Inside Climate News, August 26, 2024
At the heart of the vast watershed that forms Florida’s fragile Everglades is Lake Okeechobee. A century ago the water of the state’s largest lake spilled effortlessly beyond its southern shore, flowing eventually into the sawgrass prairies of the river of grass.
Today the natural course of the water has been altered forever by some of the most complex water management infrastructure in the world. This infrastructure has drained the river of grass to a fraction of its former size and made modern Florida possible. A $21 billion federal and state restoration effort underway in the Everglades is among the most ambitious of its kind in human history.
A new plan for managing Lake Okeechobee is aimed at recapturing some of this drained water and restoring a more natural flow throughout the watershed, two objectives that, if achieved, could help alleviate yet another prominent environmental problem facing the state: toxic algae.
The Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual (LOSOM), implemented earlier this month, represents a significant shift in the lake’s management. Coming after a recent restoration of the 143-mile earthen dike encircling the lake, the plan is designed to more equitably balance the needs of the watershed and stakeholders tied to it, rather than prioritizing flood control above all else, said Tim Gysan, LOSOM project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
…A more robust Lake Okeechobee means better water supply for the vast sugar cane and vegetable fields south of the lake. But the higher water does represent a drawback for the lake itself. Decades of pollution have clouded the lake’s once-crystalline water, and when the water is too deep, less sunlight can reach the vegetation undulating beneath the surface. The vegetation supports the gamefish popular among anglers and serves as a natural water filter removing the pollution from the water, said Steve Davis, chief science officer at the Everglades Foundation.
Everglades restoration involves a series of landscape-scale projects, each massive on its own. The new lake plan comes as several projects are nearing completion or already are complete, like a large restoration of the Kissimmee River, finished in 2021. The lake plan will enable the Army Corps to manage the lake in a way that maximizes this new infrastructure, Davis said.
“You constantly have to reflect back and think, ‘Wow, we have achieved so much,’” he said. “It’s what keeps me going, seeing that momentum continuing to build.”
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