Article by Katrina Elsken
Cattle ranches have been in the Lake Okeechobee watershed since pioneers first settled the area, but before the Central and South Florida Project for Flood Control, the nutrient loads entering Lake Okeechobee were not a problem, Gary Ritter of Florida Farm Bureau told South Florida Water Management District representatives at the Nov. 5 workshop in Okeechobee.
“The legacy issue is in many cases the result of flood control canals that were created in the northern watershed,” said Mr. Ritter.
“Examine the nutrient dynamics that are going on in these canals,” he suggested.
“Agriculture has been in the watershed for many decades. The real problems started when the flood control system was put into this watershed,” he said.
Tracking the phosphorus load coming from the canals themselves was just one of the suggestions made at the workshop on Chapter 40E-61 of the Florida Administrative Code.
Steffany Olson, SFWMD science supervisor, explained…….(continue reading)