More water is coming out of Lake Okeechobee and flowing into the St Lucie River. The Army Corp of Engineers announced yesterday that they are increasing the discharges to 1.1 billion gallons of water a day. That’s the same rate as in May and June, when discharges led to a massive algae outbreak throughout the river and even on the beaches. These discharges are expected to continue at this rate for several weeks.
There is a green slick seen just upstream of the Locks where the Lake O waters enters the St Lucie River according to Debra Drum, Martin County’s ecosystem restoration manager. She also said there is a lot of algae spread throughout the river. Debra also said they wanted to test some of the oysters in the river near Central Marine but they were all dead.
According to Mark Perry there is no water being sent south from the Lake thru the means that are available now.