• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Submit News
  • Contact Us

Capital Soup

Florida News Straight From the Source

  • Soup Du Jour
  • People
  • Government
  • Campaign
  • Business
  • Education
  • Insights
  • Video
You are here: Home / Soup Du Jour / Memorandum: Update Regarding Lake Okeechobee Discharges

Memorandum: Update Regarding Lake Okeechobee Discharges

Posted on March 2, 2017

TO: All Senators
FROM: Joe Negron, President
On Monday and Tuesday of this week, I had the opportunity to meet in Washington with Senator Rubio, Senator Nelson, Members of Congress, senior budget staff, and high-level representatives of the Army Corps of Engineers to discuss the best way to reduce and ultimately eliminate the devastating discharges from Lake Okeechobee.  After completing these meetings and reviewing related documents, here are five things I know:
1.  If Florida advances funds to complete the rehabilitation of the Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake Okeechobee, the federal government will not repay the money to Florida.  We will have simply spent hundreds of millions of dollars of General Revenue funds on what is unquestionably a federal responsibility.
2. As I have consistently advocated from day one, Florida’s best scientists should determine the Lake Okeechobee Release Schedule (LORS) and not the Army Corps of Engineers.  Achieving this goal would take an act of Congress, a highly unlikely outcome.
3.  Once the Herbert Hoover Dike rehabilitation is complete in 2024, the Army Corps of Engineers is not committed to storing one more gallon of water in Lake Okeechobee.  The LORS must go through a multi-year review process, with the Corps predicting only negligible modifications to the release schedule.  The Corps wants to avoid expected negative impacts it believes would result if the Lake is managed at higher levels than the present.
4.  Under both the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) and the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP), redirecting damaging Lake Okeechobee discharges southward to improve the flow, timing, and distribution of water through the Everglades has already been authorized.  The issue is not if we will have additional southern storage, it is when and where.
5.  If the Florida Legislature approves and funds additional water storage south of Lake Okeechobee, the Army Corps of Engineers will reevaluate the order of priority in the 2016 Integrated Delivery Schedule (IDS).  Florida is a partner in Everglades restoration and its decisions influence and impact federal participation in the 50-50 matching program.  An example of this reality is the Corps’ recent initiation of the Lake Okeechobee Watershed one year earlier than planned after adverse discharge events.
I look forward to discussing this important issue further when we reconvene in Tallahassee next week.

Share this article! Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Filed Under: Soup Du Jour Tagged With: Discharges, Lake Okeechobee, memorandum, update

Primary Sidebar

    Submit News    

Mast’s Northern Estuaries Restoration Plan, $100M for Estuary Protection Pass Transportation & Infrastructure Committee

“A Massive Win”: Water Resources Development Act Includes Mast Legislation To Improve Water Quality, Combat … [Read More...] about Mast’s Northern Estuaries Restoration Plan, $100M for Estuary Protection Pass Transportation & Infrastructure Committee

Trade Association Sues Florida Insurance Commissioner for Allowing Property Insurance Companies to Circumvent State Law

Lawsuit asserts that state regulators approved policy changes denying statutory rights enacted by the … [Read More...] about Trade Association Sues Florida Insurance Commissioner for Allowing Property Insurance Companies to Circumvent State Law

PACE Broward, AshBritt, Broward College Launch Emergency Management Program for Young Women

Pace Center for Girls, Broward has partnered with emergency management and logistics firm AshBritt and Broward … [Read More...] about PACE Broward, AshBritt, Broward College Launch Emergency Management Program for Young Women

Keep in Touch

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Newsletter signup

Stay in the loop! Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to receive a brief recap of the week's most popular stories.

Footer

News

  • Soup Du Jour
  • People
  • Government
  • Campaign
  • Business
  • Education
  • Insights
  • Video

About Us 

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Submit News
  • Contact Us

Keep in Touch

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2021
Terms & Conditions

© Copyright 2022 Capital Soup · All Rights Reserved ·