Everglades City
by Kelly J Farrell
Lake Okeechobee’s newest management plan — LOSOM — comes five years after Florida’s historic toxic algae bloom.
While many environmentalists laude the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual (LOSOM), which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers put into effect on August 12, others warn it’s a killer for the lake and won’t benefit the Everglades and Florida Bay.
The plan will dictate operations on Lake O, including discharges from the lake to areas south into the Everglades, for the next ten years, USACE officials reported.
LOSOM comes following a $2 billion investment to strengthen the Herbert Hoover Dike that encircles Lake O to allow the lake to hold more water.
“For the first time ever, the volume and timing of water moving out of the lake will be managed by a plan that considers the human-health risk of toxic algae on downstream communities,” announced the Friends of the Everglades, a nonprofit fundraising organization, in a prepared statement on August 13.
Near Big Cypress National Preserve, Water Conservation Area 3A along U.S. 41 on July 20, 2024, is an area near members of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida that remains cut off from water flow most of the year amidst Everglades restoration and a new Lake Okeechobee management plan, LOSOM, effective August 12. Photo by Kelly J Farrell
Florida residents had pleaded with local, state and federal officials for lake operations to prioritize pubic health to prevent the toxic-algae bloom crisis that devastated Florida in 2018, as well as 2016 and 2013, and earlier years. The increase in the Lake’s holding capacity may minimize some toxic algae releases into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers. It does not however, minimize the toxicity of the water coming into the Lake.
“Though not a cure-all, LOSOM is expected to significantly reduce, but not end, harmful discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries at most lake stages. It’s also the first Lake O plan ever to acknowledge the need to send additional clean water south to the Everglades,” announced Friends of the Everglades in the prepared statement.
However, that water won’t come far enough south to make the improvements needed for the residents and environment in the Everglades and Florida Bay, warns Newton Cook, president of the United Waterfowlers of Florida.
Advocacy for improvement will continue beyond LOSOM, assured Eric Eikenberg, CEO, The Everglades Foundation.
“As the Corps maximizes the opportunity in LOSOM to send water south to the Everglades in the dry season, we will continue to advocate for water storage, treatment, and conveyance infrastructure to ensure we are sending water south while protecting the coastal estuaries from harmful discharges from Lake Okeechobee. This is a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to restore and protect America’s Everglades,” said Eikenberg.
Meanwhile, many people remain concerned about the health of Lake O long term.
“I worry about the Lake because of LOSOM. It kills the Lake even without a storm,” Cook said.
The management plan allows the water level to be kept higher than usual, which will not allow plants to grow at the base of the lake, environmental critics warn. Without the plants, the lake cannot purify the toxic phosphorous coming in high volumes from the Kissimmee River north of Lake O, said Cook. Sugar farms, septic tanks and other fertilizer sources are identified as sources of the pollution going into the Lake and leading to the toxic algae blooms coming out of the Lake to the coastal areas.
Furthermore, fish will not be able to spawn in the Lake, said Cook.
Water won’t flow south as it naturally would due to engineering south of the Lake and near U.S. 41, as well as due to protections for the ground-nesting Cape Sable seaside sparrow, which for years has prevented authorities from allowing water to flow south as it did historically, said Scott Wagner, Vice Chairman of the South Florida Water Management District. These water management practices harm more species and habitats than the Endangered Species Act is helping in this case, Wagner said.
Betty Osceola speaks about healing our relationship with water, on November 3, 2018, at John Stretch Park near Lake Okeechobee, during a year that was among the most devastating for Florida with toxic algae blooms. Photo by Kelly J Farrell
LOSOM does not address these water flow limitations, including near Water Conservation Area 3A, disappointing some members of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and others in Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve and surrounding Everglades, which are likely to remain starved of water during the winter dry season, these stakeholders said.
Betty Osceola, a member of the Panther Clan of the Miccosukee Tribe, has long advocated for the health of Lake Okeechobee as the heart of Florida. She has led prayer walks 110 miles around the lake over the course of seven days, several of them in the rain, during 2019 and 2021.
Photo Courtesy of The Everglades Foundation
“If Lake Okeechobee dies, the rest of the Everglades and everywhere else in Florida south of it dies,” Osceola had said while speaking at a Love the Everglades event near Lake Okeechobee on November 3, 2018, the year of one of Florida’s most devastating toxic algae blooms.
Osceola continued advocating for change but warns LOSOM may kill the Lake.
“A lake ecology can’t survive and thrive when it’s managed as a reservoir,” said Osceola during an interview September 3, following the LOSOM announcement.
