Report on Lake Okeechobee discharges for Lee County Republican Water Committee… Paul Reynolds

Most accept the conclusion that the systems in place to manage Florida water systems are dangerously flawed. The policies and structure are designed to benefit farm industry to the detriment of others. The CLEAR priorities for managing the Lake O level have historically been: (1) storing sufficient irrigation water for agricultural industry, (2) Public Safety, flood control, and finally (3) condition of Lake and water systems fresh to saline. The Agricultural industry has clearly benefited from their financial political clout in perpetrating a grossly unfair management policy of Lake O levels. The Corps of Engineers, SFWMD, and communities along the flow acknowledge the mismanagement. The farm industry has no reason to. With three board members, of nine total, having direct ties to sugar industry, SFWMD is obviously biased toward the EAA (Everglades Agricultural Area).
The long-term solutions include additional, and controversial, reservoirs for drought storage, and a return to some sheet flow to the South, but these solutions do NOT respond to the short term emergency of the massive quantities of water being dumped into the fragile estuary and coastal areas. The board of SFWMD utilizes emergency powers, with EPA approval, to flood the estuary systems with stored water in the name of public safety. The “decision tree” they use for determining the rate of discharge has NO mention or input for damage to estuary and coastal areas. Some have suggested that SFWMD use this same authority to “share” this excess water with the entity it was stored for, the EAA. The U.S. Sugar Corporation has contacted some huge farms to accept a portion of this water if they are compensated, but to date there has been no response. Indeed, the Fanjul Organization, Florida Crystals, has exploited a loophole in a contract for land they are leasing and agreed to return that will go into a system to take some of these waters. They have delayed turning back the 17,000 acres and have settled on a payment from SFWMD to do so for eight million dollars.
The error in the argument that emergency authority can’t be utilized to share excess water with EAA because it could damage crops and livelihood doesn’t take into account that damage to estuary/coastal areas because of policy to benefit farms does exactly that. The “crops” of these areas is tourism, real estate investment, commercial fishing, and ecology. When an up-water community causes polluted and excessive water be sent into those communities the damages are real and measurable. United States riparian law is very specific on this topic.
The solutions are simple, if difficult. Share the excess water** with the industry (agricultural) who benefits the most from the policy IMMEDIATELY through emergency authority of SFWMD or eminent domain. Appropriate the money to begin the, already committed, CERP and re-structure governing boards like SFWMD to insure fairness for all communities, perhaps by election rather than appointment.

** from June 1 to Oct 31, the Caloosahatchee got from the Lake 1.09 million acre feet of water, St Lucie got 453k acre feet, and the area to the South got 66k. That would make the distribution about 63/32/4. We got the equivalent of 2.3 feet of the Lake volume. This is what the Corps of Engineers and SFWMD calls “shared adversity”.