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Section 2 Existing Conditions/Affected Environment

EAA Storage Reservoirs Revised Draft PIR and EIS February 2006

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long-term plan for achieving this compliance was published by SFWMD in

October 2003 (Burns & McDonnell, 2003).

2.14 WATER QUALITY

2.14.1 Overview

Water quality information focuses upon the EAA as the area of expected primary

impacts. However, the water quality of the larger area is dependent on Lake

Okeechobee water quality to the extent that these waters are released to the

various receiving waters. Lake Okeechobee water is conveyed to receiving water

bodies by canals and primary and secondary tributaries. Receiving waters are

St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee River Estuaries, including Indian River Lagoon

and Charlotte Harbor, and the northern WCAs.

Nutrients such as phosphorous and nitrogen compounds are a concern in the

WCAs and EPA. When there are sufficient levels of both nutrients present,

cattails and other invasive species displace native sawgrass. There are many

natural and human sources of nitrogen compounds. However, vegetation growth

is limited by the comparative lack of phosphorous compounds. These come

primarily from agricultural fertilizers and decomposition of the peat soils in the

area. Decomposition of peat soils in the EAA is accelerated by continued

agricultural use. Thus, phosphorous is a parameter of particular concern

regarding water from Lake Okeechobee and the EAA.

Agricultural BMPs were implemented in the EAA in 2000, with the result of

improving water quality. However, this area remains a primary source of

pollutants for the WCAs. The WCAs form the remnant wetland communities for

the northern section of the Everglades system. These areas have been isolated

from contiguous lands by a series of levees and pump stations. Water moving

south from the lake and EAA is pumped through the WCAs, thereby making

these areas nutrient filters for downstream basins. A highly altered hydroperiod

results from the presence of various levees and pumping schedules. These

factors may worsen water quality conditions in the WCAs and are consistent

with the general degradation of water quality in areas along the canals and

pump stations when compared to conditions in the central portions of the basins.

Construction of STAs upstream of the WCAs will serve to improve water quality

conditions through time; however, other problems may persist.

The L-8, West Palm Beach, Hillsboro, North New River, and Miami Canals from

Lake Okeechobee to the L-4, 5, 6, and 7 Canals, which roughly define the EAA,

have poor water quality with extremely high nutrient and low dissolved oxygen

levels. Other problems include pesticides, biological oxygen demand, bacteria,

and suspended solids. Fish kills occur periodically in the West Palm Beach

Canal after heavy rains drain from the Chemair Spray hazardous waste site.

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