Lake Okeechobee: Lake-O is back to normal mode

[StormTracker]

Isn't 15.5' considered full? Will they start releases at that point?

L.OKEE
# LEVL=15.11
23:00EST 29-APR-2010 Satellite

Hi all & thank you Hurakan for doing what you do best!!!

vbhoutex, maybe this may help in finding the answer to your question! Let's monitor the water level closely now & I will do some more research to try and find a more definitive answer!

http://www.sfwmd.gov/portal/pls/portal/docs/15441415.PDF

[HURAKAN]

"The lake is enclosed by a 20-foot (6 m) high dike built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers after a hurricane in 1928 breached the old dike, flooding surrounding communities and claiming thousands of lives."

Link - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Okeechobee

[HURAKAN]

Corps of Engineers to drain more of Lake Okeechobee before rainy season

BY CURTIS MORGAN
cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com
Lake Okeechobee, hammered by drought-driven lows over the past decade, brimmed Thursday with more than 15 feet of water. It will continue going up for several more days.

Problem is, South Florida's hurricane and rainy seasons are right around the corner. The big lake is rising when it ought to be falling.

That's not a good scenario for its aging dike or for aquatic life in the lake and river systems that will soon be getting big doses of dirty lake water. By next week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has been slowly trying to lower Lake O for months, will likely crank the flood gates open a lot wider.

``We would expect this during the wet season, but we're seeing it during the dry season,'' said Luis Alejandro, Lake Okeechobee basin manager for the Corps. ``We are in the high end of the range we would like to see.''

TAKING ACTION

Under a management plan the Corps adopted two years ago intended to balance water supply demands with environmental protection, the goal is to keep the lake's water between 12.5 and 15.5 feet above sea level. But the peak is supposed to come at the end of the wet and hurricane seasons, not before they begin.

The primary reason for the higher levels: an extra rainy winter and spring.

For the Corps, the most immediate concern is protecting the nearly 80-year-old earthen levee, currently undergoing a decades-long, expensive -- estimated at more than $1 billion -- construction effort to beef it up.

``There is always a concern about dike safety,'' Alejandro said. ``That's the highest priority for the Corps.''

The lake is about a foot and a half above where the Corps would like to see it, and it's expected to continue rising for much of the week as runoff from Monday's heavy rains spill south down the Kissimmee River.

As the lake rises, the Corps increases its dike inspection, conducting daily reviews at 16.5 feet. Above that level, worries about leaks, seepage and more serious ruptures rise considerably.

Unseasonably high water levels also damage marsh plants that serve as shelter for bass and other fish.

The lake, the primary water supply for surrounding farms and towns and backup for the urban Southeast coast, typically falls in the winter and spring. But storms have reversed the trends this year.

In March, the Corps began a series of ``pulse releases,'' relatively small discharges down its main drainage channels, the Caloosahatchee River on the west and the St. Lucie on the east. But the lake has risen nearly three-quarters of a foot since then, and the Corps is considering ratcheting up dumping when the pulses end on Tuesday.

After the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons, the Corps dumped massive volumes of lake water to protect the dike, but polluted runoff ravaged estuaries, killing fish and triggering algae blooms. These releases won't be as large, but the water still won't be happily received on either coast.

WEIGHING OPTIONS

Alejandro said the Corps is exploring options, including sending some lake water into the Everglades. The South Florida Management District, under federal court orders to reduce phosphorous levels in the marsh, has discouraged that in past years.

With much of South Florida's basins full, Alejandro said there are few places to put excess lake water without raising flooding or environmental issues. Water managers and environmentalists tout Gov. Charlie Crist's controversial sugar land deal as the best way to resolve problems linked to the lake's roller-coaster water levels.

Concerns over the integrity of the dike -- built in the 1930s after hurricanes swamped Belle Glade and surrounding towns, killing 3,000 people -- intensified in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

In 2007, engineering experts hired by South Florida water managers issued an alarming report that said the dike was at high risk of breeching, a threat temporarily eliminated by record-low lake water levels.

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/30/v ... z0mec0AiQz

[HURAKAN]

Martin commissioners call for halt to Lake Okeechobee discharges

By Tyler Treadway

Thursday, April 29, 2010

STUART — Martin County commissioners have asked the Army Corps of Engineers to stop discharges of nutrient-rich fresh water into the St. Lucie River estuary.

In a letter sent Monday to Col. Alfred A. Pantano, commander of the Army Corps’ Jacksonville District, Commission Chairman Doug Smith said the “large releases of nutrient-enriched waters ... threaten to kill our benthic (bottom-dwelling) plants and animals, smother our oyster beds and severely impact a $4 million oyster restoration project.”

Smith told Pantano the commissioners voted unanimously April 20 to request the discharges be terminated and asked the Army Corps and the South Florida Water Management District to look for ways to store excess water north of the lake or release more water to the south.

The Army Corps began pulse releases from Lake Okeechobee on March 27 at a rate of 950 cubic feet per second. On April 8, officials dropped the rate to 475 cubic feet per second.

On April 22, Earth Day, the Army Corps announced the releases would continue for 13 more days at the lower rate.

Nanciann Regaldo, an Army Corps spokeswoman, said the releases are necessary because the lake’s water level is uncharacteristically rising during what should be South Florida’s dry season, increasing the potential for erosion of the Herbert Hoover Dike that surrounds the lake.

“The higher the lake, the greater potential for dike erosion, resulting in increased concern over public health and safety,” according to an Army Corps statement announcing the releases.

[JonathanBelles]

We are still 6 weeks away from the rainy season. Watch now we will end up in a dry pattern.

[HURAKAN]

L.OKEE
LEVL=15.13
23:00EST 30-APR-2010 Satellite

NOTE: All stages and levels are reported in NGVD29 feet.

_____________

It hasn't started yet

[HURAKAN]

Pretty incredible :

Code: Select all

Data Ending 2400 hours   30 APR 2010
_____________________________________________________________________________
 
Okeechobee Lake Regulation      Elevation   Last Year  2YRS Ago
                                (ft-NGVD)   (ft-NGVD)  (ft-NGVD)
  *Okeechobee Lake Elevation       15.13       11.14    10.25 (Official Elv)

[HURAKAN]

L.OKEE
# LEVL=15.13
23:00EST 01-MAY-2010 Satellite

NOTE: All stages and levels are reported in NGVD29 feet.

[brunota2003]

They don't use any of these releases for hydroelectricity purposes, do they?

[Patrick99]

They don't use any of these releases for hydroelectricity purposes, do they?

I don't believe so. Just gassing off what they believe to be excess fresh water.

[brunota2003]

They don't use any of these releases for hydroelectricity purposes, do they?

I don't believe so. Just gassing off what they believe to be excess fresh water.

That is a shame. You know how much electricity they could create through these releases? Quite a bit, I am sure.

[HURAKAN]

L.OKEE
# LEVL=15.15
23:00EST 02-MAY-2010 Satellite

NOTE: All stages and levels are reported in NGVD29 feet.

[HURAKAN]

Code: Select all

U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District
                       Lake Okeechobee and Vicinity Report
 
Data Ending 2400 hours   02 MAY 2010
_____________________________________________________________________________
 
Okeechobee Lake Regulation      Elevation   Last Year  2YRS Ago
                                (ft-NGVD)   (ft-NGVD)  (ft-NGVD)
  *Okeechobee Lake Elevation       15.15       11.04    10.21 (Official Elv)

http://www.saj.usace.army.mil/h2o/reports/r-oke.txt

[HURAKAN]

L.OKEE
# LEVL=15.15
23:00EST 03-MAY-2010 Satellite

NOTE: All stages and levels are reported in NGVD29 feet.

[HURAKAN]

L.OKEE
# LEVL=15.12
23:00EST 04-MAY-2010 Satellite

NOTE: All stages and levels are reported in NGVD29 feet.

[HURAKAN]

L.OKEE
# LEVL=15.1
23:00EST 05-MAY-2010 Satellite

NOTE: All stages and levels are reported in NGVD29 feet.

[HURAKAN]

L.OKEE
# LEVL=15.07
23:00EST 06-MAY-2010 Satellite

NOTE: All stages and levels are reported in NGVD29 feet.

[HURAKAN]

L.OKEE
# LEVL=15.09
23:00EST 07-MAY-2010 Satellite

NOTE: All stages and levels are reported in NGVD29 feet.

[HURAKAN]

L.OKEE
# LEVL=15.06
23:00EST 08-MAY-2010 Satellite

NOTE: All stages and levels are reported in NGVD29 feet.

[HURAKAN]

L.OKEE
# LEVL=15.02
23:00EST 09-MAY-2010 Satellite

NOTE: All stages and levels are reported in NGVD29 feet.