Environmental experts respond to Lake Okeechobee discharge into Indian River Lagoon and St. Lucie River
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has begun releasing water from Lake Okeechobee after citing higher-than-average water levels from El Niño conditions. Many local environmental experts say they are worried.
"Since April of last year, the lake has been too deep, and it’s been bad for the lake. It’s been outside of its ecological envelope," Mark Perry, Executive Director and CEO of Florida Oceanographic Society, said. "Huge amount of volumes of water are going both east and west to these estuaries, which are really critical nursery grounds for a lot of our fish and shellfish that we have in our area."
