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Executive Summary

WHAT IS EXPECTED TO HAPPEN WITHOUT THE SELECTED PLAN?

Regional adverse ecological conditions in the project area, which would continue

without the selected plan, include large swings between unacceptable high and

low water levels in Lake Okeechobee. High water levels in Lake Okeechobee

frequently result in ecologically damaging flood control releases of fresh water to

the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Estuaries. These periodic harmful discharges

of excess water from Lake Okeechobee down the C-43 (Caloosahatchee) and C-44

(St. Lucie) canal/river systems would continue to severely disrupt the estuarine

ecosystems receiving these discharges. These extreme pulses of fresh water will

continue to decrease salinity in the estuaries and increase inflows of nutrients

and other contaminants into the estuaries, resulting in elevated turbidity levels,

algal plankton blooms, loss of normal sea grass cover, and declines in the

diversity and abundance of natural populations of invertebrates, fishes, and

other estuarine-dependent species. The flushing would also continue to stress

the estuarine fish and invertebrates that utilize this habitat as a nursery area.

Loss of juvenile fish and shellfish as prey for predatory fish and birds has a

cumulative adverse impact through the estuarine and marine food web,

including reducing the abundance and viability of commercially and

recreationally important fish and shellfish populations. The estuarine and

marine resources of the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Estuaries that are

currently affected by fresh water discharges from Lake Okeechobee cannot

recover unless additional storage is added to the regional water management

system to enable water management practices that can ameliorate the harmful

impact of those fresh water releases. The capability to release excess water in

Lake Okeechobee to the south to maintain flood control is also expected to

continue to be affected by the timing and conveyance of EAA runoff water to the

Everglades Construction Project STAs, potentially resulting in episodic by-pass

discharges of untreated water into the Everglades Protection Area.

Holding water levels in Lake Okeechobee higher than would otherwise be

preferable would also continue to adversely affect fish and wildlife habitat

resources within the lake. Without providing additional regional storage so that

lake levels may be more effectively managed, much of the lake's littoral zone

would still be under water at the start of the spring rainy season, reducing the

extent of this habitat. Since the littoral zone is critical foraging and nesting area

for wading birds (including the endangered Everglade snail kite), the

reproductive success of those species utilizing the littoral zone habitat is

expected to continue to be lower than is acceptable to maintain healthy, viable

populations of those species. Additionally, rainy season back-pumping of EAA

surface water into the lake to maintain flood control in the EAA will continue to

contribute to harmful high water levels in the lake, in addition to increasing

nutrient loading and turbidity levels in the lake. Storing nutrient-rich waters in

the lake would continue to cause reduced water clarity and periodic algal

EAA Storage Reservoirs Revised Draft PIR and EIS February 2006

ES-iii

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