Instead of prioritizing flood control above all else, the strategy is designed to balance all the needs of the watershed. “This plan marks a cultural shift on the part of the Army Corps of Engineers.”
At the heart of the vast watershed that forms Florida’s fragile Everglades is Lake Okeechobee. A century ago the water of the state’s largest lake spilled effortlessly beyond its southern shore, flowing eventually into the sawgrass prairies of the river of grass.
Today the natural course of the water has been altered forever by some of the most complex water management infrastructure in the world. This infrastructure has drained the river of grass to a fraction of its former size and made modern Florida possible. A $21 billion federal and state restoration effort underway in the Everglades is among the most ambitious of its kind in human history.
A new plan for managing Lake Okeechobee is aimed at recapturing some of this drained water and restoring a more natural flow throughout the watershed, two objectives that, if achieved, could help alleviate yet another prominent environmental problem facing the state: toxic algae.
