Voice of the Everglades: Floodgates open from Lake Okeechobee — AGAIN

Here's how you can help end this rigged water-management system.

You can help fix this rigged system  manoj,   This is the moment we've been bracing for. Last Saturday, the Army Corps of Engineers opened the flood gates from Lake Okeechobee to the northern estuaries — allowing billions of gallons of polluted water to flow, untreated, into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers and the Lake Worth Lagoon.   If you haven't seen these damaging discharges, check out our video footage from the St. Lucie Lock & Dam.  A whitewater torrent is flowing from the gates. It could continue for weeks or months. The Army Corps of Engineers is using these fragile estuaries as relief valves in an attempt to lower Lake Okeechobee ahead of rainy season. The effects are swift and violent. Salinity levels plummeted in the St. Lucie River this week, threatening oysters and seagrass beds that had started to recover after a toxic Lake O deluge in 2018. No toxic algae has been confirmed (yet), but that's a distinct possibility if the discharges persist.   Under this rigged water-management system, there is much suffering. The northern estuaries suffer, Lake Okeechobee itself suffers, the Water Conservation Areas sometimes drown, and the southern Everglades and Florida Bay still don't receive enough clean freshwater.    Who isn't suffering, you ask? Sugar.    Roughly 400,000 acres of corporate-owned sugarcane farms south of Lake Okeechobee receive near-perfect irrigation and drainage all year long. Adding insult to injury, these fields drain their runoff into taxpayer-funded Stormwater Treatment Areas south of Lake O — contributing to concerning high-water levels in Water Conservation Area 3.   Friends of the Everglades has been fighting this rigged system for years, and the latest Lake O discharges renew our urgency. You can help by adding your name to the Sugar Reform Now petition, which asks Congress to stop boosting the profits of this environmentally damaging industry. We won't rest until the damaging discharges stop.   For the Everglades,    Eve Samples Executive Director SUGAR REFORM NOW Last call: Join us March 4 with Carl Hiaasen Only a few days remain to get your tickets to join us March 4 at The Biltmore in Miami for the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Legacy Celebration — a lively event featuring inspiring Everglades voices. Author and journalist Carl Hiaasen will deliver a keynote speech. Betty Osceola, a Miccosukee advocate and educator, will receive this year's Marjory Stoneman Douglas Defender of the Everglades Award. And WPLG anchor and environmental advocate Louis Aguirre will emcee. Buy your tickets while there's still time! Keeping the pressure on Tallahassee The Everglades and Florida's freshwater springs are two of our state's most iconic ecosystems — and both face perennial threats from polluters and policymakers. We are stronger when we fight back together. That's why we were honored to host Ryan Smart, executive director of the Florida Springs Council, for an update on this year's legislative session in Tallahassee. If you missed our February 14 livestream, catch the video replay here. Fighting for Western Everglades water quality The Western Everglades includes some of the most precious habitat in all of Florida, with its mystical cypress forests and mosaic of wetlands. An important project is being planned to restore this region's hydrology — but it can only work if the water is clean. We submitted formal comments to the Army Corps of Engineers making that clear. Read more about the project and our feedback. Parting Words from MSD "The southern lake shore was bare, where the last moonvine-covered jungles were being cleared away. Careless weeds and castor-oil plants grew rank in the drying muck. Where the lone cypress stood by the Moorehaven Canal, men began to talk about sugar cane again." — Marjory Stoneman Douglas, The Everglades: River of Grass   Founded in 1969 by Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Friends of the Everglades' mission is to preserve, protect and restore the only Everglades in the world. We are science-driven and solutions-oriented. Support the movement for a truly restored Everglades by donating now! DONATE SUBSCRIBE   Friends of the Everglades 3727 SE Ocean Blvd Suite 200 Stuart, FL 34996 United States If you believe you received this message in error or wish to no longer receive email from us, please unsubscribe.