For nearly four months, the spillway in Moore Haven that allows water from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee River has been wide open to lower lake levels before the rainy season.
The water gushes out at billions of gallons a day, looking like class three rapids.
That’s about to come to an end.
Col. Brandon Bowman, who is in charge of the Army Corps of Engineers operations in Florida, called for the releases to stop Saturday.
He said the main reason to lower the lake level was to give aquatic plants the right amount, but not too much, water so they thrive and not drown.
“Lowering water levels allows light to penetrate to the bottom and allows submerged aquatic vegetation to regerminate and regrow during the spring and summer,” Bowman said in a press release. That is “key to the health of the lake fisheries, and improved water quality within the lake benefits the estuaries if significant releases are necessary in the coming seasons (and) years.”
That spillway in Moore Haven has been wide open since early December, which is when the Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that manages Florida’s liquid heart, decided the lake level needs to be lowered by four feet before this year’s hurricane season.
The Army Corps has also been releasing water to the east down the Saint Lucie River. Those releases will stop this weekend.
Bowman said the Army Corps will reopen the spillway if there is a wet start to the rainy season.
That is not looking likely as drought is gripping Southwest Florida, as wildfire season has burned nearly 44,000 acres in over 900 blazes so far this year and meteorologists do not see substantial rains in the forecast for the foreseeable future.
Environmental reporting for WGCU is funded in part by VoLo Foundation, a non-profit with a mission to accelerate change and global impact by supporting science-based climate solutions, enhancing education, and improving health.
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