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Water releases to continue from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee River

Posted at 10:51 AM, Oct 11, 2019
and last updated 2019-10-11 10:51:23-04

LEE COUNTY, Fla. -- The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Friday that they will be maintaining current water releases from Lake Okeechobee into the Caloosahatchee Estuary.

The Corps had resumed water releases on October 5th at a rate of 650 cubic feet per second, averaged over seven days and measured at Franklin Lock and Dam. There had been several months of no water releases before that.

RELATED: Lake Okeechobee water releases might benefit Caloosahatchee Estuary

No scheduled releases through the St. Lucie Lock and Dam are planned at this time.

"We are still concerned that Lake Okeechobee levels are lower than normal for this time of year, and we are monitoring conditions and forecasts," said Col. Andrew Kelly, commander of the Jacksonville District. "We are in a good position on the lake if we receive the average rainfall we historically get in October, but we will discontinue releases if we continue to see drier than normal conditions like we had in September."

Today's stage at Lake Okeechobee is 13.49 feet, down 0.02 feet in the last week, and down 0.47 feet during the past 30 days.

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