County Fighting Lower Kissimmee Stormwater Treatment Project

County Fighting Lower Kissimmee Stormwater Treatment Project

County Fighting Lower Kissimmee Stormwater Treatment ProjectPhoto byLake Photo by The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Compiled by Jay Wiley

The Okeechobee Board of County Commissioners are still trying to get on the agenda of the South Florida Water Management District Governing Board to discuss the Lower Kissimmee Stormwater Treatment project.

Neighbors have opposed the project due to flood insurance, overall flood risk, odors, attracting bugs and birds. and affects planes landing and taking off from nearby airstrips.

Commissioner Kelly Owens said the state is not fully committed to cleaning up the water because they never send enough money from Tallahassee to really change things.

“The highest and heaviest (nutrient) load is exactly that area that we keep saying, please help us, give us the funding, let us to do septic to sewer conversion. We are saying we understand the cause and we are saying what the solution will be. That would do a whole lot more to reduce the phosphorus load than the current suggested storage.”

Commissioner Terry Burroughs acquired photos of water entering Lake Okeechobee that he said shows septage coming into the lake from sewer treatment plants in Osceola and Orange County following Hurricane Ian.

“When we talk about water storage and capturing water. When Ian took over the sewer plants in Orange and Osceola County and all that water came down to us, this should have been an indication to those in control up there that we should be looking at reservoirs and STA north of highway 60.”

The issue was not on the agenda of the September 14th governing board meeting.

Lake Okeechobee and its surrounding watershed have undergone various hydrologic alterations, changes in land use, and other human-induced modifications over the past century, resulting in a decline in water quality. In response to the nutrient pollution affecting the lake, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has adopted a total maximum daily load (TMDL) strategy aimed at curbing the influx of total phosphorus (TP) into the lake and its watershed.Spanning 3,400 acres, the Lower Kissimmee Basin Stormwater Treatment Project is situated along the Kissimmee River, approximately three miles upstream from Lake Okeechobee.

Its primary objective is to capture and purify water from the river before it reaches Lake Okeechobee. Notably, the project is strategically positioned to enhance water quality in high-priority basins identified in the DEP's Lake Okeechobee Basin Management Action Plan.

Upon its completion, this project will stand as the largest water quality initiative north of Lake Okeechobee, substantially reducing nutrient pollution levels in the Kissimmee River. It will employ conventional stormwater treatment cells adorned with aquatic vegetation to eliminate nutrient pollution from the water, complemented by innovative technologies that provide additional water quality enhancements.

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