FOS gives St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon D-F grades
The Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart gave the water quality in the St Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon a grade of D-minus. No part of the river got better than a D. The South Fork and main waters flowing past Stuart received F grades.
The Army Corp of Engineers announced that they will cut back on the discharges from Lake Okeechobee starting today. Still, 1.2 billion gallons of water are expected to be released into the St Lucie River each day. That’s down slightly from the 1.8 billion gallons a day released over the past week. The discharges began in September after Hurricane Irma. So far, an estimated 110 billion gallons of water have been released from Lake O and into the St Lucie River this year. While the discharges haven’t brought the toxic blue-green algae blooms, they have turned the river into a nasty brown color.
