Finally some good news! After almost four months of damaging Lake Okeechobee discharges, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has just announced they will close the gates to the St. Lucie and scale flows to the Caloosahatchee back to 1,400 cubic feet per second — within the beneficial range — on Saturday, March 29.
Note that remaining flows going west are necessary to maintain optimal salinity.
These discharges began back on December 7 under the premise of “Lake Okeechobee recovery,” with no guarantee they’d improve the health of the lake — while our estuaries paid the price. Thanks to nearly 3,000 of you who joined us in sending messages to Col. Brandon Bowman, the Army Corps has finally complied. In fact, Col. Bowman explicitly acknowledged all of your emails when he announced the decision today in Stuart.
Stopping damaging discharges this time isn’t enough. We need lasting solutions to prevent future water management decisions that harm Florida’s environment, economy and public health. It’s more important than ever to secure the land south of Lake Okeechobee necessary to store, clean and send water south where it belongs.
We’re taking the win today, but we won’t stop until we’ve truly Rescued the River of Grass.
