### November 9, 2006



# The Lake Okeechobee Pollution Crisis and the St. Lucie River and Estuary

Pollution of Lake Okeechobee is cont aminating drinking water supplies and destroying the St. Lucie River and Estuary.

For additional information, contact: David Guest, Earthju stice (850) 681-0031 Monica Reimer, Earthju stice (850) 681-0031Lake Okeechobee has a surface area of nearly 730 square miles and is the second largest freshwater lake wholly within the United States. The Florida Depa rtment of Environmental Pr otection has classified the Lake as a Class I Drinking Water Source, requiring strict standards th at allow only small amounts of pollution.

The region south of Lake Okeechobee, known as the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), contains over half a million acres of former Everglades that have been diked and drained to make them suitable for development. Most of this land is in sugar cane cultiv ation. To the north and east of the Lake are cattle farms that apply hundreds of thousands of pounds of fertilizer annually. This fert ilizer often leaches into

the Kissimmee River Basin and Fisheat ing Creek, both of which feed directly into Lake Okeechobee. Lake Okeechobee pollution sources.Billions of gallons of polluted water are pumped o ff the sugar cane fields and collected in large canals owned by the South Florida Water Management District. The District also owns and operates three pumping stations that are built into the Herbert H oover Dike on the south sh ore of Lake Okeechobee. When all the pumps in a pumping sta tion are operating, the discharge is equivalent to the flow of a

medium-sized Florida river.

The flow from the pumping station creates a highly vi sible “plume” of dark, bl ack water that can reach up to nine miles out into Lake Okeechobee. This plume contains high leve ls of phosphorous and nitrogen along with high levels of dissolved organic materials that come from agricultural and urban wastes. On average, three of the largest pumping sta tions – S-2, S-3, and S- 4 – discharge 32 billion gallons of water into Lake Okeechobee each year. Water polluted with fert ilizer being pumped from sugarcane plantations.Each one of these pumping stations (S-3 is shown above), has either three or four very large pumps, each powered by a diesel engine

about four times the size of a semi-trailer engine. Today, on average, the pumping stations pollute Lake Okeechobee with theequivalent of about 60,000 one-hundredpound bags of phosphorous each year. Massive S-3 pumping station that conveys polluted water into Lake Okeechobee.

12-foot diameter propeller used to pull water into the pumping station from the canal. The propeller shown has been removed with the aid of a supersized wrench, resting in the foreground.Lake Okeechobee is the sole source of drinking water for several smal l towns on the south rim of the Lake, and one of the sources of drinking water for West Palm Beach, Fort Myers, and the entire Lower East Coast metropolitan area. One of the largest pum ping stations, S-2, is within 2.5 miles of the drinking water intake of South Bay, one of the smallest towns on the south rim of the Lake that uses treated lake water for drinking.

Because of this excessive fertilizat ion, the Lake now chronically suffe rs from toxic blue-green algae blooms, including one in 2005 that generated toxin leve ls in Lake Okeechobee 65 times greater than the World Health Organization’s sa fe drinking water guidelines.

Blue-green algae toxins can affect the liver, nervous system, and skin, and have been linked to increases in liver cancer, chronic fatigue illness, skin rashes, abdominal cramps, nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. Numerous dog and cattle deaths have been attributed to exposure to toxic algae.

The toxins are not removed by chlorination or boili ng the water prior to drinking; algaecides (which kill the algae) result in the release of the toxins into the environment. Pahokee Water Treatment Plant.The water intake points pictured above provide dri nking water for Clewiston, South Bay, Belle Glade, Pahokee and Okeechobee City. Cities on the lake depend on Lake Okeechobee for their drinking water supplies.The Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie canals are the two major discharge canals from Lake Okeechobee. The Corps of Engineers releases polluted Lake Okeechobee water into

the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee canals.Structure S-80, operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, releases polluted water down the St.

Lucie Canal to the St. Lucie River with peak flows reaching 120 millio n gallons of water per hour. In some years, vast toxic algae blooms are released from Lake Okeechobee in to the St. Lucie River.

Phosphorous pollution levels in the Lake have risen continuously from about 40 parts-per-billion in 1960 to 240 parts-per-billion last year, an all time high. Phosphorous is a main ingredient in fertilizer and is an important component of animal waste and sewage.

The government has scientifically determined th at the maximum allowable level of phosphorous pollution to prevent toxic algae blooms in Lake Okeechobee is 40 parts-per-billion. Profoundly polluted water being released from S-80 into the St. Lucie River by the Corps of Engineers.Toxic algae blooms along the St. Lucie and Caloosahat chee rivers are causing extensive public health and environmental problems for residents living near and on the river. Residents have been warned to avoid contact with the water when the algae blooms are at their peak. The governme nt has the authority and responsibility to reduce pollution levels in Lake Okeechobee to a safe limit.

In 2002, Earthjustice, on behalf of the Florida Wildlife Federation, filed a lawsuit ag ainst the South Florida Water Management District. The case is a Clean Water Act “citizen suit” which seeks a

declaration from the cou rt that the District must obtain federal Clean Water Act “point source” permits for its pumping stations. As “point sources,” the di scharges from Lake Okeech obee must meet pollution limits applicable to the Lake. Th e Miccosukee Tribe of Indians entere d the lawsuit in support of the environmental groups. The United States Sugar Co rporation entered the case in support of the South Florida Water Management District. As a result of Corps discharges, toxic blue-green algae ends up in the Caloosahatch ee and St. Lucie estuaries.In early 2005, the Federal Environmental Protectio n Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

entered the case on the side of th e polluters – the Water District and U.S. Sugar Corp. This was the first occasion in the 33-year history of the Federal EPA that it entered a water pollution case on the side of the polluter.

The case went to trial this January, lasting until ear ly March. Earthjustice at torneys David Guest and Monica Reimer presented evidence and expert testimo ny showing that Lake Okeechobee is dangerously polluted. Environmentalists argued th at when the Water District collec ts and then moves water in a way that harms the receiving water body (in this case, Lake Okeechobee) it is respon sible for cleaning up the pollution in the same way a city is responsible fo r cleaning up sewage it coll ects in its sewage system before it discharges its wastewater. The algae is so toxic that human contact is dangerous.