MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Freshwater releases from Lake Okeechobee into the St. Lucie Estuary will stop this weekend for the first time in over three months.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced Thursday at a Rivers Coalition meeting at Stuart City Hall that the releases will be temporarily halted beginning Saturday.
WATCH BELOW: What environmentalists are saying about discharges ending
The discharges have been ongoing since Dec. 7 as the Army Corps works to reduce the lake levels ahead of the summer rainy season.
Lake Okeechobee's water level was 15.61 feet in early December. As of Wednesday, the level was 12.72 feet.
When the water releases were announced last November, the Army Corps had said the discharges may last as long as May 1.
Col. Brandon Bowman said that there will be no releases for the foreseeable future unless there's a hurricane or high water event, which would raise the levels in the lake. Bowman said he expects they'll avoid releases for the rest of the year.
The release of water from Lake Okeechobee into the estuary is a controversial practice that environmentalists condemn due to the negative impacts on the waterways, like fueling algal blooms, reducing water quality and harming oyster beds.
For Jim Carter with the Rivers Coalition, the news on Thursday was positive but not the ultimate goal.
"They go to stop them permanently, just stopping them and then going back in another year or two years," Carter said. "(The water) has to go south.”
After five years of debate and discussion, the Army Corps of Engineers announced last August the implementation of their new Lake Okeechobee water release schedule, which it said would reduce harmful discharges into the estuary by at least 40%.
