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Reply from Governor Bush's Office
These are letters of reply to my letter to the Governors
office asking for them to take action on the water level issue at Lake
Okeechobee. 4/17/2000
Walt Reynolds
(1) see second reply below.
Dear Mr. Reynolds:
Governor Bush appreciates receiving your letter and has asked me to respond to
your e-mail concerning high water levels in Lake Okeechobee. The Governor
and
Secretary Struhs share your concern for the severe damage to Lake Okeechobee's
littoral marsh caused by the excessively high lake water levels that have
existed during most of the past decade.
Impacts to the lake's littoral marsh and the fish and wildlife resources that
it supports have been well documented. Most of the lake's marshes are
below 15
feet in elevation. For successful wading bird feeding and nesting to
occur,
the lake stage must be receding below 15 feet during the spring. To insure
a
healthy, diverse marsh community, the lake stage must recede below 13 feet on a
fairly regular annual basis. Many of the marsh's diverse perennial plants
can
not survive constant inundation. Germination of annual and perennial plant
seeds is suppressed by inundation. Germination of seeds of the rapidly
expanding cattail population is enhanced by inundation. Cattails now
occupy
over 25% of the littoral marsh. Effective use of fire as a tool to reduce
the
abundance of the rapidly expanding exotic pest torpedo grass and to eliminate
accumulated cattail wrack is greatly reduced under high water conditions.
High water levels have contributed to the movement of high phosphorus content
turbid water from the central mud zone of the lake into the near-shore clear
water areas. This has promoted algal blooms and severely impacted the
ecologically important submerged plant communities. Most of the submerged
plant community has disappeared form the lake over the last few years.
Holding
high lake levels has resulted in very large releases of freshwater to the St.
Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries, causing adverse water quality impacts, and
degrading estuarine ecosystems.
The Department is working with the South Florida Water Management District, and
Corps of Engineers to help us determine the appropriate immediate course of
action to reduce lake levels this season. This needs to happen quickly as
the
South Florida rainy season begins in June.
The Corps has also selected a more environmentally friendly lake regulation
schedule called Water Supply Environment (WSE) that when implemented should
provide more flexibility in managing lake levels to benefit the littoral marsh.
John Outland
(2)Mr. Reynolds:
I am convinced that this issue is a top priority of the Governor and Secretary
Struhs. The Department, District and Corps participated in the development
of
the Lake Okeechobee Action Plan by the Lake Okeechobee Issue Team established
by the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Working Group. A major
recommendation of the team is to minimize the occurrence of damaging high water
levels. To address this issue, the team recommended the use of the
operational
flexibility provided by the WSE regulation schedule and construction of the
components of the Everglades Restoration Plan (ASR Wells and large storage
reservoirs with stormwater treatment areas) to reduce the occurrence of
damaging high lake levels. While we still agree with this general
approach, it
must be recognized that it will be twenty years before all of these elements
are constructed.
While the WSE Lake Regulation Schedule is an improvement over the current
schedule, it is not adequate to address the current crisis. When put into
operation, one of the most important components of the WSE Schedule is the
potential water management flexibility provided by the use of long-range
weather forecasting information.
Flexibility is needed to utilize knowledge of local environmental conditions
and problems to influence operational decisions between the "zone"
lines
established on a schedule.
For the long term, a broad based interagency committee, including the
Department, made up of members familiar with all segments of the natural system
impacted by lake management decisions should be created to ensure that adequate
consideration is given to environmental needs. This interagency committee
should be given the responsibility to review long-range weather forecast
information; consider existing and expected environmental conditions in all the
potentially affected natural areas; and make lake water level management
recommendations to the SFWMD Board of Governors. In the short term, action
is
needed to lower the current lake level.
John Outland
web by: Walt Reynolds
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