In an attempt to keep the water level in Lake Okeechobee lower on average, and to avoid the massive discharges of the past, water managers have started pulse-style releases this week into both the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers.

This 10-day release will dump 5,460 gallons per second into the St. Lucie estuary, in an effort to bring the lake’s level (now at 14½ feet above sea level) down to just below 14 feet, near a level that St. Lucie River activists seek.

The big lake stood at 18 feet as recently as October, so getting to that 14-foot mark and staying there will be better for Okeechobee’s besieged shoreline vegetation, which has faced repeated long-term submergings over the past few years.

Of course, the South Florida Water Management District’s flawed, see-saw management, which to now has played the Lake’s health against that of two major coastal estuaries, has to stop so that neither ecosystem takes the brunt of the polluted, excess water. The “Zone D” diet (water levels kept between 13½ and 15½ feet depending on the season) proposed in the September, 2004 issue of Florida Sportsman, would go a long way to achieve this goal.

FS