South Florida Water Supply at Risk

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/5/30/91509.shtml?s=us

South Florida Water Supply at Risk

NewsMax.com Wires Wednesday, May 30, 2007

MIAMI -- Lake Okeechobee's water levels were poised Tuesday to drop to their

lowest on record as South Florida's worst known drought continued into rainy

season, threatening a key water supply for nearly 5 million people and the

Everglades.

Only an above-average rainy season would help replenish the lake, officials

said. While the summer-through-fall downpours have started in parts of South

Florida, weather forecasters say significant drought relief is not likely

until September at the earliest.

"If we have below-average or even average rainfall, we could come out of

rainy season and still be in a drought," said Carol Wehle, executive

director of the South Florida Water Management District.

Lake Okeechobee's water levels held at 9 feet Tuesday, less than a half-inch

above the previous record - 8.97 feet, set May 24, 2001, after another long

drought. The average water level for this time of year should be around 13

feet.

Only isolated showers were forecast over the lake until the weekend, when

more substantial rain was expected, according to the National Weather

Service.

The months-long drought has led to severe water restrictions for homes and

businesses across the state. The region is largely dependent on the lake

during dry periods, when it can be used as a reservoir.

Four coastal wells in Palm Beach and Broward counties have been closed as

their levels dropped to prevent contamination from salt water, putting more

pressure on wells farther inland, Wehle said.

Citrus growers and other farmers have already been ordered to cut their

water use by half, and the most severe residential restrictions could be

extended through counties surrounding the lake, she said.

"If Lake Okeechobee doesn't get sufficient rainfall, the impact of a drought

next year could be more serious," Wehle said.

The last time water levels rose in the lake was after Tropical Storm Ernesto

brushed past Florida in August, according to the Jacksonville district of

the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The lake level rose 1.5 feet to 13.5 feet after that storm, said Andrew

Geller, a corps hydraulic engineer.

"That was the end of our significant rainfall," Geller said.

The low water levels, however, have temporarily ended the threat of a

massive breach of the earthen dike around the lake in a hurricane or heavy

rains.

"There's almost no possibility of it breaching at this level," said Alan

Bugg, the corps chief of construction and operations in Jacksonville.

Officials caution that back-to-back drenching hurricanes in the Kissimmee

River valley or over the lake could fill it up again.

The corps has an $856 million plan to fix the dike, a project that could

take 15 to 20 years. A state-commissioned report released last year noted

the 143-mile-long Herbert Hoover Dike bore "a striking resemblance to Swiss

cheese." Construction began on the dike in the 1930s after thousands of

people died when the lake overflowed in hurricanes in 1926 and 1928.

The drought has allowed officials to start clearing 500,000 cubic yards of

rotted plant life and sediment from the southwest portion of the

730-square-mile freshwater lake, the second-largest in the contiguous United

States. Removing the muck will return the lake bottom along the shoreline in

that area to a more sandy base, and create clearer water and better habitat

for plants and wildlife, officials have said.