tyler.treadway@tcpalm.com.