Water flowing from Lake O to eastern Everglades for first time in nearly a century

Water is flowing from lands south of Lake Okeechobee to the eastern side of Everglades National Park for the first time in nearly a century.

The South Florida Water Management District started moving water Monday night from water storage areas south of the lake toward a 1-mile section of elevated highway just west of Miami. The water will run underneath the bridge there.

Water that would normally flow to the west and into the western section of the park will now flow east, to Shark Valley Slough – where alligators have died in recent years due to a lack of water.

“It’s been averaging about 1,200 cubic feet per second, which translates into a little over half a million gallons per minute,” said Randy Smith with the district. “It’s going pretty smooth, but we just started about 5:30 last night.”

Water hasn't flowed regularly in the manner since the Tamiami Trail opened in 1928. The highway acts as a dam, holding back water that historically spread to Florida Bay.

Sending water south to the park will help lower Okeechobee levels, which will also mean less water flowing down the Caloosahatchee  and St. Lucie rivers.

State: Lake Okeechobee water to be sent south to Everglades

While much of the freshwater flowing to the Gulf of Mexico is washing off the local landscape, Lake Okeechobee releases were at maximum in recent days.

Record rains in January brought summer-like, almost tropical storm level to most of the state. Water from lands south of Orlando flowed into Lake Okeechobee three times faster than the water can be released.

The lake, in turn, rose beyond federal protocols, and brown waters from Okeechobee were flushed down the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie at the maximum level gravity would allow.

Sending water to the park will also improve wildlife conditions in the water storage areas between the lake and the park.

“It should have an impact on the adverse impacts to the wildlife there and the tree islands,” Smith said.

Tree islands are clusters of trees on slightly elevated ground. They rise out of the sawgrass and provide habitat for large mammals, reptiles and birds. Some islands are also home to some historic, traditional Seminole and Miccossukee villages.

Florida water managers end back pumping in Lake O

John Campbell with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said the idea is to raise water in canals north of the highway and then send that water under the 1-mile bridge.

“It will be a gradual increase that occurs over several days,” Campbell said. “And we’ll be monitoring for impacts.”

Local beaches and bays have been tainted brown in recent weeks, with the fishing and tourism industries suffering from the poor water quality.

Peter Casciotta from Cape Coral fished the Fort Myers Beach pier Tuesday and said dinner has been hard to find.

Emergency Lake pumping started Wednesday, polluted water coming to Fort Myers

(The brown water) is taking all the bait away, and that takes all the other fish with it,” Casciotta said. “You can’t really catch anything but catfish.”

The water control improvements that allow for these releases to the park were in the works and would have been available for use during flooding conditions in the next few years.

With the historic rainfall, those projects were sped up.

“There are a lot of projects and structures that are coming on-line in the next year to two years that will greatly improve the ability to move water south,” Smith said.

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