Fla. drought opens its big lake up for a little bit of cleaning

Bulldozers replaced bass boats on a dried patch of Lake Okeechobee on Thursday, scraping away tons of polluted muck.

Taking advantage of near-record-low water levels amid a severe drought, water managers have work crews digging out pollution-laden muck from exposed areas in the western and southern portions of the lake.

The muck that coats much of the bottom is the result of phosphates, nitrates and other pollutants washing off farms and lawns into a drainage system built decades ago to funnel storm water into the lake.

Removing the muck will restore the lake’s natural sandy bottom and, when water returns, allow the growth of tape grass, bulrushes and other native plants needed for fish to spawn and birds to feed, officials said.

“This is our bright spot in terms of the drought,” said Susan Gray, the South Florida Water Management District’s Lake Okeechobee program director. “This is habitat restoration. The fish love it. The birds love it. This is what we want to bring back.”

The lake can’t come back soon enough for the fishermen, bait shops and hotels that have seen their business drop along with the water levels.

The water managers’ decision to lower Lake Okeechobee last year, in anticipation of hurricanes that never materialized, has worsened the drought’s effect on water levels. On Thursday the lake measured 9.2 feet above sea level, about 4 feet below normal. The recorded low was 8.97 feet, set during the drought of 2001.

Shiners, crickets and other bait sits unsold at Bill Cooper’s bait and tackle shop because fishermen can’t launch their boats. Cooper said he made $35 on Monday.

“And I’m the only bait shop in town,” said Cooper, who retired after 40 years of laying carpet to open the shop in Lakeport. “If it gets any worse, I am going to have to close down.”

Fisheating Bay, near Cooper’s shop, is among the six spots targeted by the $11-million muck removal project planned on the 730-square-mile lake.

Getting rid of the muck should remove about 280 tons of phosphates during the three-month project, according to the district.

At Fisheating Bay alone, on the west side of the lake near Moore Haven, the district expects to cart away 27,000 dump truck loads from 800 acres of exposed lakebed.

“We hope that this will only help water clarity and water quality,” said Tim Rach, assistant director for South Florida for the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The current water line at Fisheating Bay is about a mile from normal high-water mark. What used to be lake bottom now looks more like an untended pasture, with grass, Brazilian pepper and dog fennel spreading across dry territory. The route boats usually travel to pass from a canal into the lake sits high and dry.

Okeechobee fishing guide Michael Shellen watched Thursday as dump trucks and bulldozers rumbled across his old fishing grounds.

Shellen, who also writes a fishing column, supports getting polluted muck out of the lake. He said it was a “huge” mistake last year for water managers trying to ease the strain on the lake’s 70-year-old dike to dump water into rivers that drain to the coast. Shellen said that move, coupled with the drought, has dried up his fishing business, leaving him with no charters scheduled next month.

“It’s basically putting me out of business,” Shellen said. “There’s nothing we can do about it.”

The muck dug out of Fisheating Bay was being temporarily stored along the inside of the dike. Plans call for spreading the nutrient-rich material on agricultural fields or using it to cover landfills.

While digging out muck helps the health of the lake, the long-term fix would be to stop more of the flow of pollution into the lake.

Phosphates and nitrates fuel the growth of algae and other plants that die and settle to the bottom to form the muddy muck that stifles fish habitat and clouds the lake when whipped by storms.

The state plans to build more water storage and treatment areas to stop storm water from carrying the pollutants into the lake. The Legislature this year approved $100 million to help make those environmental improvements.