MEMORANDUM
TO: Chip
Merriam, Deputy Executive Director, Water Resources
FROM: SFWMD Staff Environmental Advisory Team
DATE: October 23, 2007
SUBJECT: Weekly
Environmental Recommendation for Systems Operations
Recommendation
No
regulatory releases
to the south or estuaries are recommended.
Background
Scattered daily
shower activity, increasing Wednesday and into the weekend.
Daytime heating will tap some residual moisture over the area to
generated scattered showers and a couple thunderstorms today mainly over the
interior and north. A cold front moving
into Florida's panhandle today is forecast to stall near Lake Okeechobee
Wednesday night before returning to north Florida Thursday and Friday and then
coming back south into central Florida Saturday. Expect the front to produce moderate coverage
of showers and thunderstorms each day with heaviest activity focused north. The next ten days precipitation outlook is above average with low
confidence.
Over the last 7 days, the upper
Flow has been reestablished to the
According to the USACE
web site,
Monthly phytoplankton monitoring was completed last
week. Six of the nine monitoring sites
were sampled for nutrients and phytoplankton.
The remaining 3 sites were dry.
No algal blooms were reported.
An interagency workshop will be held on October 24th
to plan in-lake restoration projects for implementation in conjunction with the
low lake stages anticipated for this coming dry season.
St. Lucie Estuary
No releases occurred at S-80 over the past
week. Weekly average salinities at the
four monitoring sites in the St. Lucie are given below in parts per thousand (ppt).
|
Weekly Average Salinity (ppt) |
|
|
Sampling Site |
Surface |
Bottom |
Envelope |
|
2.1 |
2.7 |
|
HR1 (N. Fork) |
1.1 |
5.0 |
|
|
5.9 |
7.2 |
8.0 25.0 |
A1A Bridge |
14.2 |
23.0 |
20.0 31.0 |
Average salinity increased throughout the estuary
last week. Only bottom water at the A1A Bridge fell within the preferred salinity range. Based on the salinity tolerances of the oyster,
Crassostrea virginica,
salinity conditions in the estuary are poor to fair.
Caloosahatchee Estuary
Discharge
at S-79 averaged 11.4 cfs over the past week. The concentration of chlorides at the Olga
Plant is 78 mg/l. Average salinity
increased throughout the estuary last week.
Data for specific sites are given below in parts per thousand (ppt).
|
Weekly
Average Salinity (ppt) |
|
Sampling
Site |
Surface |
Bottom |
|
7.8 |
8.2 |
Rt.
31 Bridge |
7.2 |
9.5 |
I-75
Bridge |
6.6 |
8.9 |
|
13.2 |
15.8 |
|
19.8 |
23.6 |
Shell
Point |
29.0 |
30.4 |
Salinity
conditions throughout the system are good seaward of
FWRI reports a bloom
of Karenia brevis, the
Water Conservation Areas
Rainfall amounts led to fair to good re-hydration rates at all
gages within the system with the exception of WCA-2A
and NW WCA-3A.
The 2-17 gage in WCA-2A had a net deficit
water budget (-0.06). The 6-2 gage in
NW WCA-3 also reported a net deficit of -0.03, but
the entire WCA-3 area average showed an increase of
0.09. These deficits at the 2-17 and
6-2 gages have been on going for two an three weeks, respectively. Water depths remain good for this time of
year because all locations have at least 1.0 ft of water. Stages in WCA-1 are
within Zone A2. Water levels in WCA-2A remain well above regulation. Stages in WCA-3 are
again slightly below regulation.
Rainfall was patchy and generally low across Everglades National Park (ENP) and
Salinity remained low and stable across
Water Supply
Water levels in the upper and lower
Six out of eleven water supply risk measures are in
the high risk category this week - the projected Lake O Stage (SSM), the Palmer Index for Tributary Conditions, the LOK Seasonal Net Inflow Forecast and Lower East Coast
Service Areas 1, 2 and 3.
Water Conservation Areas 1, 2A and 3A continue to
be in the low risk category.
The CPC Precipitation Outlook and the LOK Multi-Seasonal Net Inflow Forecast remain at medium
risk this week
WSE
(
The
current
CC: George
Horne