Copyright 1998 Stuart News Company
The Stuart News/Port St. Lucie News (Stuart,FL)
March 29, 1998, Sunday
SECTION: A Section; Pg. A2
LENGTH: 936 words
HEADLINE: WHO MONITORS THE WATER?
BYLINE: Andrew Conte of the News staff
BODY:
Troubled Waters
Although state ecologists have blamed recent fish kills near
Stuart on microalgae that thrive on nutrient-rich water from Lake
Okeechobee, they have not stopped the flow of lake water.
Instead, federal, state and local agencies regulate the flow
levels while monitoring the water quality and health of the estuary.
With an extremely wet winter, water in the lake has reached
a historic high, even wicking through the levee in some places,
said Paul Millar, director of the South Florida Water Management
District's Stuart office.
The Army Corps of Engineers, which regulates the lake, needs
to relieve stress on the levee by releasing water. But it cannot
send water south because of U.S. Fish and Wildlife regulations
to protect the Cape Sable seaside sparrow, an endangered species
that nests there.
The water has to come out along the St. Lucie Canal on the
east and the Caloosahatchee Canal on the west. Fresh water heading
toward the Indian River Lagoon flows through the St. Lucie Canal,
picking up nutrients and sediments from urban and agricultural
areas before pouring into the St. Lucie River and Indian River
Lagoon.
In the river and lagoon, the microalgae bloom in the nutrient-rich
fresh water, according to the state Department of Environmental
Protection. The tiny organisms eat the mucus off fish such as
the silver mullet, which then develop lesions and sores.
Army Corps of Engineers:
This federal agency built South Florida's entire drainage system
but relinquished control of most of it to the South Florida Water
Management District in 1979. Now it controls just Lake Okeechobee
and the two canals that flow out of it: the St. Lucie and the
Caloosahatchee.
With water levels in Lake Okeechobee more than four feet above
normal, federal engineers plan to continue sending water through
the St. Lucie Canal and into the local estuary, said Jacquelyn
Griffin, spokeswoman at the Corps' Jacksonville headquarters.
Jacksonville field office: (904) 232-1650.
South Florida Water Management District:
Created in 1972, the state agency controls 1,400 miles of waterways
and canals throughout South Florida and the Everglades. It also
maintains 2,000 water-control structures.
Locally, the district maintains every canal but the C-44 or St. Lucie Canal. The district controls the other drainage canals that flow into the St. Lucie River estuary and monitors water quality in them.
Stuart field office: 223-2600.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service:
To protect the Cape Sable sparrows, the agency has prevented
the Corps of Engineers from releasing Lake Okeechobee water south
through the Everglades.
The sparrows, which have declined from 6,450 in 1992 to 2,800
in 1997, nest in subtropical marshes that would be flooded if
the lake water was released there, said Skip Snow, a wildlife
biologist with the service. Besides the sparrows, the unique marshy
habitat has been threatened by Lake Okeechobee runoff, he said.
"The sparrow is the poster child for the marshes,"
he said. "The sparrow represents the conflict between the
growth of urban uses and natural patterns."
FWS won't permit the Corps of Engineers to send water into
the Everglades again until the beginning of the rainy season,
Snow added.
FWS South Florida Research Center: (305) 242-7800.
Department of Environmental Protection:
Biologists from the state agency are investigating causes of
the fish kill by studying the fish and testing water samples.
Scientists at the agency's Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg
already had started a study of sick fish in the Indian River Lagoon,
the St. Johns River and the St. Lucie River.
Port St. Lucie field office: 871-7662.
U.S. Geological Survey Water Resource Division:
This federal agency does not have regulatory control but collects
data on water quality and salinity in Florida waters. Often the
agency works under contract to the South Florida Water Management
District, said Tom Richards, chief of the agency's Stuart field
office.
Stuart field office: 286-6299.
Florida Cooperative Extension Service - Institute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida:
With offices in every Florida county, the agency provides educational
services but does not have any regulatory controls. It teaches
farmers and ranchers how to minimize environmental impact, said
Jim Cummings, St. Lucie County extension director.
The agency also issues an annual list of pesticides that farmers
can use on their crops and the potential problems those chemicals
could have on the environment. For example, the service tells
farmers how to use the pesticide Abamectin, while warning the
chemical is "toxic to fish, mammals and aquatic organisms."
Martin County field office: 288-5654.
Martin and St. Lucie county commissions:
The counties created a joint task force in 1995 to study places
for Water Preserve Areas, manmade marshes that would hold storm
runoff and Lake Okeechobee effluence.
After the study, the St. Lucie County Commission supported
the idea, allowing federal and state officials to begin building
a water preserve in northern St. Lucie County.
Martin County officials have been divided on the issue, stalling
efforts to create the preserves there. Donna Melzer, commission
chairwoman, said Wednesday that she has changed her mind and will
support the water preserves. Her support will be critical because
three of the five commissioners had opposed the idea.
Martin County Commission: 288-5420; St. Lucie County Commission:
462-1400. subcommittee,
GRAPHIC: (B/W) map of Florida
(B/W) photo of St. Lucie Dam and Locks near Palm City
LOAD-DATE: April 1, 1998