The USACE Jacksonville District (SAJ) will begin Saturday, April 13, to target a 7-day average pulse release from Lake Okeechobee at 2,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) out of the W.P. Franklin Lock and Dam (S79) to continue reducing lake levels in a beneficial way to prepare for the wet and hurricane seasons. 

USACE is resuming their dry season strategy to get water off the lake before what is forecasted to be a record-setting year of named storms.  Lower lake levels provide flood risk management, improve lake ecology, and decrease the probability of large releases during the summer when large algal blooms generally occur with greater frequency. 

In February, USACE began making larger releases from Lake Okeechobee in response to El Niño rainfall and rising water levels. February is typically drier and when water levels throughout the Everglades recede; this year was not typical. These larger releases helped the lake start its recession by bringing the water level down about a foot between mid-February and late March.  

Unless conditions change, SAJ will maintain 0 cfs releases east to continue to allow salinity in the St. Lucie Estuary to recover.   

During the dry season, the river needs freshwater flow from Lake Okeechobee to prevent the estuary salinity levels from rising too high. The river also needs a steady flow of water to reduce the risk of algal blooms which are more common in stagnant water.