Lake Okeechobee: Lake-O is back to normal mode

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Oct 24, 2008

14.87 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Oct 27, 2008

14.91 ft.

Steady.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Nov 07, 2008

14.71 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Nov 18, 2008

14.49 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Nov 22, 2008

14.39 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Nov 24, 2008

14.34 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Nov 27, 2008

14.29 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Dec 01, 2008

14.27 ft.

[Jason Foster]

I would be interested in seeing how much water the Sugar cane fields are using. I also wonder what the impact of their presense smack in the middle of the lake and the everglades is playing on this water level situation. I always felt that it was a good idea to remove those fields from the southern lake area and return that area to the everglades, so as the natural flow of water could be returned.

As stated, the tropical systems are critical to southern Florida's water table. The past couple of years prior to this have brought very little tropical moisture to Florida. I suspect, in the upcoming years, that will return somewhat. We did see a jump this year after Fay (as stated earlier).

[jinftl]

Artcile from Palm Beach Post this past spring...

Engineers look to keep Lake Okeechobee level low
By ELIOT KLEINBERG

Faced with conflicting threats of drought or dike burst, federal engineers have decided that, to the extent they can control Lake Okeechobee, they'll keep its level lower than normal - even if that risks water shortages for South Florida.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Wednesday it will aim for what its engineers call a "safe" level of 121/2 to 151/2 feet above sea level. That would keep the lake about a foot lower on average than it is under normal conditions.

That's worrisome to farmers but less worrisome to those who live down-field of the Herbert Hoover Dike that girds the lake.

First, the lake will have to get there. Depleted to a record 8.82 feet in July 2007, during the two-year water supply crisis, it stood Wednesday at only 10.3 feet, about 3 feet below its historical average for the day. But it's been rebounding, courtesy of a soggier-than-normal dry season, and could be brimming in a heavy wet season. The National Weather Service is set to announce next week its forecast for this summer's rainy season, which traditionally starts around mid-May.

A big part of the corps' concern is the stress a high lake places on the leaky dike, which state consultants say poses a "grave and imminent danger" of breaching in spots and flooding lake-side towns and farm fields. The latest proposals recommend, but do not require, that the lake peak never exceed 17.25 feet for any length of time.

Fortunes rise and fall with the lake's level, though; growers and Glades cities rely on the lake as their main reservoir, and it is the backup supply for millions on southeast Florida's coast.

Sugar farmers oppose keeping low both the lake level and the point at which water restrictions are triggered.

That has hammered farmers during the drought.

"It makes water shortages occur twice as frequently, with three times the severity, while doing very little to prevent high flow events to the estuaries," Barbara Miedema, spokeswoman for the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, said Wednesday.

The 2004 hurricanes caused the lake to rise to more than 18 feet above sea level; the corps has estimated that at that height, there's a 45 percent chance of a breach in the dike.

The corps is now in a decades-long shoring of the dike wall but has said a complete rehabilitation will cost more than $850 million.

"Managing the lake at a lower level improves public health and safety performance by reducing structural risk to the Herbert Hoover Dike while rehabilitation efforts are under way, and will provide environmental benefits to the lake and downstream estuaries," Brig. Gen. Joseph Schroedel, commander of the corps' South Atlantic Division, said in a statement.

But managing the lake's level is a dicey proposition; the corps doesn't control rainfall across the 730-square-mile body, and just a foot of rainfall across the Kissimmee Basin, sprawling across 4,600 square miles north of the lake, can raise it by 4 feet.

Proposed changes call for the flow of fresh water from the lake to begin earlier in the year, reducing how often and how powerfully fresh water pours into coastal estuaries to keep lake levels down in front of an approaching storm.

Fragile plant and animal life along the lake's shore also suffer when they are too dry or too wet.

"There's nobody in this process that gets where they want to be," Chip Merriam, deputy executive director for the South Florida Water Management District, said Wednesday.

[anniecros]

The micromanaging of the lake angers me. The water levels are not the whole story. The cane fields are not the whole story. The people living around the lake are a big part of the story that gets ignored.

The Army Corps of Engineers is doing a fantastic job in a crappy situation. Unfortunately, they everyone in Florida pays for the SWFMD mismanagement - in dollars and lifestyle. It is almost as bad an invasion of civil and property rights as the whole Citrus Canker chainsaw brigades.

By the way, golf courses are exempt from water rationing.

My opinion only.

[Jason Foster]

The micromanaging of the lake angers me. The water levels are not the whole story. The cane fields are not the whole story. The people living around the lake are a big part of the story that gets ignored.

The Army Corps of Engineers is doing a fantastic job in a crappy situation. Unfortunately, they everyone in Florida pays for the SWFMD mismanagement - in dollars and lifestyle. It is almost as bad an invasion of civil and property rights as the whole Citrus Canker chainsaw brigades.

By the way, golf courses are exempt from water rationing.

My opinion only.

Without going to far of the deep end....since I know this board is kinda tight on the whole bashing thing....but the mismanagement of the lake, by a Florida agency is nothing new to me. I think the whole state is mismanaged. After living in Miami twice (2001 & 2004), I am glad I'm out and will never return (except to chase hurricanes...and the occasional vacation).

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Dec 12, 2008

14.17 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Dec 23, 2008

14.07 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Jan 27, 2009

13.48 ft.

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Feb 20, 2009

13.01 ft.

[HURAKAN]

We may need another Fay in 2009.

[boca]

As of Feb 23. Lake O at 12.93ft.We will likely need another Fay to help us out.

http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/page?_pagei ... ema=PORTAL


The Lake level might be at 9 or 10 ft by May. We have to be realistic were not getting rain this upcoming spring because of La Nina pattern and fronts dry up by the time they reach us.

[jinftl]

Lake O down to 12.81 ft as of 2/28..drop of 0.20 feet, or 2.4 inches in last 8 days.

http://my.sfwmd.gov/sfwmd/common/images ... .OKEE.html


Since 10/27/08, the Lake has gone down 2.1 feet, losing 202.5 km sqd of water coverage (11.2%)....80 km sqd of the loss in the last 8 days!!!

Lake Depth km sqd
27-Oct 14.91ft 1800.64
20-Feb 13.01ft 1678.11
28-Feb 12.81ft 1598.12
http://my.sfwmd.gov/gisapps/losac/sfwmd.asp

[HURAKAN]

Lake Okeechobee water level as of Mar 03, 2009

12.67 ft.

Going down in a dramatic way.