Staff Reports
U.S. Sugar said it will not appeal a judge’s ruling accepting the Army Corps of Engineer stopped unscheduled discharges from Lake Okeechobee.
The agricultural leader made clear it still had concerns about past discharges, which took Lake Okeechobee levels down near the shortage range. But company officials expressed confidence the Corps will cease such actions in the future.
“The Court’s recent ruling accepted the Army Corps’ statements that it has ceased all discharges of Lake Okeechobee water under the 2018 and 2019 Additional Operational Flexibility actions,” said U.S. Sugar Spokeswoman Judy Clayton Sanchez.
“While the court case was dismissed because it involved the Army Corps’ past actions, the Army Corps clearly acknowledged it will not continue discharging water as it did in 2018 and 2019.”
The Army Corps in motions to the court made clear past discharges were history. Such “deviations” as took place in 2018 and 2019 are not anticipated.
Col. Andrew Kelly relayed as much in a recent submission to Lake Okeechobee News.
“We avoided high-volume releases during the summer and saw significant growth in the submerged aquatic vegetation, improved lake ecology, and avoided significant storm events and impacts to water supply,” Kelly wrote.
“In order to continue the trend, the water management team at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is now focused on the year ahead and the challenges that we face.”
Kelly also wrote that forecasts this year show it should be a normal dry season. But he also said if that changes, the Army Corps has reviewed its processes and won’t simply jump to prior controversial discharges.
“We will finalize the proposed deviation to give us another tool to use if harmful algae becomes problematic next year,” Kelly wrote.
“I want to stress that this is a separate action from the flexibility we used a year ago. Under our proposed deviation, we could choose (if conditions support) to release less than suggested guidance in the Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule (LORS) when blooms are present or anticipated, in exchange for the flexibility to release that water when algae is absent. In other words, when conditions indicate an impending algae bloom threat, we would time releases in a manner that avoids harm to downstream communities while releasing the same volume of water in the aggregate.”
U.S. Sugar representatives said they are willing to accept the public statements and court decisions.
“With this ruling, we are hopeful the Army Corps’ future decisions will be consistent with their representations to the Court and the Court’s Order,” Sanchez said.
“U.S. Sugar has no intention of appealing this ruling, because we accomplished what we set out to do: rein in the Army Corps’ rogue operations outside the existing, publicly-approved Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule.
“Following this lawsuit, a dry summer, and the driest September on record, we appreciate that the Army Corps is finally showing concern over water supply for millions of South Floridians and the environment.”
