South Florida - Monday June 19, 2023: In his weekly update on the status of Lake Okeechobee last Friday Army Corps Col. James Booth reiterated that no Lake water is being released down either the Caloosahatchee or the St. Lucie Estuaries.
That’s a good thing because the Lake is seething with algae, some of toxic, that nobody wants to see released. But with no water being released, that also means that the lake is filling up, with only evaporation to lower the level. Things begin to get dicey when the Lake level reaches 16-and-a-half feet.
“But just because we go over 16-and-a-half," said Col. Booth, "that doesn’t necessarily say – ‘There’s a risk.' It’s just that that’s the area that our schedule says I need to put more of a focus on dam and levee safety.”
As of last Friday, Lake Okeechobee stood at 14-feet 09 inches, up an inch over the previous week, and 13 inches higher than this time last year.
With no water being released, the level continues to rise as water flows in from the Kissimmee River basin. And surprisingly, it’s the rain that accounts for most inflow into the lake, and we’re just at the start of the rainy season.
How long will it take before the Lake level gets to 16-and-a-half feet? And what would trigger a release if it gets to that point?
“It’s kind of a situational based decision that we make. So, if we had a massive bloom to the west, what we may do is we just hold off releases for a day or two while that bloom dies off. The harder part would be if there is a need to release water and we have a bloom up against it. So, it would all depend on what the timing is, what decision I would make on releases.”
It all depends on how much rainfall we get in the next several months, says Booth, and how high the lake gets.