WCA - Everglades Conditions Update

(April 15, 2008)

 

Rainfall:

Rain was sparse across the landscape (see attached gif), where total rainfall ranged from 0.03 to 0.25 with the following distribution:

WCA-1:          0.03               WCA-3A:       0.15

WCA-2A:       0.25               WCA-3B:        0.12

WCA-2B:        0.22               ENP:               0.22

All areas were well below the mean evapotranspiration rate for the week, for the region, of 1.43.

 

Water Conservation Areas:

Recession rates were high in WCA-1 (see WCA_stages.xls) due to the movement of water north to Lake-O, the water deficit, and the movement of water south through the S-10s. Continued recessions may bring the water levels in WCA-1 below the one foot mark in time for Ibis to attempt a late season nesting. For the rest of the system water levels continue to stay level or actually increase. This environment does not concentrate fish into shallow sloughs, as prey for wading birds. Depths continue to be too high in the WCAs for wading bird foraging. Stages in WCA-1 first increased and are now declining, and approaching the Regulation Schedule (see WCA_reg_stages.doc), WCA-2A marsh remains well above regulation, and WCA-3A stages are slightly above the zone E1 of the regulation schedule, for protection of the Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow.

 

Everglades National Park:

ENP wetland water levels showed mixed trends last week, but were generally higher as a result of rainfall some 10 days ago.  Water level climbed by nearly 1ft at Taylor Sl. Bridge.   The southern part of Taylor Sl. (at Craighead Pond) also posted a weekly water level increase of 2.4.  To the north, in the the Shark River Sl. system, water level was up by 1.8 at station P33 over the week.  Water level in the panhandle (station EVER6) responding differently to the rainfall, showing only a short increase before dropping back by the weeks end to where it measured last Sunday (4/6, at 0.2 below ground surface).  This may be a result of the stations proximity to the C-111 canal (acting to drain nearby wetlands in which stage was higher than that in the canal just after the rain event).

 

Salinity in Florida Bay declined in response to rain events from over a week ago.  In the Taylor ponds, salinity fell to below 20 psu at both Pond 5 (USGS station) and Argyle Hendry (ENP station TR).  Salinity also dropped a bit in the northcentral Bay areas of McCormick Ck. & Terrapin Bay, where concentrations fell towards or just below 30 psu.  Local rainfall helped salinity drop into the lower-30s last week at the central Bay station in Whipray Basin, though it increased slightly to 35 psu by the weekend.  These salinity concentrations across FL Bay are near seasonal norms.  The most notable change in salinity occurred in the upstream reaches of Shark River (Tarpon Bay platform), an area where salinity has remained very high for much of the dry season: the daily mean measurement here dropped to 10.7 psu as of Sunday, 4/13.  While this is still slightly above this areas seasonal average, it marks a substantial decline (last week concentrations were approaching 20 psu).

 

 

Wildlife:

There has been little change except that it was noticed that the wading birds that were foraging in WCA-1 last week, are now absent (but maybe only tardy).

 

 

 


 

Back to Lake Okeechobee Operations Main Page

Back to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers WSE Homepage