State water managers are pushing forward with an old technology they say will cut down on damaging Lake Okeechobee discharges within a few years.
The idea is to divert rain water underground and toward the coasts using deep injection wells — to basically bypass the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries by pumping water about 3,000 feet below sea level.
"Just like all of my neighbors over there, everybody’s got concerns on the west coast," said Jaime Weisinger, an at-large board member of the South Florida Water Management District who represents Lee and Collier, among other counties. "I live there. I grew up there on the west coast, and my children and I play in the Caloosahatchee River on a regular basis, so its health is important to us."
The board met in West Palm Beach on Thursday, and lake discharges and stormwater runoff issues were the highlights of the day.
Heavy rains started in mid-May, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers started releasing Lake Okeechobee water to both coasts on June 1.
Weisinger said Everglades restoration projects aimed at addressing some of the water storage and treatment issues will take too long for regions that are suffering through the third straight year of brown water.
He said projects like the Everglades Agriculture Area reservoir and the Caloosahatchee River reservoir, or C-43, will not provide near-term relief.
"Even on the most aggressive schedule, I think you all would agree the EAA reservoir is years away, and it is not going to be a silver bullet," he said. "It’s not going to solve all of our problems."
Weisinger said deep injection wells built north and around the lake could help ease releases in a matter of years.
"They could take that discharge water from the lake and protect the estuaries," he said. And they would be "used in conjunction — not in place of — other Everglades restoration projects."
The district is moving forward with deep injection wells without support from the Corps of Engineers, the federal agency that often tag teams with the state on large restoration projects.
Some environmental groups have objected to the idea of using deep injection wells to send freshwater from inland areas to the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic Ocean.
About 50 percent of the water flowing into the Caloosahatchee River estuary is from Lake Okeechobee, with the rest being stormwater runoff from the river's watershed.
The rain is not expected to slow anytime soon.
"Mother Nature has dealt us a bad hand right at the beginning of the wet season, just like it has for the last two years," said John Mitnik, the district's chief engineer. "So this is the third year in a row where we’re going into the season with the levels all up close to their maximums or above their maximums, and we’re just starting the wet season."
Last year heavy rains in June set the tone for what would become the wettest rainy season on record.
In 2016 record El Niño rains in January dropped about a foot of rain across the state, prompting a water quality crisis in the middle of tourism season.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is calling for above-average chances of above-average rainfall between now and September.
Sanibel Mayor Kevin Ruane asked board members to make estuary-saving adjustments whenever they can.
"Right now there are no tools left in the tool box," Ruane said. "I can’t build things quick enough. If I had a money press and had endless resources, I couldn’t get this done quick enough. So all that we have is operational flexibility."
Board members also saw a presentation on how Lake Okeechobee restoration projects will help cut down on unwanted rainy season discharges.
The board also approved a land transfer of about 51 acres near Lake Trafford to Collier County.
Jerry Kurtz, a stormwater expert for the county, said during an interview Wednesday that the land will be added to a larger stormwater treatment plan for the Lake Trafford-Immokalee area.
"This property is very strategic in its location," Kurtz said. "We need to drain the runoff generated in the Lake Trafford corridor and instead of dumping it directly into the lake, we can use a small piece of the property to create a wet treatment area like a small lake or pond or do something fancier like some sort of treatment marsh."
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