The Palm Beach Post

Drought raises Lake O stakes

By PAUL QUINLAN
April 27

WEST PALM BEACH - We're nearing the end of the driest dry season on record.

Since the start of the season, which runs from November through late May, only 4.47 inches of rain have fallen across South and Central Florida - less than in any other dry season since records began in 1932, the South Florida Water Management District said.

Scarce rains are raising the stakes in the debate over how to divvy up the water in Lake Okeechobee, the backup water supply for millions of people.

Some people raise even more fundamental questions about the region's precarious water supply - drawing comparisons to the floods of 1947 and the drought of 1971, the two keystone events that led to the creation of the state's system for managing water.

"The question is: Is this drought one of these opportunities for change?" Lance Gunderson, environmental studies professor at Emory University, asked Monday in a presentation to the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties.

Total rain this season is 69 percent below average across the region. Eastern Palm Beach County has been only slightly wetter, receiving about 7.4 inches since Nov. 1, or 63 percent less than average. Martin and St. Lucie counties are 64 percent below average.

"It's been bone-dry all over," said Dean Powell, the district's director of watershed management.

Water managers warn that if the wet season arrives late or with only light rain, Lake Okeechobee could be essential to keeping faucets running along the east coast.

Adding to the demands, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers this morning will resume tapping the lake, sending water down the Caloosahatchee River for 11 days. Lee County leaders have demanded the releases to keep salt water from creeping up the estuary.

In a conference call last week, water managers told the corps they would not object to continued releases. The lake was 11.33 feet above sea level Monday and is falling about a quarter-foot per week.

If the rainy season "gets delayed or we get below-normal rain, the decision to release to the Caloosahatchee isn't going to look so smart," said Powell. "It's a really close call."

Water problems will not go away, said Gunderson, noting that Florida's fitful climate brings extremes of drought and flood every five to 10 years.

He warned that in 20 to 30 years, the region could either experience dry wells, waste millions of dollars cleaning and desalinizing water, experience large population declines or, just maybe, turn to greener solutions.

"Probably not one of these is going to happen," he said. "But some combination is going to happen."