MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — For the past two weeks, the St. Lucie Lock and Dam in Martin County has been quiet as there has been a pause in freshwater discharges from Lake Okeechobee.
Those discharges often leading to toxic algal blooms in the St. Lucie River estuary.
The lock itself is marking a milestone this year, but environmentalists aren’t celebrating.
Sam Saxon made a trip to Lake Okeechobee on a gorgeous Tuesday morning, but what he saw left him disappointed.
“You come over and you look at it and you kind of cry a little," Saxon said.
The Department of Environmental Protection confirmed Tuesday that recent samples taken inside the Port Mayaca Lock showed the presence of toxic algae.
But right now, this water is not being funneled from the lake, down the C-44 canal and through the St. Lucie Lock west of Stuart.
The lock has been a part of the river since it was completed in 1924.
Former South Florida Water Management District Governing Board member Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch has been distributing a pamphlet she put together to mark the occasion, but not to celebrate it.
“Our area, Martin County in particular, is defined by this horrible canal," Thurlow-Lippisch said. "It’s part of our past. One day we hope it will not be part of our future."
Eve Samples, with Friends of the Everglades, said they have been pushing for years to move more water south instead of east.
“This is an unnatural connection between Lake Okeechobee and the St. Lucie River for reasons that may have made sense then,” Samples said.
Mark Perry with the Florida Oceanographic Society said after catastrophic hurricanes in the 1920s and 1940s, the lock was part of the overall effort to improve flood control to get water off the lake.
“When they built the canals, including the St. Lucie Canal back then, it was an engineering thing," Perry said.
Perry said it’s good to see a pause in lake discharges through the lock until at least June.
“We’re glad they stopped," he said. "Give the estuary time to recover and try to get back some salinity, particularly as it’s spawning season right now."
