GUEST OPINION
Water board right to stop failed policy
BY RAE ANN WESSEL Sanibel Captiva Conservation Foundation

The practice of backpumping water from the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) and backflowing canals into Lake Okeechobee is failed water policy that works against ecosystem restoration of the greater Everglades system. Claims are being made that the water backpumped from the farms and storm water areas south of the lake is cleaner than the water currently in the lake and all other sources of water to Lake Okeechobee. This is blatantly untrue.

Longtime Lake Okeechobee scientist Dr. Paul Gray compiled the following facts from the South Florida Water Management District's report on backpumped water from the last backpumping event in 2001. The report reveals the inaccuracies of these claims.

Backpumping during the last drought in 2001 dumped 1,493 tons of nitrogen into the lake, the greatest loads from any structures. The permitted level is 393 tons; therefore backpumping contributed nearly four times the permitted levels of nitrogen to the lake. In that same drought, phosphorus from the EAA averaged from 87 to 154 ppb (parts per billion) of total phosphorus. Okeechobee needs water at about 40 ppb to regain health. This means backpumping contributes water that is two to four times the phosphorus goal for the lake. Is this the clean water?

In addition, backflowed water (water that was not pumped, but flowed from downstream canals back into the low lake) contributed even more nitrogen and phosphorus into the lake: an additional 637 tons of nitrogen and 63.5 tons of phosphorus. The backflowed and backpumped water violates the dissolved oxygen standard almost all the time, contributing to dead zones in the lake where too-little oxygen is present for aquatic life.

In defending the practice of backpumping the statement has been made that "Rainfall south of the lake can be returned to the lake by these pumps, as has been done by every governor and DEP secretary during past droughts." Hmmm. Backpumping is justified because it has always been done that way? Since this practice has resulted in a dying lake and polluted estuaries - requiring what is estimated to be billions of South Florida taxpayers' money to clean out of the lake - is backpumping/ flowing really good water policy?

Backpumping serves two purposes: it removes excess water from the agricultural fields in the EAA and dumps it in the lake to be stored for later use as irrigation water. With 700,000 acres of land in the EAA to alternately pump dry and irrigate, the simple question becomes why should private corporate farm operations be allowed to use a natural freshwater lake to store their polluted water? Especially since Lake Okeechobee - the second largest freshwater lake in the entire nation - provides drinking water for municipalities around the lake and has been a world class fishing destination and economic generator for rural communities. Would you drink or fish out of your neighborhood, roadside stormwater canal or treatment pond?

Managing Lake Okeechobee as a reservoir, instead of a living system, perpetuates the degradation of the entire greater Everglades ecosystem. It is time for the EAA to manage its own water and to provide for the storage and treatment of their stormwater on their land and stop degrading public resources.

Every system - natural and manmade - has operating limits. If we are to make a commitment to and investment in restoration we must begin with the limits of the natural system and not make public policy decisions based on political compromises. We are clever enough to find solutions to the current problems but this will require focusing on possibilities instead of obstacles. We must change our water policy and practices today if we hope to see real ecosystem restoration. We applaud the governing board for their stand against backpumping and encourage them to not allow trading or movement of polluted water between water bodies or watersheds.

- Rae Ann Wessel is the Natural

Resource Policy Director for the Sanibel

Captiva Conservation Foundation. ¦