Army Engineer: Public Safety Top Priority In Water Regulation

Good comprehensive article in the Town Crier about Lake Okeechobee and the conditions surrounding the dike. The priority now is public safety and preventing a collapse of what now has become one of the largest dams around - one that wasn't designed to do what it has been doing. Click title for link. From the article:

Greco said past phases of levee construction have served purposes then, but created a number of vulnerabilities that must be addressed today.
One of the biggest problems is that dredging material was simply dumped onto areas with layers of muck, which leaves a weakness in the structure. Porous limestone fill in the dike that was blasted out of the lake when the canal was dug also creates problems. Greco said levees are supposed to seep, but excessive seepage can become a serious issue.
Lake levels were kept considerably higher in the 1970s and 1980s, which put stresses on the dike that it could not handle.
In 1995 and 1998, failures were detected due to high water that reached about 18.5 feet, he said.