Mast, SFWMD say Army Corps should stop Lake O discharges; DEP confirms algae in river

The South Florida Water Management District on Thursday recommended the Army Corps of Engineers immediately stop Lake Okeechobee discharges that are dumping algae — the potentially toxic kind — into the St. Lucie River.

U.S. Rep. Brian Mast of Fort Pierce also had a news conference at Stuart City Hall to vent his frustrations Thursday, right before the monthly meeting of the Rivers Coalition, which formed in 1998 to stop Lake O discharges.

"There is no bigger polluter of our community than the U.S. government," Mast said. "The Corps of Engineers is the biggest polluter of the Indian River Lagoon, the St. Lucie estuary, the Treasure Coast."

The Army Corps' "reckless decision to keep pumping dangerous toxins into the St. Lucie has us staring down the barrel of another lost summer," Mast said. "This week alone, we’ve seen more cases of blue-green algae.

The 56.2 billion-plus gallons of Lake O water that's been released into the St. Lucie River since Feb. 17 contains pollutants — namely nitrogen and phosphorus — that exceed state regulations, according to the SFWMD.

Algae confirmed in St. Lucie River, C-44 Canal

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection this week confirmed microcystis aeruginosa — a potentially toxic cyanobacteria commonly called "blue-green algae" — in the St. Lucie River and C-44 Canal. DEP is awaiting test results on water samples taken at Four Corners and the 96th Street bridge, which typically take 3-4 days, to determine whether the algae contains the toxin microcystin, and if so, in what concentration.

TCPalm also photographed algae at Southwest Bittern Street in Palm City on Wednesday, and Martin County residents told TCPalm they saw algae at Lighthouse Point, Southwest Harbor Street, and the Army Corps campground boat ramp.

Mast said it appears the Army Corps will not stop discharges, even if speakers at his news conference included a medical professional talking about the health impacts, an economist talking about the economic impacts, a scientist talking about the environmental impacts, and an attorney talking about the injustice to the community.

"I don't think that there's one data point that can be given to them that will make them say, 'We were wrong. We're going to stop. ... They're just basically to the point that they're going to do what they want to do, regardless of the consequences," Mast said. "It is literally an injustice, and injustices are worth being upset about."

Mast blames sugar industry

Mast blamed the wealthy and powerful South Florida sugar industry for lobbying Congress in ways that keep Lake O's level high, so corporations such as U.S. Sugar Corp. can have irrigation water when they want it, while the Army Corps denies the thirsty Everglades and Caloosahatchee River from getting that freshwater when they need it.

"They (sugar farmers) get something like 800,000 million gallons a year permitted to them, and every foot of water on that lake is roughly 150 billion gallons," Mast said. "So do the math on how much water they get held for them. Most years, they don't use half of that."

Mast said Big Sugar blocks his legislation, particularly changes to U.S. water policy, which is decided about every two years in the Water Resources Development Act.

"We're the sugar industry; don't vote on that unless you run it by us first because we don't want anything to mess with the levels of Lake Okeechobee, regardless of how much it hurts the St. Lucie, the Caloosahatchee, the Everglades," Mast said.

Big Sugar and even the Army Corps "will fight tooth and nail" against any legislation requiring the agency to get permits and meet environmental standards "like everybody else," Mast said.

"They will not get passed. They will ultimately get bipartisanly voted out of that bill and not be put forward," Mast said. "They (Army Corps leadership) will advocate against those things happening — and probably even more strongly than the sugar industry."

Mast also complained about the Army Corps lowering the Orlando-area Chain of Lakes by discharging water into Lake O faster than releasing it east and west, so Lake O's level has only dropped a mere 9 inches since Feb. 17.

Lake Okeechobee and Chain of Lakes

"We got to use you guys as a toilet and dump the (dirty lake) water on you," Mast said is the Army Corps' solution to a high lake level. "If my neighbor lets garbage pile up in their kitchen, it doesn't matter how much they let pile up, they don't get to walk to my fence line and start dropping the bags of garbage over."

Mast repeated a solution he's fought for, for years: Lower the lake level in winter, when there's no algae and plenty of time before the June 1 start of the hurricane season to do it more slowly so it lessens the impacts.

Mast also said the Army Corps should base its discharge decisions on the new Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual (LOSOM), not the old Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule 2008 (LORS08). The Army Corps is expected to adopt LOSOM at the end of July, but the guidelines are already nearly complete and have been used before.

Mast urged the Army Corps to stop discharges in a letter Monday. The agency, which schedules daily discharge amounts in 14-day cycles, already had planned a routine two-week pause in discharges starting Saturday.

Col. James Booth said it could be a week before he decides what the agency will do after that.

"Right now, we're taking stakeholder feedback," he said. "I'll get to a decision next Thursday."

Read Mast's letter to the Army Corps below:

Cheryl Smith is TCPalm's environment editor. Outdoors writer Ed Killer contributed to this article.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Mast, SFWMD say Army Corps should stop Lake Okeechobee releases