By Katrina Elsken
Lake Okeechobee News
Glades area residents spoke out about concerns the new plan for Lake Okeechobee will harm the lake’s ecology and threaten water supply for farms and urban residents during the Aug. 9 online hearing about the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual (LOSOM).
“I don’t think anybody who is making these plans really gives a crap about the lake’s ecology,” said angler Scott Martin. “I’m worried about the small towns around the lake."
“Lake Okeechobee is a natural lake and y’all are killing it,” he continued. “You’re going to flood it and put so much water in the lake, month after month.
“If we don’t change this plan drastically to improve this vegetation in Lake Okeechobee, it’s going to die and you guys are going to be at fault,” Martin added.
“Lake O is an amazing fishery,” he said. ‘People come from all over the world to fish this lake. They’re not going to come anymore.
“We’re downstream of the Kissimmee River, which is where all the water comes from,” Martin said. “Why aren’t we talking about slowing the flow into the lake? The water we keep getting into Lake Okeechobee, that is flooding out the vegetation, is going to kill it.”
Martin said the lake should be filled with submerged aquatic vegetation to filter the water that goes south, east and west, and to provide habitat for fish and wildlife. The lake needs seasonal lows to allow the sunlight to reach the lake bottom so the SAV will sprout. In addition, when the lake level rises rapidly, it is detrimental to the lake’s ecology. When water levels rise faster than the SAV can grow, the vegetation is damaged or destroyed.
“This plan is awful,” Martin said. “This is an absolute death sentenced to Lake Okeechobee. We need to figure out a plan that gets the maximum level in the lake lower.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will use LOSOM to manage Lake O once repairs to the Herbert Hoover Dike are complete. Dike repairs are expected to be finished in October.
The big lake is currently managed under the Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule, implemented in 2008, which strives to keep the lake no higher than 15.5 feet above sea level. At the time, the dike topped the USACE’s list of dams most at risk of failure. The danger the dike might fail increased with higher lake levels.
LOSOM will allow lake levels up to 17.25 feet. The lake’s ecology is healthiest with seasonal lows of 12.5 feet and highs of 15.5 feet. Levels above 16 feet damage the marshes around the edge of the lake.
“Five years ago we had (Hurricane) Irma,” said Newton Cook of United Waterfowlers Florida. “Fifteen percent of the SAV was all that was left.”
He said the SAV has not improved “a single percent from the day of Irma.”
“The water is dirtier than it has ever been,” said Cook. “Why are we putting a number of 17.25 feet and expect to have recovery after a storm? Every time it gets warm in the summer, it’s going to be full of algae. Why are we purposefully destroying the ecology of this lake?
“This is the heart of the Everglades,” said Cook. “This is a crucial situation where we are going to destroy the only thing that makes the heart of the Everglades better – the vegetation.”
Belle Glade Mayor Steve Wilson thanked USACE for improving the dike. He said dike safety is critical for the people who live along the south shore of Lake O.
Wilson said LOSOM is very different from previous lake management plans.
“The corps is making this present to a special interest group that is adverse to our community,” said Wilson. “We can only hope the government will see us and treat us fairly.
“We have already carried more than our fair share of burden in risk and in the loss of jobs,” the mayor continued. Agriculture is the backbone of the Belle Glade community, he said.
“We may be small in number but we do big things, including providing a lot of the food feeding our country,” said Clewiston resident Janet Taylor, president of Glades Lives Matter. Taylor said she feels the concern of those living on the coast are given more consideration than those in the Glades.
“Jobs in the Glades depend on access to water supply,” said Taylor. "The idea that a government can take away our water, as Congressman Brian Mast and activists groups have suggested, is simply unjust,” said Taylor.
“Our communities will suffer the economic consequences of less water, because the corps is prioritizing the coasts,” she said.
Taylor said the comment gathering by USACE to date has not been fair because there were no evening meetings and no meetings in Spanish or Creole. She said some residents of the Glades don’t have access to online meetings.
Tom MacVicar, of West Palm Beach, said the model runs used to develop LOSOM show a reduction in water use to the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA). “That did not seem likely to us,” he said. “We spent untold hours looking at the data for the EAA. We remain convinced LOSOM underestimates water use in the EAA by 50,000 acre feet per year.
“It’s very easy to show an improvement in water supply if you reduce the need for water,” MacVicar said.
“The agency team tried to do too much in LOSOM,” he said.
“There are no nefarious motives,” MacVicar continued. It was simply a matter of too much work and too little time both for USACE staff and for stakeholders whose lives and businesses are impacted by the lake schedule.
USACE should declare a pause for LOSOM, and revise the water control plan, he suggested.
“I’m concerned your draft water control plan doesn’t meet the definition of a lake schedule at all,” said Rich Budell of the Florida Agri-Business Council.
He pointed out LOSOM gives USACE complete discretion for weekly release decisions without accountability. Budell said the plan only allows state input when the lake reaches the water shortage band.
Adam Basford, of Associated Industries of Florida, said the plan falls short of the water supply goal.
“Lake Okeechobee is the backup water supply for over 6.2 million people,” he said.
LOSOM also impinges on the state’s right to manage it’s water resources, Basford said, pointing out that under this plan, the federal government would have sole control over water releases above the water shortage band.
“State control is needed well before a water shortage crisis so a water shortage can be avoided if possible,” said Basford.
The Central and South Florida Project (C&SF), authorized by Congress in 1948, gave the state authority for water supply allocation,” said Ernie Barnett of the Florida Land Council. “Lake Okeechobee is the backbone of the program in south Florida.
“All previous lake schedules have included a line of demarcation,” Barnett explained. Higher stages release decisions were to be made by the USACE for the safety of Herbert Hoover Dike. Lower stage release decisions were to be made by the state.
The current schedule (LORS) was adopted to reduce risk during Herbert Hoover Dike repairs, he said. Legal water users were promised their level of service would be restored when the dike was repaired.
“Instead, the proposed plan does nothing to improve water supply,” Barnett said. “USACE is granting themselves the sole authority to make releases,” he said. This Directs water away from legal beneficial uses.
“Existing legal users deserve to have their water supply restored,” Barnett added. “The corps should keep its promise.”
“It feels like we’ve done years of meetings, we’ve raised all of these concerns,” said Nyla Pipes of One Florida. “We’ve documented our reasons for these concerns, and yet we still have the same schedule and the same concerns.
“It doesn’t even feel like a schedule,” she said. “It feels like we’re going to willy-nilly go about this and kill Lake Okeechobee.
“You’re refusing to hear us,” she said. “The science matters and so do the people, and the environment we depend on matters. Maybe we’re looking at some USACE objectives instead of what is doing what is right for the environment and our people.”
Jim Spratt spoke on behalf of family farmers in the EAA. “Florida agriculture plays a significant role in Florida economy,” he said. “We are the salad bowl in the winter months."
“For the first time in history, water supply is at risk,” said Spratt. This puts the nation’s food supply and Florida’s economy at risk.
“The corps grants themselves power to make releases using water that has already been allocated to existing legal water users,” said Spratt. LOSOM makes an end run around Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), he said, allowing water to be redirected without building the infrastructure needed for CERP.
The week-to-week decision process proposed in LOSOM “undermines the very foundation of Florida water law,” said Spratt. He said the plan should reinstate state’s control of water resources under normal and drought conditions.
Kevin Doyle, Florida director for Consumer Energy Alliance, said Florida needs a schedule that ensures both environmental stewardship and water supply. Now that the dike repairs are almost complete, he called on USACE to keep the promise to restore water supply to the pre-LORS levels.
Ariel Fernandez, president of Hispanic Policy Group, also spoke out for water rights. He asked for a schedule that ensures Congressionally authorized water supply.
“I urge you to protect our state water rights,” said Fernandez.
Matt Hoffman is president of the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative, founded in 1960. He said the EAA is one of the most productive farming areas in the world. Farming requires investments, he said, and he is greatly disappointed the draft water control plan uses a week-to-week process to make decisions about water supply, leaving farmers in doubt.
If the precious farmland in the EAA is lost, Americans will have to depend on food from foreign countries, if that food is even available, he said.
“Go back to the basics in managing the lake,” said Tammy Jackson Moore, of Guardians of the Glades.
“Please don’t allow one side of our coast to decide how we actually live here, work and play and how they dictate our future,” she continued. “We may be small, but we matter. She said it is disappointing how one-sided LOSOM process has been.
“The agricultural community depends a lot on the lake,” said Rev. Gary McNealy, pastor of one of the oldest churches in Clewiston.
“I hear many people who attack the Glades,” he said. I’m often concerned about people who make comments about the lake area when they have no clue about what is going on. God has blessed us with this great abundance of water and there should be plenty for everyone. To withhold it from our community, it’s unjust."
