Federal water administrators on Thursday celebrated restoration work on the Everglades north of Lake Okeechobee, which will help contain harmful releases into the Caloosahatchee River and its estuary.
Restoring natural rivers in the Kissimmee River is one of the top restoration priorities in South Florida as it will help hold back rivers to Okeechobee while improving water quality.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers held a ceremony near the river to celebrate restoration work in the Kissimmee River Basin, which will allow the agency to hold more water north of Lake Okeechobee, which in turn will add to the entire Everglades System will help.
What was once a straight, canalised canal has been restored into historic, winding oxbow lakes.
Storing more water north of the lake will help reduce the need for harmful discharges into the Caloosahatchee River, which is vital when the lake suffers from toxic blue-green algae bloom.
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“People are used to Okeechobee getting too deep and then they start dumping water on the Caloosahatchee, and that’s in part because the Kissimmee has become so drained,” said Paul Gray, a scientist at Audubon. “This can hold about 100,000 acres of water, or about 3 inches above the lake, at any one time.”
Slowing the rivers to Lake Okeechobee will improve water levels and lake management, but it will also improve water quality by reducing the amount of pollution that flows into Okeechobee from the north.
The lake acts as the headwaters of the Caloosahatchee River. The cleaner the water in the lake, the better it is for the Caloosahatchee and its delicate estuary.
The river is sometimes plagued by harmful runoff from Lake Okeechobee, a process that can blow freshwater 15 miles into the Gulf of Mexico.
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Curbing these types of flows is a primary goal for many environmental groups.
“Restoring the meandering river is important to improve water quality and I think one of the overarching issues is keeping the water in the landscape longer so we don’t affect the receiving water so abruptly,” said Calusa Waterkeeper John Cassani. “We’re doing better with the restoration projects, but we need to understand the net effect better in order to plan for the future.”
Gene McAvoy of the University of Florida Agricultural Expansion at LaBelle said the project will help clean up pollution from the northern portion of the historic Everglades before that water gets to Okeechobee and eventually the Caloosahatchee.
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“I don’t know if it will help farmers, but it will improve water quality because a lot of what they’re doing is restoring the meandering Kissimmee River,” said McAvoy. “This will help purify the water before it reaches the lake. The water will spread across the flood plain during high tide and will help clean up any pollutants that may be in the water.”
The South Florida Water Management District helped acquire the land and will operate the control structures north of Lake Okeechobee that are controlled by the Army Corps.
Chauncey Goss is the chairman of the water district’s board of directors and said restoring the Kissimmee River is just a project to celebrate.
“We continue to see historic environmental achievements under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis,” Goss said in a statement to The . “In addition, our partnership with the US Army Corps of Engineers is essential to the success of many critical Everglades restoration projects such as the Kissimmee River Restoration Project, the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Reservoir Project, and the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment area . Completion of these projects is critical to SFWMD’s mission to protect communities in South Florida from flooding while protecting and restoring local water resources and ecosystems. “
Army Corps Col. Andrew Kelly said Monday that the Kissimmee Project is a significant part of the overall restoration of the Everglades, which spans 16 counties and extends from south of Orlando to the Florida Keys.
“Any chance to get the water distribution to where it was historically will matter,” said Kelly. “We dug a canal (decades ago) and the opening (the Kissimmee) flood plain will help.”
Kelly said the restoration was also good for wildlife north of the lake.
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“There are really significant improvements in ecology and it’s really impressive and exciting to see,” said Kelly. “It shows that we can, but it just takes time.”
Gray said more memory is needed north of Lake Okeechobee to support the entire system.
“We want to be able to save a million acres north of the lake, and that’s a pretty good chunk,” said Gray. “This project was done for ecological restoration, but water management is really going to help restoration and it comes back to the idea that if we just let it, Mother Nature works.”
Connect with this reporter: @ChadEugene on Twitter.
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