House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, got a quick lesson about the ecological and economic crisis that Treasure Coast residents faced this summer as polluted waters were released daily from Lake Okeechobee.
But after an aerial tour of the region and the lake Monday, Weatherford said it's too early to estimate how much of a $220 million Senate plan to reduce future pollutants from the lake will land in the state budget for the next fiscal year.
The package, intended to improve water quality in the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries, was supported by the Senate Select Committee on the Indian River Lagoon and Lake Okeechobee Basin last week, but still has to get full legislative support and the backing of Gov. Rick Scott, who has a couple of big-ticket items in the plan.
Weatherford, who was invited to tour the region by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, the author of the Senate package, said funding will depend on a revenue outlook that will be updated in March, as lawmakers begin the 60-day regular session.
"We're aware of the problem, we know the problem doesn't get solved without some resources, so we know that's going to be needed," Weatherford said after the helicopter tour. "But as far as how much we're going to have to spend, the revenue picture can change over months."
State economists in September released a report projecting a surplus of $845.7 million for the 2014-15 fiscal year, setting off a flurry of budget requests.
Negron, who hosted Weatherford's tour with the South Florida Water Management District, has said each funding request in the package will require an offset in the budget. Meanwhile, Scott has requested a $500 million cut in taxes and fees for next year.
Weatherford's tour included a brief "round-table" in the Lyric's Flagler Center along the St. Lucie River in downtown Stuart. The round-table was made up of local officials and residents advocating for state assistance in cleaning the water and offering their vision for the majority of the flow from the lake being directed south into the Everglades.
"I wish you could have been here a few months earlier to see how incredibly awful it was and what we had to put up with for five months," said Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, a real estate agent who also serves on the Sewall's Point Town Commission.
Sewall's Point is a peninsula that divides the St. Lucie River and the St. Lucie Estuary.
The nutrient-rich water sent from the lake has reportedly killed oysters and sea grass, along with causing a toxic algae outbreak that during the summer forced Martin County health officials to warn residents against coming into contact with the water.
Rep. MaryLynn Magar, R-Tequesta, said the decline in water quality has been an economic disaster for the region.
"It's not just the fishermen, but the tourism, the hotels, the restaurants that weren't seeing people, the real estate that wasn't selling," Magar told Weatherford.
Magar attended the round-table with Treasure Coast Reps. Larry Lee, D-Port St. Lucie, Debbie Mayfield, R-Vero Beach, and Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart. Each said they will push the House to support the Senate package.
Among the governor's recommendations for the water cleanup is $90 million that would be spread over three years to bridge a 2.6-mile section of the Tamiami Trail west of Miami.
Other provisions of the Senate package include; $40 million to speed construction of the state's portion of a C-44 reservoir and stormwater treatment area for the Indian River Lagoon-South Restoration Project; $32 million for projects tied to ensuring that all surface water discharges into the Everglades Protection Area meet water quality standards; and a request for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to give the Department of Environmental Protection authority to regulate releases when the risk of failure of the dike around Lake Okeechobee is less than 10 percent.
Weatherford, following Negron's repeated examples, offered support to the request for more state control.
"I was frankly astonished to see that the federal government starts basically turning the spigot on, I think, a little bit prematurely," Weatherford said. "When I realized how little control we have as a state and as a community in regard to that discharge, it is something we need to work with our federal partners on."
The Army Corps tries to maintain the water level of the lake between 12.5 feet and 15.5 feet to lessen stress on the Herbert Hoover Dike. The Army Corps, which has declined to comment on the recommendations, estimates that when the lake is slightly above 18.5 feet, the risk of failure is considered at 45 percent.
When the water level is low, the Army Corps generally defers on water release decisions to the South Florida Water Management District.
The Senate package also recommends increasing the funding for the C-43 and C-44 reservoirs that link the lake with the estuaries; cleaning water that comes into the lake from the Kissimmee River; evaluating means to reduce nutrients from septic tanks; raising the allowed water levels in canals by a few inches; and a general call to support projects that would eventually shift releases of water to the south through the Everglades.
The proposal to move water through the Everglades, estimated at more than $1 billion and requiring a massive federal partnership, has been rejected three times, in 1994, 1999 and 2009. The South Florida Water Management District concluded in 2009 the proposal was not the most cost-effective or viable way to increase flows south due to the changing landscape of South Florida, which would require an extensive network of pumps to recreate the historic sheet flow.
