Sprinkle list: $15M flows to FGCU for Lake O, regional water quality study

FGCU's The Water School. Image via FGCU. Rendering by RG Architects/HuntonBrady Architects.

In one heck of a surprise sprinkle, Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) secured $15 million for a water study.

Funding for the Fort Myers university was included in the Senate Supplemental Funding, affectionately called the “sprinkle list,” But originally, the item was listed for only a “Comprehensive Study on the Health of Lake Okeechobee.”

Senate officials, though, made clear this money will go through FGCU’s The Water School, and will be used for a comprehensive water quality study of regional significance.

Sen. Jason Brodeur, a Lake Mary Republican, had requested $5 million in the budget this year for FGCU to conduct a study chiefly on Florida’s largest lake.

His request said funds would go to “conduct a comprehensive and predictive data assessment of the environmental health of Lake Okeechobee based on natural and anthropogenic influences on the biota to produce a current state of the Lake with gaps identified around the Lake’s condition, gather information to address gaps, and create a suite of potential water level and in lake management strategies that may be implemented and explored for lake improvements.”

FGCU opened The Water School in 2022. That came after years of researchers based at the university studying both the freshwater ecosystem of Lake Okeechobee and surrounding wetlands, as well as the saltwater habitats in the Gulf of Mexico.

“The comprehensive nature of The Water School at FGCU allows us to focus on key areas critical to our water-driven world: climate change, natural resources, ecosystem health and well-being, restoration and remediation,” a website for the program reads.

In addition to mere proximity to two significant aquatic ecologies, the university has been monitoring environmental crises in the region, including blue-green algal blooms in the Caloosahatchee River and red tide events on the Gulf Coast beaches.

The state and federal governments have also made massive investments in restoring historically natural water flows in South Florida through a variety of water quality projects.