UF report: Major challenges facing coastal estuaries

A University of Florida report released Monday confirms what many Floridians have been saying for decades: The Everglades are a complicated water control system with myriad ecological and engineering shortcomings.

The report was requested in 2013 by politicians such as Joe Negron, R-Vero Beach, after record flooding from Fort Myers to St. Lucie that year caused environmental damage and crippled local tourism.

The problems and possible solutions have been available but there has been a lack of follow-through on the part of the agencies that manage the system, mostly the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, according to the report.

“In spite of the repeated demonstrated need for large volumes of water storage, very little new storage has been designed or constructed in the system,” the report reads. “In the Caloosahatchee watershed, it is estimated that approximately 400,000 acre-feet of storage is needed, but currently only one 170,000 acre-feet surface reservoir is being designed, and state and federal funds for its construction have not yet been appropriated.”

The report recommends accelerated funding, complete existing projects, use deep well injection for disposal of excess freshwater, and consider operational changes in Corps of Engineers management protocols.

The 143-page report should be used as a basis for future development and lake management, some environmentalists said.

“I think that anything and everything we do today should use this information as a backdrop to decision making,” said Linda Young with the Florida Clean Water Network. “Sadly, I don't see that happening.”

The report points mostly to the watersheds as the cause for excess freshwater and nutrients. In 2013, when water was flowing into Lake Okeechobee from the north at six times the rate it could be discharged, more than half of the water flowing to the Gulf of Mexico came from lands on the north and south of the river.

“The estuaries have real problems, but that report says 80 percent of the problem is local,” said Judy Sanchez, spokeswoman for U.S. Sugar Corp. “That’s where 80 percent of the solution should come from.”

The report says 70 to 80 percent of freshwater, on average, in the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers come from the watershed, not Lake Okeechobee. Sixty-five to 80 percent of pollutants come from the Fort Myers area as well. So fixing all of Lake Okeechobee’s problems would only cut down a portion of the freshwater issues here and in St. Lucie.

People who live in those areas, Sanchez said, should take care of their own problems before pointing at the sugar industry.

“They’d be better served by pushing for additional money to fund the reservoirs,” Sanchez said. “(People on the coasts) need to look a little closer to home. It’s hard to look in the mirror and say ‘I live in south Florida and I’m part of the problem.’”

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By the numbers

•400,000: Acre-feet of water storage needed for Caloosahatchee watershed

•65-80: Percentage of nutrient load that comes from the watershed

•2008: Year Army Corps last reviewed Lake Okeechobee management protocal

•45: Percent of outflow from lake that goes to Caloosahatchee

•200: Aquifer storage and recovery wells needed to fix water quality issues

•10: Parts per billion of phosphorus is the maximum for legal discharge

SOURCES: University of Florida, South Florida Water Management District