Army Corps of Engineers announces plan that will reduce freshwater releases into St Lucie Estuary wptv.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wptv.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The federal agency that controls Lake Okeechobee levels is holding steady releases to the Caloosahatchee River as an algae bloom that s festered on the lake for months appears to be receding.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will continue releasing 1,000 cubic feet per second of lake water to the Caloosahatchee River, which often needs water from the lake during the dry season. We are looking good in terms of our recession rate, said Army Corps Col. Andrew Kelly, the agency s top officer in Florida on Friday. May was about 30% of normal (rainfall) so we ended up with a pretty dry May. The lake is 1.14 feet lower than it was a month ago and just over a foot higher than it was last year, but at this point in time the recession rate we saw in May was pretty positive.
Wednesday, February 3, 2021 by Jenny Staletovich (WLRN)
South Florida Water Management District
An airboat trail through marshes in the water conservation area west of Miami-Dade County. Photo: South Florida Water Management District
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Everglades advocates meeting virtually this week want President Joe Biden to nearly quadruple federal spending on restoring marshes to keep a surge in progress on track.
In a January letter, 61 environmental groups represented by the Everglades Coalition asked the president to increase spending to $2.9 billion over the next four years. That comes to $725 million a year, about equal to estimates by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to keep restoration efforts on schedule for the next decade.