Send Lake O releases underground?: Government, environmentalists split

Published:
WINK News

The South Water Management District is moving forward with their plan of shooting Lake Okeechobee releases thousands of feet into the ground, but The Conservancy of Southwest Florida thinks the deep injection wells are a terrible idea.

“They’re expensive, they’re unproven and in the end, they’re simply wasteful,” said Conservancy of Southwest Florida Director of Environmental Policy Nicole Johnson.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida is coming out swinging against the South Florida Water Management Districts plan to pump water underground, instead of down the Caloosahatchee.

“We need to move forward with solutions that are actually sustainable,” Johnson said.

But, the district is moving forward with their plan to send discharges during high water emergencies down to what they are calling the boulder zone, 3,000 feet below ground.

“It’s not toxic water, it’s stormwater runoff, it’s rainwater,” said South Florida Water Management District spokesperson Randy Smith. “It’s potential to take water that does not get into Lake O.”

South Florida Water Management District wants to move the water underground to keep Lake Okeechobee’s water level down and reducing the risk of furthering dirty discharge.

“Therefore, the (Army) Corps of Engineers doesn’t have to release it to the estuaries,” Smith said.

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida says once the water is put underground, it can never come back. The Conservancy of Southwest Florida says they practice would waste freshwater, and the best thing to do is stick to the original Everglades restoration projects.

“Let’s fix these systemic problems now so that we can have good water quality during the time of high water flow, water at the times of low flow and a healthy ecosystem in its entirety,” Johnson said.

South Florida Water Management District says the wells aren’t a permanent fix for this problem, but could serve as one of several solutions.

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