News: Lake Okeechobee releases cripple Caloosahatchee

Rae Ann Wessel - Guest Opinion

news-press.com

05/07/10

Unseasonal spring rains are producing potentially catastrophic conditions in the Caloosahatchee at a critical spawning period. To avoid a repeat of 2004-2005 we need to speak up now.

This spring's high rainfall levels have resulted in high volumes of continuous freshwater runoff from the Caloosahatchee watershed and discharges from Lake Okeechobee. The combined blast is pushing fresh water all the way out to Shell Point, eliminating the critical estuary mixing zone in the river. This will negatively impact this year's crop of seagrasses, fish, crabs, shrimp, oysters, scallops and the federally endangered smalltooth sawfish, as the seeds and spawn are washed out into the open Gulf with massive slugs of unwanted, polluted fresh water.

The estuaries cannot continue to bear the burden of unwanted water unilaterally. The Caloosahatchee today serves as the major outlet for up to 70 percent of excess water. The solution? More storage both short-term and long-term. For the past several weeks the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation has been asking the South Florida Water Management District for an inventory of possible short-term storage areas north and south of the lake. In the Caloosahatchee watershed we have asked for an inventory of options to shunt excess flows from blowing out the estuary, such as the 11,000-acre Berry Grove reservoir site, and fallow farm fields on Babcock Ranch.

Even without major earth works there is the capacity to fill canals and saturate lands that can provide storage and evaporation as an alternative to blowing out the estuaries. To date - while the health of our estuary is being damaged - we are still waiting for a response. Why?

The water management district governing board will be discussing this issue at its monthly workshop May 12 in Stuart at the Blake Library. We urge you to contact the governing board and ask them to look for alternative and unconventional storage solutions to protect the estuaries on both coasts. Attending the meeting in Stuart on Wednesday would be another great opportunity to share your opinions in person.

Remember the devastation of the estuary and river in 2004-2005. Let's not sit by and allow lack of creative action to destroy our estuary again.

Rae Ann Wessel is natural resource policy director of the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation.