Two SFWMD meetings this week. Also of note next week, October 16th: Thirteenth anniversary of Hurricane Wilma.

About the South Florida Water Management District meetings this week. Both will be held at SFWMD headquarters located at 3301 Gun Club Rd. in suburban West Palm Beach.

• Wednesday (tomorrow, Oct. 10th) at 2:00 is the Project & Lands Committee and Special Workshop.
• Thursday at 9:00 a.m. is the monthly meeting of the SFWMD Governing Board.
• To download one or both agendas click on this link.

Now to a question oft-posed on this blog:

“How lucky do you feel?”

A question especially for all those in Palm Beach County who live and have businesses south of Lake Okeechobee and the Herbert Hoover Dike.

To the big policy question this year (pick one)

• “Send The Water South!” from Lake Okeechobee, constructing a new reservoir south of the Herbert Hoover Dike at a cost of $1B (± using government projections) and will take up to a decade to complete. . .

or

• Have the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finish fortifying the Herbert Hoover Dike and the South Florida Water Management District complete projects already in the works — and others in the planning stage — in the Northern Everglades to store more water?

What’s the answer? It sort of depends on how lucky you feel (see newspaper clipping below).

For example, click on this link to read about “Lake Okeechobee, the Herbert Hoover Dike, and Peter Schorsch warned of Godwin’s Law”.

Prior to Hurricane Irma last year — a major storm which could have breached the dike — back in October 2005 was another major hurricane you may have heard about.

“Hurricane Wilma left gaps to
the Herbert Hoover Dike along Lake Okeechobee behind the Pahokee Airport.”

Hurricane Wilma, “News in Brief”:

“Big O’s Dike”

“About a half a dozen chunks 40 × 30 feet were cut out every couple of hundred feet.”

How lucky do you feel? Scroll back up and look at the two choices once again.

More information:

Myth vs. Fact about Lake Okeechobee water releases. Don’t forget the big problem: Septic tanks.

“Even without Lake Okeechobee discharges, blue-green algae blooms in the St. Lucie River are a ‘distinct possibility,’ a marine biologist said Monday.”
—News datelined May 21st in TCPalm.


Septic tanks and human waste leaking into the St. Lucie River and other waterways that then flow into the Indian River Lagoon fouling the inaptly-named ‘Treasure Coast’ shouldn’t be happening in 21st Century America. But it is happening.

Questions: Do you think the South Florida Water Management District is responsible for managing algae blooms? Wrong. SFWMD samples the water. Does blue-green algae cause neurodegenerative disease? No connection has been found.

More examples of  “Myth versus Fact” about
water releases from Lake Okeechobee:

“Send The Water South!”? JP Sasser, the former mayor of Pahokee, has strong opinions about that.

Will another reservoir ever be constructed? Will another reservoir even work? A supporter of constructing a massive reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee, also a former Lake Worth commissioner with a PhD, has very strong doubts.