[0:15] Good afternoon, everyone.

[0:17] I would like to call the business meeting of the governing board of the South

[0:20] Florida Water Management District to order today, September 10th,

[0:24] 2026.

[0:25] I'm gonna ask, um, Colonel Roman, if she would

[0:28] say the pledge of allegiance, as you stand and look at the flag today,

[0:31] I hope that you will join me and remembering

[0:34] the nearly 3,000 people, civilians, and first

[0:37] responders, who perished 25

[0:41] years ago tomorrow morning, and may God bless their souls and their families.

[0:47] I pledge allegiance...

[0:48] To the fire of the United States of America, and

[0:51] to the Republic, which expands one nation,

[0:55] under God, indivisible, with liberty

[0:58] and justice, or all.

[1:04] My chair is stuck.

[1:12] Uh, Vicer Wagner's not gonna be able to join us today.

[1:15] We have Mr. Bergeron and Mr. Martinez, uh, participating remotely.

[1:19] Are they both on, Mr. Bergeron?

[1:23] No, I'm here, uh, Mr. Chairman.

[1:25] Good afternoon, Ms. Martinez.

[1:28] I'm here as well, Mr. Turner.

[1:29] Great.

[1:29] Thanks.

[1:30] For those board members who are here, I'm gonna ask that you make sure your

[1:33] microphone is on, and you speak into the mic, so online attendees

[1:36] can hear you, for those board members who are on Zoom.

[1:39] I can't see you when you raise your hand, so if you want to speak or ask a question, just

[1:42] please call out your name, and I'll acknowledge you to speak.

[1:44] Members of the public on Zoom, who wish to address the board,

[1:47] may use the raise your hand feature.

[1:48] If members of the public are having any trouble and need help,

[1:51] please go to the website, sfwmd.gov, and

[1:54] click the ask us button at the top of the page.

[1:56] If you're using a phone, and you'd like to comment, please press star

[1:59] 9, to raise your hand, and star 6, to mute or unmute.

[2:02] And as a courtesy to others who wish to speak, members of the public are asked to comment only once.

[2:05] On a topic, we will take public comment first

[2:08] from those who are here in person and submitted a comment card.

[2:11] That'll be followed by those with raised hands on Zoom.

[2:14] After today's business meeting, we are going to host a public hearing on

[2:17] fiscal year, 2026, 2027, tentative avlorum,

[2:20] millage rates, non evlorum tax rules, and tentative budget

[2:24] at exactly 515.

[2:25] The Zoom meeting link will remain the same.

[2:31] Okay, I'm supposed to tell you, we can't start the budget meeting early or late, so we won't.

[2:35] We're going to go to employee recognitions with Mr. Bartlett.

[2:46] Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[2:50] All right, our September 2026, employee

[2:54] of the month is Luis Castro, building maintenance mechanic scene.

[3:05] Now...

[3:07] We have amazing folks here on campus at the

[3:10] water management district, and we often recognize all the work they're doing,

[3:13] and I can tell you they wouldn't

[3:16] be able to do without Luis Castro, he is,

[3:19] I would call, an unsung hero on campus here, because he

[3:22] is in charge of making sure this building keeps functioning

[3:25] here at the water management district.

[3:27] And without that, how do we

[3:30] get our job done, right?

[3:32] So this is Luis's job?

[3:34] So he has recently over saying we've all been in older buildings

[3:37] and had to replace the air conditioning unit.

[3:39] Well, that's a whole different level when you're talking about this building and

[3:42] he helped to get that replaced.

[3:45] Also, we very much depend on generators.

[3:47] He helped us with getting the generators replaced and involved in

[3:50] that is removing an underground storage tank that

[3:54] was holding the fuel before.

[3:55] So he went to above ground, a much safer way to store fuel.

[3:58] And then he's always there for all the communication equipment

[4:01] upgrades that we do as well.

[4:03] But he's got skills.

[4:05] himself.

[4:05] He will repair things.

[4:07] He'll fix things.

[4:08] He'll jump on those types of things that you don't

[4:11] need to contract out and get those done.

[4:13] And so when he does that, he saves us money.

[4:16] And he does it frequently, and just recently he saved us over $20,000,

[4:21] which I very much appreciate.

[4:22] So he gets called on quite

[4:25] frequently in this building.

[4:27] Um, he gets the job done.

[4:30] He's always there.

[4:30] And a most recent experience we had here at the water management

[4:34] district, you may recall the earthquake in Cuba and that

[4:37] sent a vibration through South Florida.

[4:39] Well, we felt that here at the water management district building, it

[4:43] did rattle, and everyone got kind of nervous.

[4:46] Luis was here that day and he went around to all

[4:49] the key points in the buildings, both buildings, everything on site,

[4:52] make sure there was no damage, everything was fine.

[4:54] So everyone's nerves went down after

[4:57] that reverberation came through.

[5:00] He's, we get a lot done because he gets a lot done.

[5:04] And so we wanted to recognize an unsung hero

[5:07] at the district as the September employee of the month.

[5:10] Congratulations, Luis Castro.

[6:02] All right.

[6:03] Our September 2026, team of the month is the Big

[6:07] Cypress Basin, structure, maintenance, and heavy equipment team,

[6:10] consisting of Francisco Achivevedo,

[6:13] Mike Barber, William Coochie,

[6:16] Michael Cueto, Mark Doyle, Caesar,

[6:20] Caesar, Forte, Armando Ramirez,

[6:23] Paula Rizardini, Mako, Touché,

[6:27] Dan Walsh, and Ray Willis.

[6:35] So, this team is located over on the

[6:38] West Coast in our big Cypress basin, and they basically

[6:41] stepped up to help facilitate better sustainable

[6:44] recreational access on district properties.

[6:47] And we very much value

[6:51] that sustainable recreational access to this team

[6:54] and bodies that value by making changes, that facilitate that.

[6:58] And in particular, they did 3 projects out west.

[7:02] They installed a new parking lot at the Pickyon

[7:05] Strand project that just came online where you can park 60

[7:08] cars up to 60, not one person, people come and visit, okay?

[7:11] But get people there, get them hiking,

[7:15] biking, whatever they want to do out of picking and strand, they can

[7:18] do it now because there's a place to park.

[7:20] And we could get those people out there.

[7:21] we all recall, well, most of

[7:25] you recall, acquiring the green heart of the Everglades, right?

[7:27] And when we acquired that, there was a huge public sentiment

[7:31] about recreational access to Greenheart.

[7:34] Well, this team jumped in and facilitated that.

[7:36] They put in a one mile hiking trail, and then they created the

[7:39] new parking lot south of US 41 and an area where

[7:42] people can park and launch their kayaks and canoes.

[7:45] I'd only put the parking lot in.

[7:47] They put the canoe launch, and they rebuilt the seawall around

[7:50] that area too, to make sure that it was safe.

[7:53] And then finally, this year, they put in

[7:56] an expanded parking lot at Bird Rookery Swamp.

[7:59] This is a very highly recreated area, visited

[8:03] by people from Naples and, you know, anywhere along

[8:06] that coastline over there.

[8:07] And it basically outgrew the parking capacity.

[8:11] So they expanded the parking lot on their own without us having to contract it out.

[8:15] These efforts, all 3 saved the district $350,000.

[8:19] So he didn't have to contract that.

[8:21] That money is was our funds, big Cypress funds, that

[8:25] can be put back into our infrastructure.

[8:27] So they stepped up.

[8:29] went beyond their current jobs and their current job duties

[8:32] to build these recreational areas, and that's why they're our September

[8:35] team of the month.

[8:36] Thank you.

[8:46] Huh?

[8:46] You're walking up there?

[8:47] Yeah, you are, right?

[8:49] Nice to see you again.

[8:50] How you doing?

[8:50] Good, good to see you.

[8:52] Thanks.

[8:53] Thank you, sir.

[8:54] Thanks.

[8:55] Thank you.

[8:56] Thanks.

[8:58] Thank.

[9:01] Thank you so much.

[9:02] Hey, there you go.

[9:04] You can stress.

[9:51] Why?

[10:08] You're welcome.

[10:12] Thanks so much.

[10:15] Thank you.

[10:17] Thank you.

[10:17] You're welcome.

[10:18] You're welcome.

[10:19] Congratulations.

[10:20] Thank you.

[10:20] Thank you, man.

[10:22] Thank you.

[10:22] Thanks, guys.

[10:25] You doing good, man.

[10:28] All right, Mr. Chair, we have a 45

[10:31] year service anniversary to talk about here.

[10:34] We got John J.T. Burns,

[10:37] heavy equipment operator, lead at the West Palm Field Station.

[10:42] JT.

[10:50] Now, JT came to us in 1981,

[10:54] and he's a second generation district employee.

[10:57] His father, Tommy Burns, was at the Fort Lauderdale

[11:00] Field Station, and talked to JT about

[11:03] how awesome it is to work at the water management district.

[11:06] And this is Tommy Burns's wife right here.

[11:09] And uh...

[11:15] Gotcha.

[11:17] We're all good over there.

[11:18] That's JT's mom.

[11:22] So, uh, so he started in 81 and veg management

[11:25] in Fort Lauderdale, uh, worked in that for 8 years

[11:28] and then went to Canal and Levy, where he became a crew chief,

[11:31] taking care of our flood control system.

[11:33] And then in 2004, he went to West Palm

[11:36] Beach and was a lead operator making sure that our canals

[11:40] and levees are all clear and worked properly.

[11:43] Now, South Florida absolutely

[11:46] depends on people like JT.

[11:49] Without those people, JT

[11:52] in particular, out there working to keep the canals functioning,

[11:55] keep the culverts functioning, keep the levees intact, it

[11:59] would not work for anybody, right?

[12:01] And he was there and he's been working in West Palm

[12:04] putting culverts in.

[12:05] You know, it's all about flood control and water management, which does

[12:09] not happen without JT.

[12:11] And he is experienced.

[12:13] He's been doing this a long time and knows how to do

[12:16] it right and professionally.

[12:17] And not only does he know how to do it right and professionally,

[12:20] but he is also passing that knowledge along to all

[12:24] the folks out there at West Palm Beach Field Station

[12:27] and probably beyond that even.

[12:29] And because we need,

[12:32] that's just a cornerstone.

[12:33] That is a cornerstone of our employees

[12:36] is out there making sure that these things function

[12:39] and are maintained well.

[12:40] And JT brings that to us, and

[12:43] he's bringing it to all the folks that he's

[12:46] around with the experience.

[12:48] I mean, he knows all the types of equipment.

[12:49] He knows how to tell people how to do it.

[12:52] And he's just someone that everyone looks up to.

[12:55] Everyone looks up to at these field stations.

[12:58] Um, He's been here for 45 years.

[13:01] I think he's ready to spend time with his family.

[13:04] He's very much a family man.

[13:06] So he's retiring next year, and normally I would

[13:09] challenge him to try to reach 50, but I agree with the idea of

[13:12] spending time with your family.

[13:14] So I'm not gonna do that to you, JT.

[13:16] I'm just gonna stand up here and absolutely thank you for

[13:19] your 45 years of service.

[13:20] Thank you, JT.

[13:43] Yeah absolutely.

[13:56] Oh, it does.

[13:59] Yeah.

[14:00] There we go.

[14:02] Just 5 more minutes.

[14:09] get

[14:14] go good.

[15:11] favorite?

[15:13] say great probably.

[15:18] All right.

[15:19] tell me.

[15:39] It's very entertaining if you want to.

[16:14] Thank you, guys.

[16:17] In the hall

[16:52] Well, thank you very much for that, Drew.

[16:54] We'll move now to our agender revisions.

[16:57] If there are any, are there any changes to the agenda?

[16:59] There are none, Mr. Chairman.

[17:01] And I will poll the board members now, um, for abstentions,

[17:04] and I'll start with Mr. Spots, would you have?

[17:06] I have an unjair.

[17:07] Thank you, Mr. Hurl.

[17:08] I'm sorry, Mr. Stanley.

[17:11] I have none.

[17:12] Uh, per one?

[17:13] I have none.

[17:14] Sputler?

[17:14] I have none.

[17:15] No, surely?

[17:16] I have none.

[17:16] Thank you, Mr. Bergeron.

[17:18] None.

[17:19] Thanks, Mr. Martinez.

[17:22] Thanks.

[17:22] Unfortunately, all the Big Cypress Basin people just left, because

[17:25] now it's time for the Big Cypress Basin Border Port.

[17:28] There's, there's one left.

[17:30] There's one left.

[17:32] Thank you, Mr Chair.

[17:33] This is the big cypresspace and board summary for August 28, 2026.

[17:38] Lisa Keeler, our basin administrator, announced

[17:41] that the final public hearing for the corkscrew watershed

[17:44] initiative will be held on September 30th

[17:47] at 1 p.m. at the basin's administrative office.

[17:51] This three year study was designed to identify potential

[17:54] projects that could help restore the historical hydrology

[17:57] of the Audubon's corkscrew,

[18:00] swamp sanctuary, while also balancing

[18:03] flood control concerns for downstream areas.

[18:07] The initiative involved an extensive modeling effort

[18:10] conducted in partnership with technical working groups comprised

[18:14] of representatives from numerous local agencies across the West Coast.

[18:19] We are excited to present the findings and the results,

[18:22] and hopefully advance several projects in the coming years.

[18:26] Lisa also provided an update on the bird rookery swamp

[18:29] boardwalk replacement project.

[18:31] Although conditions have been dry across the

[18:34] west coast over the past several months, the favorable

[18:37] weather has allowed us, and the contractor

[18:41] to work ahead of schedule.

[18:42] We are currently anticipating that the project will

[18:45] be completed before the end of the year.

[18:47] at which time we look forward to celebrating with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

[18:53] Next, Rick Bauer, science supervisor from Land

[18:56] Resources, followed with an update on the Crew Marsh Restoration

[18:59] Project, covering last year's vegetation

[19:03] reduction, and prescribed fire treatments, along

[19:07] with restoration research as well as planned future work.

[19:10] Lastly, Candy Heater presented the basin's fiscal

[19:14] year 2026, 2027 Miligian budget for approval,

[19:17] and the board approved the continued military rate

[19:21] of .0978 for fiscal year 2026,

[19:24] 2027, requesting that the governing board

[19:27] to lovey ad valorum taxes within the big Cypress basin.

[19:32] And the board also approved the fiscal year 2026,

[19:36] 2027 based budget of $23,648,374

[19:42] and submitted it to the governing board for inclusion in the district's budget.

[19:47] We closed out the meeting with technical and staff reports, and

[19:50] our next meeting is going to be October 23rd, 2026 at 11 AM.

[19:55] And Mr. Chair, that concludes my report, subject to the board's questions.

[19:59] Thanks very much, Colonel Roman.

[20:01] Does anyone have any comments or questions?

[20:04] Thank you for that report.

[20:07] We'll move now to the approval of the minutes from our August 13th, 2026 meeting.

[20:11] Does anyone have any changes they'd like to make to those minutes?

[20:14] If not, does anyone want to make a motion to approve those minutes?

[20:17] The move?

[20:18] So I have a motion?

[20:19] And I have a second.

[20:20] Is there a further discussion?

[20:21] Hearing none.

[20:22] We'll call that question.

[20:23] Mr. Spotswood.

[20:24] Yes?

[20:25] Thank you, Mr. Steinlein.

[20:26] Yes.

[20:27] I'm gonna vote.

[20:27] Yes.

[20:28] Coron?

[20:28] Yes.

[20:29] Mr. Butler?

[20:29] Yes?

[20:30] Mr. Hurley?

[20:31] Yes.

[20:31] And Mr. Bergeron.

[20:33] Yes?

[20:33] Mr. Martinez?

[20:36] Yes.

[20:36] Facts, that passes unanimously.

[20:39] moving right along to the executive director's report with Mr. Bartlett.

[20:44] Thank you, Mr. Tara.

[20:46] Well, I'd like to start out by congratulating Alligator Ron

[20:49] Bergeron for his reappointment to the board.

[20:52] We all very much appreciate his experience in

[20:55] the Everglades, so happy to have him back

[20:59] on the board and reappointed.

[21:01] Follow that up with potentially, arguably, more exciting news.

[21:05] And that is that Jack Walter

[21:08] Spotswood was born into this world last Saturday,

[21:12] new son of Robert Spotswood Jr.

[21:15] So congratulations.

[21:17] That's why he looks a little fatigued today.

[21:24] So on to more serious matters.

[21:26] We did update and provided for you and

[21:29] there's copies for the public, a new

[21:32] quarterly update for our stormwater treatment areas and their quarterly performance.

[21:36] And if you look at it, they're doing well.

[21:39] They're all within the regulatory limits as we stand here.

[21:42] But it also has a description of some of the activities

[21:45] that are going on out of the stormwater treatment area.

[21:49] So that's available for anyone who wants to take advantage of it.

[21:54] Uh, let's say an update.

[21:56] So last July 20, uh, 25,

[21:59] The governor with the Department of Army signed the landmark

[22:03] agreement to expedite the EAA reservoir and

[22:06] the Blue Shanty flowway.

[22:08] And actually, a year

[22:11] ago today, we broke ground on the blue shanty flowway.

[22:13] And then in July, we were at

[22:17] that project, which is ahead of schedule and looking really good,

[22:20] to sign the agreements for the district to

[22:23] start building of infrastructure with federal dollars.

[22:27] And part of that agreement was to build the final pump

[22:30] station for the EAA reservoir.

[22:32] So after that was signed in July, August 17th,

[22:35] part of that process as we send a solicitation package

[22:38] to Colonel Bowman.

[22:40] And he reviews it at Jacksonville.

[22:43] And we cannot go forward until we

[22:46] get the approval of that.

[22:47] And yesterday after noon, we got the approval

[22:50] of that solicitation package for the last pump station for

[22:54] the EAA reservoir.

[22:55] And that is that's great.

[22:57] So now we can solicit.

[22:59] So we're putting that package together and hopefully we'll get that out next week

[23:02] and hopefully have a contract to sign.

[23:06] We'll bring it to the board, hopefully November, sign the contract by

[23:09] the end of the year, to get the seepage, it's

[23:12] a seepage pump station to control seepage out of the reservoir and provide

[23:15] flood control for the neighbors.

[23:17] That's the final pump station for the EAA reservoir.

[23:20] Um, so that uh, that is progressing.

[23:23] Got that approval yesterday, so that was exciting.

[23:27] Yesterday, um, we joined the governor

[23:30] at the C23 Estuary Discharge Diversion

[23:34] ribbon cutting.

[23:35] And that is a project that we don't often talk about, but it's

[23:38] a really critical project for the St.

[23:40] Lucie estuary.

[23:41] And that project is designed.

[23:43] The flood control system for the C23 canal was

[23:46] designed to provide flood control for St.

[23:48] Lucie and Martin County by taking that water and discharging it into the St.

[23:52] Lucie estuary directly, no treatment.

[23:54] This diversion project takes that water

[23:57] and moves it to the C44 reservoir for storage and

[24:00] treatment so that it gets that before impacting

[24:03] any ecosystems.

[24:04] So if no water comes out of that canal to the St.

[24:07] Lucy estuary, it is protected.

[24:11] We put together this graphic for you.

[24:13] And this is when it came online.

[24:15] In the middle of May, 2026.

[24:18] So it was discharging, the C23 canal was

[24:21] discharging harmfully to the St.

[24:22] Lucie estuary until it came online.

[24:25] And we've been able to use this project to divert all water necessary

[24:28] that was otherwise gonna get discharged from the estuary over

[24:32] to the C44 reservoir.

[24:33] So it's one that we don't talk about much, but it makes a

[24:37] big difference for the folks that live around St.

[24:38] Lucie estuary, because that's a big canal.

[24:41] And so there's a lot.

[24:42] 5000000000 gallons have already been diverted from the St.

[24:46] Lucie estuary.

[24:47] And we have a water quality monitoring

[24:50] station right there at that estuary discharge, and you can

[24:53] see the difference in it, between when it's discharging and when it's not.

[24:56] So, it's a meaningful project that I just wanted

[24:59] to highlight with my executive director's report.

[25:03] So I want to finish my report because we're in budget

[25:06] season, adopting a budget, um, to talk,

[25:09] give you an update on the district efficiency team.

[25:11] So we established this District Efficiency team about

[25:14] a year and a half ago, and they're put together to

[25:17] facilitate improvements in district processes, to create,

[25:21] make it more effective and efficient and help us get our job done.

[25:24] Um, There's a portal.

[25:27] folks on staff can submit ideas.

[25:30] We've gotten over a 100 of them.

[25:32] This team facilitates looking through them and

[25:35] processing them and engaging IT

[25:39] and other resources to make them happen.

[25:40] So I want to give you a report out on some of the things they've done.

[25:44] They have already implemented systems

[25:47] to automated budget uploads, payroll

[25:50] processing, automate employee onboarding,

[25:53] automate income tax processing, and automate leave administration.

[25:58] These were all done manually, right?

[26:00] By people in the administrative services division, uh,

[26:04] just doing it transaction by transaction.

[26:07] Now that's automated using computing systems.

[26:09] They have created new systems to develop and

[26:12] train employees more effectively and efficiently and efficiently.

[26:16] And this includes safety training and computer systems

[26:19] training in areas that are critical to us like SAP,

[26:23] GIS, and then new systems like power BI,

[26:26] and of course, the evolving suite of AI tools.

[26:29] We now have a way to train these

[26:32] employees, really kind of online through different methods

[26:35] and means that it can be put together very quickly.

[26:38] you know very little contracting out of this training at this point.

[26:43] We are on the precipice of launching new systems to streamline recruitment.

[26:47] Purchase card processing, contract management and

[26:50] documentation and bank statement reconciliation.

[26:54] This one was a big effort.

[26:55] When you think about all the transactions that

[26:58] we use using purchase cards, all through our field stations,

[27:02] our IT shops, our sampling and

[27:05] laboratory crews, lot of transactions

[27:09] done with that credit card.

[27:11] And they have to be documented.

[27:13] The paperwork has to be filed, the paperwork has to be audited, the

[27:16] paperwork has to be reconciled, automated.

[27:19] That used to be done manually.

[27:20] We used to be able to only audit a sample.

[27:24] Now with this automation, honestly, you can audit 100%, right?

[27:28] So it's, that's the one

[27:31] that I am particularly excited about, because I've seen the transaction

[27:34] workload that that involves picking

[27:38] up new processes to really try to try to streamline

[27:41] and organize and produce a South Florida environmental report.

[27:45] That's a big thing we do and we have to do every march.

[27:48] So these efforts, I just want to brag on that team and brag on

[27:51] the things they've been accomplished and really kind of conclude with

[27:55] why we do this, right?

[27:57] And you've seen this graph before.

[28:00] So we've updated it.

[28:02] And this basically, let me see if I can get over here.

[28:06] So this is over the last 15 years, right?

[28:10] We have reduced RFTEs, 17%.

[28:14] We have reduced our operating budget, 12%.

[28:17] Things are more expensive, but we've been able to get that efficiency in

[28:20] place because we've been innovative over that time frame, and we continue to be.

[28:25] But that's less expenses, right?

[28:28] But we're producing more.

[28:29] Our environmental resource permitting

[28:33] has gone up 43% over this time frame.

[28:35] Our critical infrastructure to maintain has gone

[28:38] up 58% over this time frame, mostly in our stormwater treatment areas.

[28:42] The land we manage has gone up 82%

[28:46] during that time.

[28:47] And now, with the incredible public focus on

[28:51] building new infrastructure and managing contracts

[28:54] to build that new infrastructure, our contract management

[28:57] and infrastructure building has gone up 600%.

[29:01] over that time frame.

[29:05] While reducing expenses, right?

[29:07] So, I just wanted to leave that with you as we contemplate

[29:10] adopting another effective and efficient budget.

[29:13] Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[29:17] Thank you, Mr. Bartlett.

[29:18] We get a taller executive director.

[29:21] Very well done.

[29:22] Does anyone have any questions or comments for Mr. Barlow?

[29:27] Don't let you height limit you.

[29:29] Let's make it taller.

[29:29] There you go.

[29:31] Keep going.

[29:33] I've got a quick question.

[29:35] Early.

[29:36] On the C 23 canal, you

[29:39] know, historically, when we get real dry, ag interests

[29:43] along that canal sometime have a tough time getting their

[29:46] water allocation.

[29:47] Well, this will we be able to reverse the flow and

[29:51] provide water when we actually need water there?

[29:53] No, it is a one way direction, right?

[29:56] And so the other reservoirs that are built.

[29:58] They'll be able to bring it down.

[30:00] Yeah, so what the secondary process on the

[30:03] C23 and 24 canals is the new reservoirs

[30:06] that are in the plan.

[30:07] They're just not built yet.

[30:08] But that's where you can just pump the extra water in those for the dry season.

[30:12] Great.

[30:13] you.

[30:13] Yep.

[30:14] Anyone else?

[30:16] Thank you, Ms. Bartlett.

[30:18] Well, moving now to general, our 1st public comment period.

[30:21] If you're here to comment on a specific agenda item, we ask, I don't think, or

[30:24] any, we ask that you hold your comment until we reach that item, the

[30:27] comment period is for general comments, not related to agenda items, and we

[30:30] appreciate your helping and running an efficient meeting on that.

[30:33] We're talking about efficiency today, public comment, and consent agenda

[30:36] items, that's 13, or I'm sorry, that's 12 on the agenda.

[30:39] The public had an opportunity to provide written comments prior to this meeting.

[30:43] We did not receive any e comments.

[30:45] Are there any general public comments?

[30:48] Yes, Mr. Chairman, we'll begin with Ben Olsen,

[30:51] followed by Newton Cook.

[31:02] Good afternoon, Governing Board, executive director and staff.

[31:06] The speech is gonna be far more positive than my second speech today.

[31:09] This speech is about warp and the feeder canal basin water quality program,

[31:12] and, you know, if I could tell myself two years ago that I

[31:15] was going to say that I'd be speaking about a warp speech as positive.

[31:18] I'd probably think I was brainwashed.

[31:20] But, um, I wanna say this wholeheartedly.

[31:22] I believe not only myself, but the other landowners are beginning to

[31:25] see a light at the end of the tunnel.

[31:27] And just to clarify, there's still a lot of work to be done.

[31:30] And we aren't there yet, but to steal a line from governing board

[31:33] member Alligator Ron, I do believe we are heading in the right direction.

[31:35] Just to start with last month, I mentioned to you that the Seminole

[31:39] tribe had invited the landowners to a meeting before the land steward meeting,

[31:42] and I'm happy to report that not only was that a successful and productive

[31:45] meeting, but I think that it was a critical step in rekindling generations

[31:48] of ties between the tribe and their neighbors, the landowners

[31:51] of the West Feeder Basin and the L28 gap.

[31:54] What I saw was a genuine desire from tribe staff to engage with us, and

[31:57] there was an understanding that more tribal members would be included in the conversation with us moving forward.

[32:01] And as many of the landowners and staffers joked there.

[32:04] We just work on this together, we'll have it whipped immediately.

[32:07] The more pressing meeting, however, the Land Steward meeting itself happened last Thursday,

[32:10] and I want to start by saying, thanks to all

[32:13] the staff for hosting us together.

[32:15] I'm sure there were a lot of questions going into this and a little bit of a concern.

[32:18] But I think it's safe to say everyone agreed that the format of having all entities

[32:22] represented together was not only possible, but quite cooperative and productive.

[32:25] Going to the meeting, I had a ton going on, which I'll speak

[32:28] about in the next comment period, but I wanted to give you a short perspective of my

[32:31] up the meeting from my perspective.

[32:34] Unfortunately, some analysis I intended to have done

[32:37] prior to the meeting didn't get finished.

[32:39] I am just one man, and I forget that at times, I don't have a staff,

[32:42] and I have to triage.

[32:43] So, um, I was looking over what

[32:46] I had done before the meeting and sometimes I find myself a bit foolish.

[32:49] When I did the historical flow pass from the West Feeder Basement Report,

[32:52] I skipped over some pretty critical sections.

[32:54] I had focused at the time just on Kissimmee Billy Road and

[32:57] the lard can section line, I skipped over the 2 miles in between,

[33:00] where I believe the Kissimmee Billy Strander sloop actually was.

[33:04] And so I was looking at that before the meeting, but

[33:07] when looking at the modeling that staff put together with Chen Moore.

[33:11] The modeling showed the area I'm speaking about had more of a flow than originally

[33:14] believed in the 1st rounds of modeling.

[33:16] Since I couldn't provide the analysis physically.

[33:18] I instead explained where I felt culverts needed to be moved and modeled,

[33:21] and where we should take water from to avoid flooding privately on panther habitat.

[33:24] I don't intend to bury you in the weeds on this.

[33:26] The point I'm making is while I was discussing this.

[33:28] I was able to look up, engage the temperature from all individuals in the room.

[33:32] I'm not one to beat around the bush, I'll be direct.

[33:34] It was incredibly refreshing, to be able to not only engage your staff,

[33:38] but tribal staffers in other agencies positions as well as we spoke,

[33:41] and just to be clear, I didn't take any nods, disagreements, or disagreements, rather,

[33:44] I took them as genuine considerations of alternatives, that we can

[33:47] work together to overcome all issues to

[33:50] critically regarding critically pristine habitat while also finding solutions

[33:53] to make both tribes whole.

[33:55] And there are certainly more hurdles to overcome, particularly Region 3 and

[33:58] how water will be distributed down the line, but I believe meetings like the Land Steward

[34:02] meeting with all entities at the table are the only path forward.

[34:05] So again, I deeply appreciate staff.

[34:07] You guys for allowing us to be at the table as

[34:10] well as travel representatives for joining us.

[34:12] Thank you, Mr. Butler, for asking a few months ago for us to have that meeting.

[34:15] It really was a successor.

[34:17] Thank you.

[34:17] Thank you Mr. Olsen.

[34:18] Next, we'll hear from Newton Cook, followed by Mark Perry.

[34:30] Thank you, Newton Cook, United Waterfalls, of Florida.

[34:33] Great day yesterday.

[34:35] I think a lot of you were there.

[34:40] Good to see water moving.

[34:42] Good to see water moving.

[34:43] That's what we have to do.

[34:45] And moving it to a right place.

[34:49] Uh, C 44, and, uh...

[34:54] He does have some duck on it on it.

[34:57] So, anyway, uh, ducks

[35:01] eating starts in two weeks, and I always like to think,

[35:05] the district and the FWC, and all the

[35:09] staff from top to bottom, and I always think about the

[35:13] young, most of the time, young ladies who do the

[35:16] check stations.

[35:19] They're up at 2:00 in the morning, they get to the check station,

[35:23] a little before 4:00, they open the gates, and

[35:26] they're looking at anywhere from 30

[35:29] to 50...

[35:33] duck hunters, who...

[35:36] Alright, let's just say, can sometime be a little rowdy.

[35:41] as they scrambled to get out to the marsh, and

[35:44] it is a bit of a chase.

[35:47] You're chasing daylight for one, and then you're also chasing a

[35:50] guy in front of you, you've got a boat, you might be faster than yours.

[35:54] These people never get the credit that

[35:58] they should get, and they're there until dark that night.

[36:04] And they get paid nothing.

[36:05] Incidentally nothing.

[36:07] But they're all starting out for careers.

[36:10] And the, uh, environmental,

[36:14] and management area.

[36:17] So bless them all.

[36:20] Lake O still in great shape.

[36:23] We're not getting enough rain to hurt it, and we're getting just enough to get a little slow

[36:26] rise, that's going to get the vegetation going,

[36:30] and I think we're going to get through this whole year without a storm, and

[36:33] if we get that done and not stir the muck up, we

[36:38] could go into next year, which would be going into the 3rd year,

[36:41] with a reasonably good habitat

[36:46] for the fish and ducks, and for all the people

[36:49] who come for vacation, and spend time on the,

[36:52] lake.

[36:54] The problems we have on the lake, there's too much spring.

[36:58] Somehow another, we've got to get off this idea that Florida

[37:02] is Disneyland, and has to have a lot of open water.

[37:05] We are a semi tropical environment here,

[37:08] have you ever been anywhere in that type of a tropical

[37:11] environment, all the lakes and rivers and everything

[37:14] are covered, impacting you fly over it, look down, not even though there's water there.

[37:19] And we've got to quit doing that here because it is destroying

[37:22] our habitats, and our wildlife.

[37:25] And I recommended that we cut the spraying budget for 50% for every year.

[37:30] So if people concentrate on what needs to be done, and

[37:33] not like Disneyland.

[37:34] Thank you.

[37:34] Thank you, Mr. Cook.

[37:36] Next, we'll hear from Mark Perry, followed by Ryan

[37:39] Rossi, who is on Zoom.

[37:44] Thank you.

[37:44] Good afternoon, governing board.

[37:47] It was a good day yesterday.

[37:48] Of course, at the New River Lagoon South Project,

[37:51] where we made that connector canal from the

[37:54] C 23 basin down to the C 44 basin, and that

[37:58] really helps to kind of connect those basins,

[38:01] particularly this time, because we haven't finished the C 23,

[38:05] 24 reservoir SDA projects, which will help store

[38:08] water in that basin.

[38:09] But now in the interim time, we could move that water down

[38:12] through this connect canal.

[38:14] So it's a great project.

[38:15] It was part of the IRL South plan and I'm glad we're moving forward on that.

[38:18] It connects us in that estuary.

[38:21] That St.

[38:22] Lucy River estuary, as you know, is really

[38:25] key, as is all estuaries around.

[38:27] If you take it out from Jacksonville down to Pensacola

[38:30] trip around a state, you're going about 1200 miles.

[38:34] But we have over 8,400 miles of tidal

[38:37] shorelines all along our coast.

[38:39] A lot in the Gulf and in the Atlantic, uh,

[38:42] they're hit by Barrier Islands, where all the creeks and streams and

[38:45] tributaries and rivers, all come down and and the

[38:48] marshes interact with the ocean through the inlets and passes.

[38:52] And that interaction in that estuary, that forms that estuary,

[38:56] that mixture of that salt and fresh water, which is so vital

[38:59] for our ecology in our state.

[39:01] And our fishery, over 95% of

[39:05] all the commercial recreational fisheries depend on those estuaries,

[39:09] in those juvenile stages, or some stages of their lifecycle.

[39:12] That's a lot.

[39:13] There's a lot of dependence upon these estuaries.

[39:17] Not only those habitats they produce and everything, but they create buffers.

[39:21] The storm buffers, like the mangrove shorelines and

[39:24] the salt marshes, create that storm buster, some storm

[39:27] surge that comes into our coastlines.

[39:29] And they also create a lot of habitat,

[39:32] of course, for our fish and shellfish, but also that, you

[39:36] know, those nursery areas are really key for

[39:39] unique species.

[39:40] You know, like are dolphins or manatees, charismatic megafauna.

[39:45] But it's also key to those, uh, particularly like,

[39:48] um, small to sawfish and really unique animals.

[39:51] We have such a biodiversity of dependence

[39:54] upon estuaries.

[39:56] So September's estuaries month, we're celebrating

[39:59] that national estuaries week later on this month.

[40:01] But just remember, estuaries around the coast.

[40:05] Appalachicola Bay, Rookery Bay.

[40:07] We have some national preserves.

[40:08] We have unique Tampa Bay and the Indian River

[40:11] Lagoon, you know, it's just, I can go on and on.

[40:15] There's these tremendous estuaries.

[40:17] All of Florida Bay, the Everglades coming into Florida Bay is

[40:20] that 10,000 islands.

[40:21] I mean, just such a unique areas that

[40:24] are just key to our state.

[40:27] So I hope we do everything we can to protect them

[40:30] and keep on this, these B

[40:33] maps and this TMDLs to get those right in

[40:36] these watersheds, particularly the 2 estuaries on each coast.

[40:39] Thank you and I appreciate your work on it.

[40:42] Thank you, Mr. Perry.

[40:43] Next, we'll move over to Zoom, and we have Ryan Rossi.

[40:52] Please unmute, Mr. Rossi.

[40:56] Sorry about that.

[40:57] Can you hear me?

[40:57] We hear you.

[40:59] Okay, thank you, um, and thank you for the opportunity to, uh, give comment today.

[41:03] Um, good afternoon to everybody protecting,

[41:06] uh, South Waters, uh, South Florida's water supply,

[41:09] um, is simply our, uh, environmental responsibility.

[41:13] Um, it's essential to our communities,

[41:17] to our homes, our businesses, our ecosystem, our quality of life.

[41:22] And I know that, you know, our region has experienced,

[41:25] uh, prolonged drought conditions now at this point, uh,

[41:29] for months and months.

[41:30] We've tried to navigate our way through this very hot and dry summer.

[41:35] Um, I, it's good news that we're starting to see, you

[41:38] know, more sustained rainfall, uh, at this point, actually, it's raining right now where I am.

[41:42] And so I think that that should help be

[41:45] a welcome relief to improving drought conditions in some areas.

[41:49] Um, but as I've said many times, uh, before it's

[41:52] gonna take more than, you know, uh, uh, a

[41:55] couple of days of rain.

[41:56] Hopefully, it's gonna be more sustained than that to reverse what's

[42:00] what we've been dealing with, you know, for longer than that.

[42:04] in parts of South Florida, especially.

[42:05] Um, These effects are certainly

[42:08] visible at Lake Okeechobee, um, which

[42:11] is one of the most important components of South Florida's water system.

[42:15] Um, as of today, I think the lake is around 11

[42:18] feet, which is still about 3 feet below, more, uh,

[42:21] 3 feet below, its historical average for this time of year.

[42:24] Um, there's certainly some benefit to that.

[42:27] We've heard people speak to that before.

[42:28] But we have to hope that we don't

[42:32] continue in these prolonged drought conditions, and we do get the rain.

[42:35] We need to replenish the lake and prevent,

[42:38] you know, some other issues from happening.

[42:40] Uh, that's why conservation remains so important,

[42:43] um, even when we are getting rain, every

[42:46] gallon we save today strengthens our ability to withstand tomorrow's

[42:49] dry conditions, and I'm sure we'll experience dry conditions again.

[42:52] We can all help by following local

[42:56] watering schedules, using water efficient

[42:59] appliances, simple stuff at home, limiting

[43:02] unnecessary irrigation, and avoiding that kind of water waste.

[43:07] So, uh, rainfall may provide temporary

[43:10] relief, but conservation provides long term resilience,

[43:13] and that's why protecting our supply, as I've always

[43:16] said, requires action from from you all, uh,

[43:19] from our government businesses, um, and certainly by every resident.

[43:23] Um, we need to continue to treat water as

[43:27] the precious, limited resource that it is, and

[43:30] that will only serve to benefit the rest of South Florida communities in general going forward.

[43:35] So I appreciate the time to make that comment, and we'll talk to you next time.

[43:39] Thank you, Mr. Rossi.

[43:41] Mr. Chairman, we have no additional public comments.

[43:44] Well, thank you all very much for your comments.

[43:46] We're gonna move now to board comment.

[43:48] And if Mr. Spotswood is awake, which he is.

[43:51] Congratulations to you, and we'll start with you.

[43:53] Thank you.

[43:54] Um, I, uh, uh, you know, Drew

[43:57] and staff, I'm sorry I wasn't able to be at the ribbon cutting yesterday, but really, really, uh, cool.

[44:01] I was watching through social media, and other, and seeing what was going on,

[44:04] and, um, you know, kudos to all the folks that

[44:07] were here before that paved the way and got that project going and done,

[44:11] um, really, really big accomplishment.

[44:14] Um, the only other thing I have to add is there's no way we're getting through this season without a hurricane.

[44:21] Thank you for saying that.

[44:23] Styling it out.

[44:24] I love the balance.

[44:26] Um, Mr. Chair, no

[44:29] comment other than, um, uh,

[44:32] congratulating Ron for being reappointed.

[44:36] I think we, I know I am a stronger

[44:39] board member with your, uh, experience and,

[44:43] uh, insight, uh, and, uh, appreciate your continued service.

[44:47] Thanks, Mr. Stanley.

[44:49] Colonel Roman.

[44:49] Thank you, Miss...

[44:50] Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[44:51] I have a couple of items this morning.

[44:54] First of all, I had the opportunity to attend

[44:58] the environmental permitting summer school.

[45:01] that's hosted by the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

[45:05] And it was a great conference,

[45:08] and so many of our stakeholders.

[45:10] Really appreciate the access to

[45:14] us when we're in these in when

[45:18] we put ourselves out there for those opportunities.

[45:21] And Drew, Jen

[45:24] Smith, and Mara Cruz were a part of

[45:27] panels, and really did a

[45:30] tremendous job in representing the district, and I just wanted to

[45:33] give all three of you a shout out, 'cause it takes an extra effort.

[45:37] When you've got your regular job, right?

[45:39] And then you're preparing for this and then you're on the road.

[45:41] So, great job on that.

[45:45] Um, it was wonderful to see the, uh,

[45:48] big Cypress Basin, uh, field station team recognized today.

[45:52] Uh, I have a soft spot in my heart

[45:55] for all field station teams, but that

[45:58] one in particular is like at the top of the list, and

[46:01] Drew, um, shared some very

[46:04] important, uh, accomplishments by

[46:07] by these, these guys and gals.

[46:10] And I just want to tell

[46:13] you a little bit more, if I could, about the green heart of

[46:16] the Everglades.

[46:18] I was out there on my third visit.

[46:20] to our work out there with land

[46:23] management and getting it prepped for the

[46:27] public recreation.

[46:29] And this is our 11,000,

[46:32] roughly 11,000 acres that we acquired, a

[46:35] couple years back, that we put into,

[46:38] um, protected management,

[46:42] protected conservation and management, and

[46:45] Mayor Cruz and her team, her legal

[46:48] team, were instrumental, and putting together the management plan.

[46:53] And uh, Rory Feeney was instrumental

[46:56] in putting together the land management piece of that.

[47:00] And this is an incredible acquisition

[47:03] that this district was able to make.

[47:06] And one part of it has this

[47:10] dilapidated little shack, an old septic tank,

[47:13] a failed seawall, trees

[47:16] that were rotten and dying and falling

[47:20] into the water in this pristine environment

[47:24] of grasslands and part of the Everglades off of 41.

[47:29] So, there's no real money

[47:32] yet for improvements to Greenheart of the Everglades.

[47:37] And the Big Cypress Basin field

[47:40] station team said, We can do it in house.

[47:44] They told Rory Feeney that they could do it in house,

[47:47] and they could get it started to a point where we could bring

[47:50] it to the public sooner rather than later.

[47:53] And so what those guys did was

[47:57] remove the seawall, like you heard Drew say, the trees, were getting it ready.

[48:02] We're working on a very fine line for a budget.

[48:06] And, they did it in

[48:09] conjunction with providing training for new employees

[48:12] of their field station.

[48:14] So it was a training opportunity.

[48:17] It was a, you know, recreational

[48:20] opportunity moving forward for the community and our public.

[48:24] It was a land management opportunity.

[48:27] I mean, I can't be prouder of the folks like

[48:31] this that we get to serve with every day in the district because

[48:35] They went, like Drew said, above and

[48:38] beyond what their normal jobs are.

[48:40] So, uh, it was great to see them recognized at

[48:43] at the governing board level.

[48:45] So I just wanted to add that little bit to it.

[48:48] Um, I listened in on the Lostman Slough,

[48:52] um, presentation or meeting.

[48:56] And it was it was excellent.

[48:58] And I've got to get a give a shout out to Mark Cook.

[49:02] Wow.

[49:03] He had some incredible, uh,

[49:07] information about bird nesting and how Losman's,

[49:11] the slew and the eco tone and how this all fit

[49:14] together, and represented the district so

[49:18] well, and had so much great information, and

[49:21] Drew, if in the future, there's an opportunity for the governing

[49:24] board to hear some of that presentation on a smaller

[49:27] scale, uh, just so that that we know, uh,

[49:30] what's going on and why that's so important, but excell

[49:33] ent.

[49:33] And if you haven't been out with Mark Cook.

[49:37] I've had the privilege to be with him.

[49:38] And to go out with him on his census out there.

[49:42] Uh, see if you can find time to,

[49:45] to, to join him because he has a lot of uh, knowledge to share.

[49:51] Great job, Mark.

[49:52] Appreciate it.

[49:54] In each of our monthly packets, there's a, um,

[49:57] update on the Northern Everglades estuaries,

[50:01] uh, protection program.

[50:03] And I wanted to highlight that in this month's

[50:06] interagency spotlight, there's

[50:09] an item for us to

[50:13] reach out.

[50:14] We did a request for proposals for

[50:17] projects in the Avon Park Air Force

[50:20] Range, disperse water management projects, and the Sentinel

[50:23] Landscape boundary in Osceola Highlands and Okeechobee Counties.

[50:28] And so that's in this report.

[50:30] Um, for those that are looking for opportunities

[50:33] to do disperse water management projects.

[50:36] I'm a strong supporter of these projects.

[50:40] Please contact the district and get

[50:43] yourself in line to compete for one of those

[50:46] efforts with our team.

[50:49] And by the way, this continues to be an excellent report.

[50:52] So hats off to those that are pulling that together.

[50:56] Um, I want to also congratulate

[50:59] um, our budget team.

[51:03] You know, candy and Joey Maytock in

[51:06] particular, they do this double.

[51:09] They do all of the budget work for the

[51:12] district and for the governing board and setting this military.

[51:16] They also do it for the basin.

[51:18] So they're doing double duty, and we couldn't really move forward

[51:21] without them, and they're just doing a tremendous job.

[51:24] And I, frankly, I don't know how they do it.

[51:28] Uh, because they are keeping up

[51:31] with, with so much to keep us straight with, with everybody

[51:34] in the numbers and the dollar.

[51:36] So, so thank you for that.

[51:38] And I'd like to congratulate Mr. Bergeron on his reappointment.

[51:42] It's great that I'll be able to, and all of us to

[51:45] be able to stay together, and to serve together, going forward.

[51:49] And lastly, I would like to give a shout out to,

[51:52] um, Honorable Adam Tell, who,

[51:56] uh, joined us, uh, the district and the corps, and joined

[51:59] us for the Picayon Strand ribbon cutting for those of you who were

[52:02] there, you remember meeting him.

[52:04] And, um, he really supported this,

[52:07] uh, one of its kind initiative between

[52:11] the state of Florida, and the federal government,

[52:14] the U.S. Army, uh, to, uh, really,

[52:17] uh, go about, uh,

[52:22] helping share monies and share efforts with getting

[52:25] Everglades restoration projects done more quickly and

[52:28] cutting the red tape.

[52:29] And he even came out with his own initiative, building

[52:32] infrastructure, and less paperwork.

[52:34] But he's moving on to bigger and better things,

[52:37] it looks like, but he's been a supporter of ours, and I'd like to give him a shout out.

[52:42] And, uh, thank him for his efforts to provide

[52:45] more flexibility between, uh, the South Florida water

[52:48] management district and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when he was

[52:51] serving as assistant secretary for civil work.

[52:55] So that's all I have.

[52:56] Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[52:57] Thank you, Colonel.

[52:58] Ms. Butler.

[53:01] Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[53:03] To begin with, I'll echo my other board member

[53:06] comments, congratulations, Mr. Bergeron, on your reappointment.

[53:10] And, um, you know, glad to see you

[53:13] were, yeah, you, you, you were new, you were back

[53:16] on new guy status, and I would encourage you to, we need to

[53:19] look at that little bird down there, and let's make sure to prioritize Blue Shanty.

[53:24] So um, I would encourage you to

[53:27] do that as a new board member there.

[53:31] The, um, uh...

[53:36] Um, you know, yesterday's event with um, governor

[53:40] there, uh, C 23 Diversion Canal, Estuary Diversion Canal.

[53:43] What that will do allow us to

[53:46] fully utilize the C44 Reservoir.

[53:50] And, um, you know, efficiencies being the word, that's efficiencies

[53:53] and getting water moved, but it's also the, the, the, the

[53:56] water quality, the protections of the estuary.

[53:58] That's neat to see that on board.

[54:00] As Mr. Hurley asked on the question, you know, certainly,

[54:03] you know, I mean, those are discharges that are, they're meant to be discharges.

[54:07] They're not, you know, I remember that was a big issue when we were

[54:10] talking that canal was making sure we weren't robbing water from one

[54:13] from one basin and sent it to another that could be used for water

[54:16] supply purposes, but these are water going down there's

[54:19] water that is otherwise be heading out.

[54:21] So that's glad we finally got all that worked out.

[54:24] And great, great, great project, and I don't know what's that.

[54:27] that's in the 90s.

[54:29] Um, yeah, I don't know if the goal is.

[54:31] Yeah.

[54:31] We'll see.

[54:32] We see how the year winds up.

[54:33] Yeah.

[54:35] Yeah, yeah.

[54:36] completions or milestones or ribbon cuttings or groundbreakings.

[54:43] With that, also, Governor referenced it yesterday,

[54:46] but, um, uh, and I missed the August board meeting.

[54:49] But, um, you know, the announcement on uh,

[54:53] phosphorus reductions in the EA, uh, at 65%

[54:56] for this last year, um, uh, congratulations

[55:00] and kudos to the farmers down there.

[55:02] Again, that's above and beyond.

[55:05] Those are doing things that, uh, doing BMPs that, uh,

[55:09] they make a real difference.

[55:11] And, um, and they, um, you

[55:14] know, to go above and beyond a 25%, it takes

[55:17] the pressure off the STAs and, um, Lord knows we need that.

[55:23] With that being said, you know, I don't know if we've talked about

[55:26] it, but just situational awarenesses.

[55:28] Um, where citrus over the

[55:31] years has gone through, um, gone through their deal with the Cillod,

[55:35] and what it's done for citrus screening.

[55:37] I hate to make that comparison.

[55:39] I'm not making that comparison, but I'm sounding the alarms and I'm just making sure everybody's aware.

[55:42] Um, when it comes to um, when

[55:45] it comes to other farming aspects, crop growing, whether it be

[55:49] grasses or sugar cane, or other crops,

[55:52] the mealy bug is a pest that uh, that has

[55:55] really taken on full force here in the last couple months has come kind

[55:58] of out of nowhere, fun, one that we've never had to deal with before.

[56:01] And it is causing some pretty major issues.

[56:05] You know, it'd be interesting to see, um,

[56:09] You know, It has popped up all of a sudden,

[56:12] it's popped up and it's popped up all over the place.

[56:14] Um, we're seeing some major reductions, major crop losses,

[56:18] uh, when it comes to, uh, uh, you know,

[56:21] when it comes to sugarcane, when it comes to grazing grasses.

[56:24] Uh, likes to live in the thatch, really jumps

[56:27] onto the Bahia grass, limpographs, and

[56:30] um, and it's, uh, it is somewhat controllable.

[56:34] But one of the Mother Nature's way of controlling

[56:38] it is water.

[56:39] And getting that water table up and preventing the

[56:42] adult lava from going down and coming through this drought.

[56:45] It has been a tough one.

[56:46] And, um, so it's it's refreshing

[56:49] to finally get some rainfall.

[56:50] Hopefully that's going to help on controlling this bug.

[56:52] It'll be interesting to see how it progresses into years to come.

[56:55] But so keep an eye out for it because it, um,

[56:59] you know, when it comes to agriculture when it comes to food production.

[57:02] It's one that, um, you know, we need to keep an eye on.

[57:06] Um, With that being said, um,

[57:10] Uh, moving on today, uh, on my way down.

[57:14] Canal Point.

[57:16] DEP, they're um, solicitations

[57:19] for in Lake Okeechobee Projects.

[57:22] Um, that's going on this spring and this summer.

[57:25] C and Shoreline, held a kind of a

[57:28] kickoff event today this morning, 10 o'clock,

[57:31] and stop by there for their innovative

[57:35] technology on pumping, uh,

[57:38] sediment out of Laker Kochobee, running it through a process through a polymer.

[57:42] It's uh, you know, it's kind of neat.

[57:44] They've got a cascading waterfall of muck.

[57:48] And, um, and then putting the polymer in with it,

[57:51] and, and kind of getting that sediment to settle

[57:54] out, putting in these big old bags.

[57:55] They got a football field worth of... filter bags

[57:59] that they pump this into and they sequester

[58:02] that sediment in those filter bags, and then the

[58:05] clear water moves its way on out.

[58:07] Um, Again, today was really

[58:10] the 1st official day of pumping there.

[58:12] But they had done kind of some experiment, you know,

[58:15] leading up to it here, and I think they pumped, they said, for 300 and something minutes.

[58:19] I'd call it 5 hours.

[58:20] And in 5 hours, they pulled out, uh,

[58:23] £260 of phosphorus and

[58:27] £1,200, 12 or £1,300 of nitrogen.

[58:30] So, you know, and this is a pay for performance contract.

[58:34] It's exciting to see.

[58:35] Well, all these projects happen in Lake Okechobee.

[58:38] Um, you know, I wish them the best of

[58:41] luck, and I encourage you to check out, uh, check out

[58:45] this, uh, you know, seeing Shoreline.

[58:46] And of course, these other projects that are happening in Lake Okechobee.

[58:49] Um, yeah, they're working on the east side of the lake, kind of where

[58:52] that deeper area where all the sediment begins to pile

[58:55] up at, and um, and then they're able to take that sediment

[58:58] out of the filter bags after they pull it out, and they're

[59:02] going to truck it to a neighboring farm.

[59:04] Um, and it will be used as a soil amendment, uh,

[59:07] much like um, other innovative projects like the agriculture

[59:10] project where it actually pumps it directly.

[59:12] This will be trucked to the farm and used

[59:15] and recycle those nutrients.

[59:17] Um, and they've kind of got, uh, got some things set up so you're

[59:20] not seeing the the metals or other undesirables in this muck.

[59:24] So it's it's exciting to see.

[59:27] But I want to tell them congratulations on a great project and wish

[59:30] them the best of luck.

[59:32] That's my report for today.

[59:34] Thanks, Mr. Butler.

[59:35] Mr. Hurley.

[59:39] Just like to just like to echo everybody's comments on yesterday's event.

[59:43] You know, it's pretty neat to see how,

[59:46] what, a 7 or 8 mile canal can

[59:49] leverage so much existing and feature infrastructure to give us

[59:52] a lot more flexibility and capacity.

[59:55] So that was really, really cool.

[59:56] We used to farm along C23.

[59:58] So I'm really aware of how it kind of it's

[1:00:02] feast or famine, it always seems like.

[1:00:04] And when it's feast too much water, then obviously our

[1:00:07] friends at the estuary pay for it.

[1:00:09] So, really glad to, and the graphics

[1:00:13] you showed, Drew, of how much water has been diverted, that's amazing.

[1:00:19] I mean, it really is.

[1:00:20] Because it's been pretty wet here on the east coast.

[1:00:23] So that's really exciting.

[1:00:26] Um, you know, to the staff that puts on those ribbon cuttings.

[1:00:30] I know it's, takes a lot of work, and they did an exceptional

[1:00:33] job, and it was a great event.

[1:00:34] So I'm a very appreciative of them.

[1:00:37] Um, that's all I have.

[1:00:41] Thanks, Mr. Bergeron.

[1:00:46] Can you hear me?

[1:00:47] We can.

[1:00:48] Okay.

[1:00:50] Well, first of all, uh, I

[1:00:53] just want to say, I said every uh, board meeting,

[1:00:57] it's an honor to sit with my fellow board members and

[1:01:01] and our staff, uh, a

[1:01:05] very big honor, and I do want to thank the governor for my

[1:01:08] reappointment.

[1:01:10] I look forward to the next 4 years.

[1:01:13] Um, In the next 4 years, For

[1:01:17] the 1st time since 1915,

[1:01:21] down at the Tamamee Trail, completed in 1928.

[1:01:26] Uh, we could accomplish the

[1:01:29] natural flow of water to Florida Bay, 2.5

[1:01:33] to 30000 acre feet of water unrestricted

[1:01:36] with no cumulative backups, uh,

[1:01:39] natural flow by gravity, ridge, and flow.

[1:01:42] It's going to be very exciting.

[1:01:44] I want to thank our staff and grew that

[1:01:48] meet once a month, with our federal

[1:01:51] partners, to make sure that everything

[1:01:55] necessary for that water to flow under the bridges,

[1:01:58] under the road that will be completed very shortly in the next few months.

[1:02:03] Uh, That'll be a great day for the Everglades and

[1:02:06] the greatest benefit uh, to projects that

[1:02:10] we started uh, 26 years ago.

[1:02:13] So it's very exciting times.

[1:02:16] Uh, I was at the ribbon cut in.

[1:02:20] It was a great honor to be there on the C 23,

[1:02:25] um, celebrating the completion of the C

[1:02:28] 23 and uh, canal estuary discharge

[1:02:31] diversion project.

[1:02:33] Reducing harmful discharges to the St.

[1:02:36] Lucie estuaries, uh, a

[1:02:40] great project, uh, stormwater treatment.

[1:02:46] This will help out our estuaries

[1:02:49] in that geographical area.

[1:02:52] Um, I do want to thank our staff that's been

[1:02:55] working very hard with the models to make sure in

[1:02:58] the Western Everglades that we uh,

[1:03:03] protect the natural environment of the tribal lands,

[1:03:07] the natural environment of the big cyclist preserve and

[1:03:10] the natural environment of private property owners.

[1:03:13] Uh, extremely important, and I

[1:03:17] want to thank Ben Olsen, uh, what

[1:03:21] that young man is, is the future in regards

[1:03:25] to his hard work working with our staff, uh,

[1:03:28] on making sure at the end of the day, uh,

[1:03:32] that we're truly restoring the Western Everglades.

[1:03:35] Um, I do.

[1:03:40] Want to say that Florida can be the example to

[1:03:43] the rest of the world that we can have

[1:03:47] jobs and economical growth, plan

[1:03:50] growth, and we can have

[1:03:54] a quality of life for future generations.

[1:03:57] Uh, you've heard me say this before.

[1:04:00] We can send someone to the moon in a rocket ship.

[1:04:02] We should be able to save our planet, and

[1:04:06] I can't tell you how honored I am to be apart,

[1:04:10] uh, with my fellow board members to achieve that for

[1:04:14] all our citizens in Florida.

[1:04:16] And I think, That's about all,

[1:04:20] and I just want to say I'm

[1:04:23] looking forward to serving the next 4 years, and I want

[1:04:26] to thank all our stakeholders that are always there.

[1:04:30] We've got the greatest stakeholders

[1:04:34] in the world to make sure we're accomplished all this.

[1:04:37] So thank you very much, uh, Mr. Cheryl.

[1:04:42] Thank you, Mr. Bergeron.

[1:04:43] Mr. Martinez.

[1:04:46] Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[1:04:48] Very quickly, uh, again, uh, congrats to Ron.

[1:04:52] Um, looking forward to uh, working

[1:04:56] with you for the next 4 years, continuing our work,

[1:05:00] and to my colleague, Mr. Spotswood.

[1:05:03] You know, Robert, I'm not sure how old you are, or should I say how

[1:05:06] young you are, but as a grandfather of three,

[1:05:09] My friend, little kids are a young man's game, so,

[1:05:13] uh, I hope you got your game, um,

[1:05:16] your game up to date.

[1:05:19] I could only imagine what that must be like.

[1:05:21] But congratulations, my friend.

[1:05:23] Um, and Mr. Butler, I know

[1:05:26] about the Millie Bug, I deal with it in my backyard all the time.

[1:05:31] Um, so, uh, I hope, uh, I

[1:05:34] hope we can get that under control.

[1:05:37] Nothing else, Mr. Chairman.

[1:05:39] Thanks, Mr. Martinez.

[1:05:41] Mr. Spotsman.

[1:05:43] Um, yeah, actually, I meant to bring up the mealy bug,

[1:05:46] and Ben, thanks for doing so.

[1:05:47] Drew, I wasn't sure if we had any...

[1:05:50] I grew up in Key West.

[1:05:51] We dont got a lot of grass.

[1:05:52] Um, so grazing grass, but I asked about the grasses

[1:05:55] that are around our embankments and levees, and, you know, what kind of potential

[1:05:58] impacts might we at the district see as a result of the mealy bug, if any.

[1:06:02] I was just curious if we had any updates in that regard.

[1:06:08] So we are seeing, um, in the Kalusahachie

[1:06:12] basin, the mealy bug is impacting some of our projects.

[1:06:15] Um, We,

[1:06:18] uh, the land management team is looking at, you

[1:06:22] know, it's more increased mowing right now that

[1:06:25] would support, uh, reducing the mealy bug,

[1:06:28] um, spreading of that.

[1:06:30] So, mowing more often, helps to reduce that.

[1:06:34] And that's all we have at this time.

[1:06:35] We don't have any additional amendments or anything that we can do.

[1:06:42] Thanks for that question.

[1:06:44] At the risk of sounding somewhat redundant, I'd like to

[1:06:47] thank the governor very much for hosting yesterday's

[1:06:50] event in Martin County.

[1:06:52] It was wonderful to see him, and the amount of support he

[1:06:55] gives this organization is incredible.

[1:06:57] And that support comes from his time, and his

[1:07:01] attention, and also his appointments, and I'm thrilled

[1:07:04] that Ron Bergeron has been reappointed.

[1:07:07] He's been a great board member in my estimation, and

[1:07:10] I share with you, Mr. Steinley.

[1:07:12] I've learned a lot from Alligator Ron, and I thank

[1:07:15] Alligator Ron for sharing his wisdom with us.

[1:07:19] One thing that's a little bit sad for me.

[1:07:22] I don't think anyone's mentioned this yet, is that we lost or not

[1:07:25] lost, but we had a really good employee retire recently,

[1:07:28] and that's Phil Flood, who works on the West Coast.

[1:07:31] I don't know, some of you over there here may not know him well.

[1:07:34] I know him very well, and everyone on the West Coast knows them very well,

[1:07:37] because he's an institution.

[1:07:38] Not only is, yeah, the perfect last name for his job, but

[1:07:42] he was a very, very good employee for the district.

[1:07:45] Um, and had been there for decades, and

[1:07:48] always represented the district well, was

[1:07:51] a, always remembered that the public,

[1:07:54] that this is a public agency, and, um, help people out.

[1:07:58] And I know the county commissions over on that coast, and the

[1:08:03] councilmen and all the elected officials really relied

[1:08:06] on him to get answers from the district, and we're going to miss

[1:08:09] him, and I wish him only the best in his retirement.

[1:08:13] I'd also like to congratulate acting secretary, Tell,

[1:08:16] on his recent nomination or appointment, I guess.

[1:08:20] By the President, he's definitely a person who likes to get things done.

[1:08:23] I think the Army's gonna get some more done.

[1:08:25] Now, I hope we can continue to work with him in his new capacity and

[1:08:29] look forward to working with his replacement, when

[1:08:32] they are appointed.

[1:08:34] And that's all I have.

[1:08:36] We will move now to consent.

[1:08:38] Is there any board member who wants to move an item of consent to discussion?

[1:08:43] If not, is there any public comment on consent?

[1:08:46] Yes, Mr. Chairman?

[1:08:47] We have one from Mark Perry.

[1:08:58] Hi, Governing Ward.

[1:08:59] Thank you again, Mark Perry, Florida Oceanographic.

[1:09:01] One on item 17.

[1:09:03] Basically, it's a C 23, 24, uh,

[1:09:06] South Reservoir phase one, the 4.5

[1:09:09] mile canal that you're replacing that there's

[1:09:13] one culvert you're replacing, and I brought with me this map that

[1:09:16] actually is a district map that I got back in

[1:09:19] 1998 from Tommy Stroud.

[1:09:21] And that overlays the St.

[1:09:24] Lucie River basin with a soberlay,

[1:09:27] and you see the shaded areas for the Alpata, Cypress Creek,

[1:09:30] and Palmar, those natural areas, and then the reservoirs in black.

[1:09:33] Not quite the right configuration for South.

[1:09:36] Let me flip this over way over.

[1:09:39] I want to thank you, Jen, for holding that.

[1:09:41] The van of white here, so...

[1:09:43] But I want you to notice that here C 23, C

[1:09:46] 24, and it hooks up to C 25, and all

[1:09:49] these little red dots that you see there are PCs.

[1:09:52] And they ask Tommy, what are those?

[1:09:54] They're project coverts.

[1:09:55] And all those little project coverts enter into works

[1:09:58] of the district, C 23, C 24, and C 25,

[1:10:02] draining all these areas into that.

[1:10:04] If you look real close at this map, you'll see all these little blue

[1:10:07] lines, little tiny blue lines, which are laterals,

[1:10:11] and those laterals are all the little ditches that

[1:10:14] are on all the farmlands, all the lands in here that actually drain

[1:10:17] into those project coverts that drain into that.

[1:10:21] Reason I point this out, is that kind of one you're replacing right

[1:10:24] over in here, is an example of those kind of project

[1:10:27] culverts that are put in, these canals

[1:10:30] built back in 1949 to 1962, were

[1:10:34] built primarily to drain that area, and primarily

[1:10:37] for the agricultural interest there to have that land use.

[1:10:40] And that's great.

[1:10:41] But we end up with this drainage all coming into works

[1:10:44] of the district, and now we're having to make sure we store

[1:10:47] it, treat it, before it goes out either through the

[1:10:51] Connect Canal, to the St.

[1:10:52] Lucie, Southwark, or the St.

[1:10:54] Lucie Northwark.

[1:10:55] So I just want you to be aware that there's a lot of infrastructure

[1:10:59] that's already in place.

[1:11:00] But these 298 districts that you see here are

[1:11:04] phasing out pretty much.

[1:11:05] We've kind of taken over the one Troop Indian town with

[1:11:08] the C44 project, and a lot of the North St.

[1:11:12] Lucie.

[1:11:12] We kind of try to work with those 298 districts.

[1:11:14] They were embedded many years ago in the legislature.

[1:11:17] So, uh, just I appreciate you being aware of them.

[1:11:21] We're all in favor of moving ahead, of course, with the South

[1:11:25] Reservoir project.

[1:11:26] It's longer term on the integrade delivery schedule.

[1:11:30] We know that.

[1:11:31] It's going to take a long time to get that done.

[1:11:32] But again, that connect canal does help in

[1:11:36] the interim before we get the C4 C 2324.

[1:11:39] It helps to move that water from those canals out to

[1:11:42] the C 44, which is operational, right?

[1:11:45] So we're good for that.

[1:11:46] Thanks.

[1:11:47] Thank you, Dan, away.

[1:11:49] Appreciate it.

[1:11:50] Banner Reynolds.

[1:11:51] you.

[1:11:52] Thanks.

[1:11:52] Thank you, Mr. Perry.

[1:11:53] Mr. Chairman, we have no additional public comments on concern.

[1:11:58] Great.

[1:11:58] Uh, thanks for that comment.

[1:11:59] I appreciate it.

[1:12:00] Um, let's see.

[1:12:02] Can I have a motion to second and approve and

[1:12:05] a second to approve, uh, consent?

[1:12:07] So moved.

[1:12:07] I have a motion.

[1:12:08] Okay.

[1:12:09] I have a motion in a second.

[1:12:10] Is there further discussion?

[1:12:12] Hearing none, I'll call the question, Mr. Spotswit?

[1:12:15] Yes.

[1:12:15] Mr. Steinley?

[1:12:16] Yes.

[1:12:16] I'm gonna vote.

[1:12:17] Yes, Colonel Roman?

[1:12:18] Yes.

[1:12:18] Mr. Butler?

[1:12:19] Mr. Hurley?

[1:12:20] Yes.

[1:12:21] And Mr. Bergeron?

[1:12:23] Yes.

[1:12:23] Thank you, Mr. Martinez.

[1:12:25] Yes.

[1:12:26] Thanks.

[1:12:27] That passes unanimously.

[1:12:30] We'll move now to technical reports, which is...

[1:12:35] item 22, and that's Mr. Middick and Dr. Armstrong.

[1:12:40] All right, thank you, Mr. Chair.

[1:12:42] So we'll start where we always do, talking about the rainfall.

[1:12:45] You can see over the last couple months, we've had some below average rainfall.

[1:12:49] We've talked a lot about that in the past, so

[1:12:52] far, the month of September is off to a pretty decent start.

[1:12:56] And as we get later on in the

[1:12:59] presentation, I'll talk a lot more about what the future may or may not hold.

[1:13:04] But overall, for the wet season to date,

[1:13:07] you can see we're still about three inches, three

[1:13:10] and a half inches below normal, or about 88% of normal.

[1:13:15] With the southern part of the system being

[1:13:18] the driest down there.

[1:13:22] Looking at the upper chain of lakes.

[1:13:24] You can see since the last time we met, East Lake

[1:13:27] and both West Lake have reached or gone above their

[1:13:30] regulation schedules.

[1:13:31] For Eastlake, we've started managing that lake to

[1:13:34] achieve that slow rise up to its winter pool up

[1:13:38] here so it'll continue to rise up with these rains that you see here at the top.

[1:13:42] For Westlake, we have increased some of the flows

[1:13:45] out of Westlake, down into Lake Kissimmee.

[1:13:49] So what we're doing there is we got it leveled,

[1:13:52] but we're gonna keep it.

[1:13:54] run parallel just slightly above the

[1:13:57] regulation schedule as we continue to rise again up to

[1:14:00] its winter pool with hopefully the rainfall

[1:14:04] here out into the future.

[1:14:06] For Kissimmee, very different from where we were last month

[1:14:09] when we were here.

[1:14:10] You can see it started accumulating not only this direct rainfall,

[1:14:13] but some of those flows coming down from Westlake into

[1:14:17] Kissimmee, Cypress Hashin, and all group, but

[1:14:20] it'll continue to rise up through that schedule, and we'll start increasing

[1:14:24] flows down the river as we start moving

[1:14:27] across into those different zones of the increment one schedule.

[1:14:34] So, even though we had some rainfall, and

[1:14:37] the lakes are starting to fill up.

[1:14:39] The floodplain is still fairly dry.

[1:14:41] Most of the water that's on the floodplain now

[1:14:44] is rainfall driven.

[1:14:46] There's only 140 CFS coming

[1:14:49] through S 65A.

[1:14:50] We were waiting for those stages

[1:14:54] in Kissimmee to get up to the point where we will start

[1:14:57] discharging in order to increase.

[1:14:58] The mean depth on the floodplain remains the

[1:15:01] same at a third of a foot.

[1:15:04] And you can see that is quite a difference from what we

[1:15:07] experienced last year with all the blues that

[1:15:10] are across the floodplain.

[1:15:11] So, or just, uh, waiting

[1:15:14] for the rains.

[1:15:17] And what we can see in the supper graph

[1:15:20] is the flows that we have been going through.

[1:15:22] It's been pretty low for most

[1:15:26] of the summer, you see, there's a little tiny uptick at the very end.

[1:15:30] We're now at an 7 day

[1:15:33] average of 240 CFS.

[1:15:36] And that's reflective of the rains that have been in the watershed.

[1:15:39] One thing that I would like to point out is even though

[1:15:42] the DO concentrations are still in

[1:15:45] the good range for aquatic fauna.

[1:15:48] What you are seeing is over the summer,

[1:15:51] we have started to decline.

[1:15:53] And this is primarily due to increase in temperature.

[1:15:57] And it's also due to potentially some stagnation,

[1:16:01] since we've had such low flow for so long.

[1:16:03] So we're keeping a close eye on it, especially

[1:16:06] as the flow into the river starts to uptick.

[1:16:10] We are expecting further decline in DO

[1:16:13] as the nutrients start to load into the river.

[1:16:17] So we're keeping an eye on that as it comes down.

[1:16:22] So looking at how water's moved around the northern portion of the system, um,

[1:16:26] you can see so far, the total inflows, this water year

[1:16:29] is 192,000, with the majority of it being within the

[1:16:32] last month, with some of those rains, um, that have

[1:16:35] started building on the east coast.

[1:16:37] There's been just shy of 63,000 acre feet,

[1:16:41] has moved back into Lake Okechobee from the C 44 Basin.

[1:16:44] Think someone referenced it earlier in the comments.

[1:16:47] It's not only that water that has been down the

[1:16:50] new infrastructure that you just celebrated yesterday.

[1:16:53] But also that direct rainfall over

[1:16:56] the basin itself.

[1:16:57] So we just recently switched operations around for the reservoir.

[1:17:01] We've got sufficient water in the reservoir at this time, so

[1:17:04] now we're allowing a little bit more of that proportional flow to

[1:17:07] flow back to Lake Okechobee, given the levels of the lake.

[1:17:10] But all of that means there hasn't been any discharges either, basin

[1:17:14] or lake water, from the C44 canal to

[1:17:17] the estuary, and only slight amounts of water,

[1:17:20] less than 20,000, less than 30,000 acre

[1:17:24] feet, coming out of the upper East Coast basins.

[1:17:27] Over on the west coast, just a

[1:17:30] little shy of 200,000 acre feet, and total have

[1:17:33] been moved to the Clusahachie estuary, about 25,000

[1:17:37] acre feet of that, having originated back in Lake Okechobee.

[1:17:42] So I'm going to show you the next 2 graphics, like always, but really later

[1:17:46] on in the presentation, I'll have a little bit more discussion about

[1:17:49] forecasts on the lake and some other things given

[1:17:52] the El Nino that we've talked about in the past.

[1:17:55] But real quick, this is the usual projections

[1:17:58] that you see every month, it's this dotted red

[1:18:01] lines or all of the dotted lines, actually, that

[1:18:04] are the climate and form scenarios.

[1:18:06] So you can see sort of that bump that occurs as

[1:18:09] we get out into the dry season, we start talking about that El Nino.

[1:18:13] So looking at the past couple months, just comparing

[1:18:16] where we were in August for the red dotted

[1:18:20] line to where we are in September, for that red

[1:18:23] dotted line really hasn't changed that much.

[1:18:25] What you'll see is the big change in the solid

[1:18:28] red line from August to September.

[1:18:31] That is using the historical information.

[1:18:35] It is not considering our climate forecast

[1:18:38] and that sort of thing, with our new updated

[1:18:41] tool and our updated approach.

[1:18:43] But again, like I said, I'll come back to this later on in the

[1:18:46] presentation and talk a little bit more.

[1:18:51] So looking at the month of August, we've seen a

[1:18:55] pretty significant increase in the amount of inflow to

[1:18:58] the lake, but as we've also seen some outflow.

[1:19:02] And overall, we've increased the flow

[1:19:05] into the lake or we've had a net flow into the lake of

[1:19:08] 100,000 CFS, which resulted

[1:19:11] in a whopping .06

[1:19:15] feet increase in stage.

[1:19:17] So we're not seeing any major

[1:19:20] stage increases, which is actually fine.

[1:19:23] It's helpful for the SAV as it's starting to grow in.

[1:19:26] Most of that flow, as you can see, came

[1:19:30] in at the later part of the month,

[1:19:33] mostly through the storm events and with a

[1:19:36] little bit of increased flow.

[1:19:39] And the stage that you

[1:19:42] see here, uh, it's been pretty stable from,

[1:19:46] since July, there is a small uptick here.

[1:19:49] We are just at around 11 feet

[1:19:52] and NGVD 29.

[1:19:55] We are a foot and a quarter of, excuse

[1:19:58] me, a foot and a 3rd below the ecological envelope,

[1:20:01] and we are just above our lowest

[1:20:04] level that we had in 2011.

[1:20:07] The Western Marsh remains very dry.

[1:20:10] about 2 feet below the surface of the water.

[1:20:14] So we're waiting for water to come there.

[1:20:17] So, the lake is pretty good.

[1:20:21] And as far as water quality throughout

[1:20:24] the lake, we are doing well.

[1:20:26] The chloroform concentrations throughout the lake are

[1:20:29] fairly low for this time of year.

[1:20:31] The dissolved inorganic nitrogen

[1:20:35] is quite low and that's good.

[1:20:37] Most of that has been taken up with the new SAV.

[1:20:40] We've also got some algobiomass that is taking

[1:20:43] up that DIN and keeping

[1:20:46] it low and turbidity has been low primarily through lack of storms.

[1:20:50] One thing that I did want to point out is the shaded bars.

[1:20:55] So these are the bars that represent the same time

[1:20:58] period for the past 4 years, and you

[1:21:01] can compare that.

[1:21:03] These are, these conditions that we currently have are very typical for

[1:21:07] um, for the lake at this time of year.

[1:21:11] Moving on to the owl gold discussion, we

[1:21:15] have continued to have a moderate

[1:21:18] concentration across the lake.

[1:21:20] It comes, and it goes, depending on how much cloud

[1:21:24] cover we've got, and what's going on.

[1:21:26] But what we have been seeing is this

[1:21:29] persistent area, where

[1:21:32] the algol concentrations have remained

[1:21:35] somewhat elevated.

[1:21:37] And then we do have a few little hot spots along

[1:21:40] the southern shore.

[1:21:41] But for the most part, we're not seeing any anything

[1:21:45] concerning.

[1:21:46] These are normal satellite images.

[1:21:50] And we did a Algol survey, just last

[1:21:54] week, September one and two.

[1:21:55] We have those results back.

[1:21:58] We are starting to see an increase in algobiomass,

[1:22:02] especially in the poles out area, which

[1:22:05] is, right here, we've got

[1:22:08] a nice little bump.

[1:22:09] Here's the results for those.

[1:22:11] Those are all well above the bloom concentration of 40 micrograms per liter.

[1:22:16] But one thing that I do want to point out is that

[1:22:19] it is a mixed community of different types of algae

[1:22:23] and not microsystem dominated.

[1:22:26] And even though we do have some toxin detection.

[1:22:29] Those are cylinder spomopsin toxins,

[1:22:33] which the recreational value for that of

[1:22:36] is of concern is 15.

[1:22:38] So we are well, well below the

[1:22:41] recreational threshold.

[1:22:43] For that particular toxin.

[1:22:45] We also have a couple of other areas that are,

[1:22:49] um, a little elevated L001

[1:22:52] up here in the north has a little bit of a bloom.

[1:22:55] But again, it's a mixed community throughout the,

[1:22:58] um, the lake, and it is not,

[1:23:01] uh, primarily microsystem.

[1:23:03] It's a nice mix of alcohol communities.

[1:23:08] Ah, it is working.

[1:23:10] Can you cut the sound on that?

[1:23:12] So, um, the, the,

[1:23:15] uh, Lakes and Rivers team has gone out, and,

[1:23:18] so anyway, I can, okay, there we go.

[1:23:21] Sorry about that.

[1:23:21] Um, the Lason Rivers folks have done their submerged

[1:23:25] aquatic, um, survey.

[1:23:27] And we are very happy to report that

[1:23:30] we have seen an increase in total acreage compared

[1:23:33] to last year of 2000 acres, which is a 7% increase.

[1:23:38] And a lot of that is due to our vascular plants,

[1:23:41] vascular plants, or like valison area, which is tape grass, or southern Naiad.

[1:23:46] And those primarily live in the northwestern

[1:23:50] part of the shore.

[1:23:51] And then, uh, in the south end is

[1:23:54] more of the macro algae, which uh, dominates

[1:23:57] theirs primarily Cara.

[1:23:58] And we've seen an expansion of the vascular

[1:24:02] plants here into fish eating bay.

[1:24:05] And that is fantastic to see.

[1:24:07] That area got hit pretty hard with Hurricane Irma

[1:24:10] back in 2017.

[1:24:12] And we haven't seen a lot of vascular plants in that area.

[1:24:16] But what we're seeing now is this expansion.

[1:24:19] And it is all recruitment, native recruitment.

[1:24:22] It is not the planning efforts that we did earlier this year.

[1:24:25] In fact, when they went out to plant, they saw that there

[1:24:29] was these bachelor plants already there.

[1:24:31] So we're really happy to see that area is starting to recover.

[1:24:35] The other thing that we're seeing is that the Kira

[1:24:39] is moving northward, which is unusual,

[1:24:42] normally it can prefers to have more of a PD substrate,

[1:24:46] underneath of it, which is what is typical on the southern part of the lake.

[1:24:49] But is now moving up into an area that is more

[1:24:52] of a sandy, rocky bottom.

[1:24:54] So that's kind of curious, but also really good to see.

[1:24:57] So overall, we're seeing an increased coverage

[1:25:00] in our SAV within the lake,

[1:25:03] um, and it's at its highest concentrations that

[1:25:07] it has been for total coverage since 2015.

[1:25:10] So that is great news.

[1:25:13] Moving on to the St.

[1:25:14] Lucie.

[1:25:15] This figure is slightly reorganized

[1:25:19] from what you're used to seeing, but hopefully it'll make it a little bit easier.

[1:25:21] Um, we are looking at daily

[1:25:25] flows here on this graph, and you can see that

[1:25:28] we've had a pretty consistent uh, amount of

[1:25:31] flow from the title basin and from the St.

[1:25:33] Lucy over the past 30 days.

[1:25:36] We've had an average of 719 CFS

[1:25:40] coming into the estuary with most of that coming from the title basin.

[1:25:45] On the bottom here, we have maps for the 14 day salinity

[1:25:49] gradients, and it pretty much looks the

[1:25:52] same between August 6th and September 5th.

[1:25:55] The gradients were pretty much where they were.

[1:25:58] And for the indicators, salinity

[1:26:02] is in the optimum range for oysters at

[1:26:05] HR one site and US one, which the

[1:26:08] optimum salinity is from 10 to 25.

[1:26:11] And then at the A1 A Bridge, we're just slightly over

[1:26:15] it at 26.6 and that's in the upper stress range.

[1:26:19] The oysters in the St.

[1:26:22] Lucie are doing quite well this year, as far as recruitment is concerned.

[1:26:25] Salinity has been in the optimal range

[1:26:28] for those oysters for almost a year now.

[1:26:31] And so we're seeing really good recruitment rates

[1:26:34] coming in, even though we have had a drop in the

[1:26:37] recruitment in August.

[1:26:38] This is normal.

[1:26:39] And we do can expect to continue to see recruitment throughout the fall.

[1:26:45] Moving over to the Kalusahachi, you can see

[1:26:48] the same setup on the slide.

[1:26:49] We've gotten a couple of storm

[1:26:53] events over there over the past month, and that has

[1:26:56] resulted in a significant increase in flow to

[1:26:59] that estuary.

[1:27:00] Over the past 30 days, we've had 2595

[1:27:05] CFS with an equal distribution between the

[1:27:08] title basin and the C 43 basin.

[1:27:11] And so, as a result, the 14 day salinity

[1:27:15] gradient has moved downstream compared

[1:27:18] to where it was last year, which is what we want to see.

[1:27:21] We're starting to see the gradient in

[1:27:25] where we consider the optimum zone.

[1:27:27] And as a result, our indicators

[1:27:30] are mostly in the optimum range in the upper

[1:27:33] estuary and in the mid estuary, and we're

[1:27:36] in the stressful range down here for oysters,

[1:27:39] which is where it typically is in that area.

[1:27:43] And for oyster recruitment.

[1:27:45] Again, we're seeing good recruitment numbers throughout the

[1:27:49] areas we monitor.

[1:27:52] One thing you'll notice is that the recruitment

[1:27:56] and Cape Coral is lower, then shell point.

[1:27:59] And this is normal.

[1:28:00] The shell, the spat prefer higher salinities

[1:28:03] when they're settling out, but the salinity criteria

[1:28:06] that we use is for adult oysters.

[1:28:08] So even though we got higher numbers here,

[1:28:12] it is higher likelihood that these will actually

[1:28:15] survive, and these may become predated.

[1:28:18] So, um, so even though the, no,

[1:28:21] the numbers are lower in Cape Coral, they're still really good numbers,

[1:28:24] as those are the ones that are likely to make it.

[1:28:29] So looking at how water's moved around the southern portion of the system, you

[1:28:33] can see there's been about 192,000 acre feet

[1:28:36] has been moved into the Everglades itself.

[1:28:39] Now, they're just less than 120,000 acre feet

[1:28:42] down into Everglades National Park inclusive of some of that return

[1:28:45] seepage, but the big number that you see there.

[1:28:48] 377,000 acre feet is the runoff coming off

[1:28:51] the lower east coast and going to either Biscayne Bay

[1:28:54] or the intercoastal waterway from those afternoon rains

[1:28:58] that have started picking up just recently.

[1:29:03] And as you saw in your flyer in your handbook, this

[1:29:06] is the current conditions for the STAs, and

[1:29:10] we had, for this water year so far, 156,000

[1:29:14] acre feet coming in with 9500

[1:29:18] acre feet coming from the lake.

[1:29:19] Most of that inflow went to STA

[1:29:23] 2 and also STA 34.

[1:29:27] STA 56 is starting to

[1:29:30] see some inflow, but it is still quite low.

[1:29:33] Uh, and the good news story here, as

[1:29:36] Drew mentioned, is we are within compliance

[1:29:39] within the STAs that we have enough

[1:29:42] flow to report on.

[1:29:44] We're still waiting on outflow from STA 56 in

[1:29:48] order to be able to do that calculation.

[1:29:50] The other thing that I wanted to point out is the inflow

[1:29:53] concentrations for each of these STAs, minus

[1:29:57] 56, is all below 100, which is what we really like to

[1:30:00] see for us to be able to have the proper performance

[1:30:03] for these estuary, for these STAs,

[1:30:06] excuse me, STA 56, that basin

[1:30:10] does tend to have higher inflow rates, and 143

[1:30:13] is fairly typical for that basin.

[1:30:16] And with the recent, well, rain events that

[1:30:19] we've seen are stages are at or above target stage.

[1:30:24] And here are the W.

[1:30:26] Maps for that.

[1:30:27] One thing that I would like to point out is 56.

[1:30:30] Last time I showed you this map, we had a lot of

[1:30:34] yellows and reds in the flow A 4 and 5.

[1:30:38] And you can see now, we're looking at a lot of blues.

[1:30:40] So that STA.

[1:30:43] is starting to get filled up.

[1:30:45] We've been holding that water purposefully in order to

[1:30:48] rehydrate before we discharge any water, and

[1:30:51] we're now at the point where we're thinking that we might have

[1:30:54] enough water in there to keep it hydrated,

[1:30:57] have good water quality in the outflow, and have a properly

[1:31:00] functioning STA.

[1:31:02] We do have 2 flowways that are offline.

[1:31:06] One is in STA one West, here,

[1:31:10] that is for some vegetation management activity, and

[1:31:13] then for STA one East Central Flowway.

[1:31:16] That is the flowway that had been leveled

[1:31:20] and now we're in the growing phase.

[1:31:23] So we're not sending flow through that, um, flow

[1:31:26] way so we can let the vegetation grow in.

[1:31:30] Moving down to the Everglades.

[1:31:32] We are starting to see some water there.

[1:31:35] So compared to last month, you'll see some more blues on

[1:31:38] that map, which we'd like to see, but

[1:31:41] it has been inconsistent across the board.

[1:31:45] Weve got some areas that are starting to get a little drier.

[1:31:47] For example, STA, excuse me, water

[1:31:50] conservation area one has gotten a little drier than it was last month.

[1:31:54] We do still have a data issue

[1:31:57] in this area here, so take the

[1:32:00] data there with a grain of salt.

[1:32:03] Um, and then the other thing that I wanted to point

[1:32:06] out is that the, um, the

[1:32:09] slew connections are much improved to the park.

[1:32:12] But we did have a fire,

[1:32:16] 17,000 acre fire.

[1:32:18] It was called the chipmunk fire.

[1:32:19] August 20th, I believe, is when it was 1st noted.

[1:32:23] And, uh, it was in a slough that had a lot of water.

[1:32:27] So we were actually thinking that that fire.

[1:32:29] My provide some benefit to that area, uh,

[1:32:33] in cleaning out, like, the canopy and opening up the water

[1:32:36] for more, uh, paraphytin type growth.

[1:32:40] And compared to what the normal conditions

[1:32:43] are, the 20 year average, as you can see across the board,

[1:32:46] we're still quite dry compared to where we are normally

[1:32:50] at this time of year, but the good news story here is this area.

[1:32:54] We are now back up into the 30th,

[1:32:57] 40th percentiles for those areas.

[1:33:00] So we are improving in our hydrological condition there.

[1:33:05] So, taking a closer look at each of the areas

[1:33:09] where our stage gauges are.

[1:33:11] So this map here is just a blowup

[1:33:14] of the map I just showed you, you can see the drier areas

[1:33:17] here, and these are the relevant dryness

[1:33:21] compared to where we are normally.

[1:33:23] Each of the areas is well below the 10th percentile

[1:33:26] but increasing in stage.

[1:33:29] And this is a situation

[1:33:32] that we're probably going to continue to see for a while.

[1:33:35] The, um, a foresight

[1:33:38] is pretty flat at this point.

[1:33:40] We are seeing a slight uptick, but it's still kind

[1:33:43] of within the noise there.

[1:33:45] Well, the site 17 and site

[1:33:48] 7 are increasing.

[1:33:50] And this here is where you can see it dried out.

[1:33:54] We had, we were doing nicely with stage and then we had to dry out

[1:33:57] period, but it seems to be now reversing.

[1:34:01] And looking at Conservationary 3 A.

[1:34:05] This also is well below the 10th

[1:34:08] percentile in all of the areas.

[1:34:10] And again, they're all on the uptick,

[1:34:14] especially at site 63.

[1:34:17] And you will see that, uh,

[1:34:20] this is where we are, and this is where we want to

[1:34:23] be in September.

[1:34:24] And if you look over here, this is

[1:34:27] the tip, the tip of that, uh, triangle is the target.

[1:34:31] And it is above the maximum uh,

[1:34:34] projection on the position analysis.

[1:34:36] So highly unlikely that we're going to hit

[1:34:39] that target in a couple of months.

[1:34:41] But, uh, what we might be able

[1:34:44] to hit is this one.

[1:34:45] This target is at the P 75,

[1:34:49] which means that there's about a 25% chance we might actually meet

[1:34:52] that target.

[1:34:53] And so we might actually get some nesting in

[1:34:56] the Alley North colony.

[1:34:58] And where this is also important, is that

[1:35:01] we need to keep what water we can into the

[1:35:05] water conservation area too, A, because

[1:35:08] that will serve as the foraging area for any

[1:35:12] nesting that occurs in the Alley North colony, because there's

[1:35:15] not going to be enough foraging capability right

[1:35:18] in that area, because it's still going to be fairly dry more than likely.

[1:35:22] So another reason why we need to keep water

[1:35:25] in the upper part of the system so that we

[1:35:28] can provide foraging for these birds

[1:35:31] if and when they do nest.

[1:35:35] And lastly, moving down to Florida Bay, we have seen some

[1:35:39] rain coming into this area, and there has been

[1:35:42] a slight uptick in the stages at the Taylor

[1:35:45] Slough bridge, which is great, and Salinity has gone

[1:35:48] down in all areas throughout the bay.

[1:35:51] However, we are at

[1:35:55] the hypersalinity range, in the eastern and

[1:35:58] well above in the central and western regions.

[1:36:01] So, more water into Florida

[1:36:04] Bay would help us get those salenities back down.

[1:36:09] And that's all I have, Mr. Mitnik.

[1:36:15] All right.

[1:36:15] So, looking at how the water levels in the conservation

[1:36:19] area, starting up here, um, water conservation area one,

[1:36:22] you can see it's starting to get some of those direct rainfall levels

[1:36:25] are starting to rise up as well within its schedule in

[1:36:28] the in the intermediate zone between the top of the schedule.

[1:36:31] We'll try to let that continue to rise up in conjunction with

[1:36:34] the corps of engineers.

[1:36:36] Area two, similar story.

[1:36:38] It had been above schedule, then with some of the drier weather crossed

[1:36:41] over, went below schedule, but now the direct rainfalls brought it up.

[1:36:44] We'll probably coordinate with the core and look to manage that

[1:36:47] rise up as well, to get up to

[1:36:50] its peak of the schedule.

[1:36:52] Area 3 has been pretty consistently below its

[1:36:55] schedule for the last several months, but it's

[1:36:58] got a little bit of an uptick, a little bit of increase as

[1:37:01] we start to see that direct rainfall materialize,

[1:37:05] plus the rains coming off of the EAA

[1:37:08] getting processed through, the storm water treatment areas are starting to pick up,

[1:37:12] especially within the last week, week and a half .

[1:37:15] So we'll start to see those levels increase as

[1:37:18] those inflows make it into the conservation areas.

[1:37:21] Southern portion of the system, um,

[1:37:24] continue to meet the Tamiami Trail flow formula,

[1:37:27] moving that water out of Area 3 down into the

[1:37:30] Everlays National Park, South Day conveyance system.

[1:37:33] Last month, I talked about that one pump station we had a problem with, but

[1:37:36] I think we've got that fixed and it's back in service, but we're

[1:37:39] continuing to manage South Day conveyance system,

[1:37:42] not seeing any real issues there.

[1:37:44] So speaking of South Dade, this is the time

[1:37:47] of year that just to remind everyone that we move

[1:37:50] into our seasonal operations over

[1:37:53] there by a Homestead Air Force Base, and when you look to operate

[1:37:57] these different structures in this canal system, a little bit

[1:38:00] lower to facilitate some of the agricultural operations

[1:38:03] in this neighborhood.

[1:38:05] So that'll start over the next month or so, we'll

[1:38:08] evaluate the field conditions with the field station and cooperation with the

[1:38:11] farmers and look to manage those canals a little bit lower.

[1:38:16] So now jumping back into the forecast, um, climate

[1:38:19] prediction center, we've talked about this a fair amount of the last couple of months.

[1:38:22] It's all likely above, finally likely above due to

[1:38:25] that El Nino condition, next couple weeks,

[1:38:29] probably above average rainfalls, over

[1:38:33] the water management district.

[1:38:35] So we've talked a lot about El Nino

[1:38:38] and what it means.

[1:38:39] So just to refresh everyone's memory.

[1:38:43] What you have here on the left-hand side of the screen if we talk in terms

[1:38:46] of hard numbers of what we can expect.

[1:38:48] These are the sea surface temperature anomalies over

[1:38:52] in the equatorial Pacific going from 1982 to

[1:38:55] 2026.

[1:38:56] It's all grayed out.

[1:38:58] But the ones that are highlighted.

[1:39:01] These ones in the colors, that are, those are

[1:39:04] segregating out just the El Nino or El

[1:39:08] Nino, strong El Nino type years.

[1:39:10] And you can see 2026 is this top line up

[1:39:14] here, and we're way above where we've ever been before.

[1:39:17] So Drew started calling this the super duper El Nino.

[1:39:22] Um, and right now, um, although

[1:39:25] it's just below 3 degrees Celsius, it's continuing

[1:39:28] to rise, but you can see, they typically peak

[1:39:32] out here in the November, December time frame, and

[1:39:35] right now, the forecast could be, it could peak out just

[1:39:38] slightly below four, which is up off of this graphic up here.

[1:39:43] So that's all well and good.

[1:39:44] That's over in the Pacific.

[1:39:45] What does it mean to us?

[1:39:46] Why do I care what's happening over in the Pacific?

[1:39:48] So if we translate all of those model runs,

[1:39:52] and what happens in this particular indicator

[1:39:55] reason has a high degree of correlation

[1:39:58] to our weather during the dry season.

[1:40:02] So if we, you've seen this table before, you

[1:40:05] saw it a couple slides ago, these are just the average rainfall

[1:40:08] throughout the district by month.

[1:40:11] The blue months, wet season, white months, dry season,

[1:40:15] then the 2 transition, wet to dry, I'm

[1:40:18] sorry, dry to wet, wet to dry.

[1:40:21] Quick math, you add up all the boxes in white,

[1:40:24] you're in about, on average, 11 to

[1:40:27] 12 inches of rainfall district wide,

[1:40:30] over the course of the dry season.

[1:40:34] If we look at some of the model forecast and we aggregate several

[1:40:37] models together for the month of December, instead

[1:40:40] of having one.

[1:40:42] 9 inches on average, we could potentially have 4.9

[1:40:46] inches on average, some 300% above normal.

[1:40:50] If you're like Drew and you don't like averages, then there's the

[1:40:53] median at 4.6.

[1:40:56] So you walk through each month.

[1:40:59] Aggregate it all together for

[1:41:02] the entire water management district, all 16 counties, you

[1:41:06] do the statistics on it.

[1:41:07] We could wind up with, on average, just short

[1:41:10] of 25 inches of rainfall over the district instead

[1:41:13] of our usual average 11 to 12 inches.

[1:41:17] Again, if you're like Drew and you don't like averages.

[1:41:19] The statistics, going from the 10th

[1:41:22] percentile up to the 90th percentile, somewhere could

[1:41:26] be as high as close to 37 inches of water

[1:41:29] over this upcoming dry season.

[1:41:34] That's all well and good.

[1:41:35] Fun with math, a lot of numbers throwing at you, but what would it mean to

[1:41:39] Lake Okeechobee?

[1:41:42] Right now, Lake Ochobee sitting at 10.95, just a

[1:41:45] little bit below 11, lower than it's typically this time of year.

[1:41:49] We've got roughly 4 weeks left in the dry season.

[1:41:52] The median end of the dry season is October 12th.

[1:41:56] despite Mr. Spotswood's sleep deprived

[1:41:59] procrastinate, prognastations.

[1:42:02] The 1st hurricane that we've,

[1:42:06] in 2002, the 1st hurricane didn't occur

[1:42:09] until September 11th.

[1:42:11] It was the latest hurricane that has ever occurred that

[1:42:14] hit South Florida in the Atlantic Basin.

[1:42:17] Today is September 10th.

[1:42:19] So we're going to beat that record if one develops.

[1:42:23] However, I can tell you district meteorologists don't think it's

[1:42:27] very unlikely that one will develop.

[1:42:30] The atmosphere is not conducive over the next couple

[1:42:33] weeks to cyclogenesis.

[1:42:35] So if we do get one, it'll probably be at least 2 or 3 weeks out.

[1:42:39] So there's still a chance, but it's unlikely.

[1:42:41] So we're unlikely to get a

[1:42:44] tropical system to fill Lake Okechobee back up and

[1:42:48] carry us on through the dry season.

[1:42:50] So all we have is these statistics and

[1:42:53] what uh, super duper Eldino

[1:42:56] might bring, as Drew likes to say.

[1:43:00] So what does it mean for Lake Okeechobee?

[1:43:02] We look at where we are right there, a foot and a half below

[1:43:05] the water shortage management line.

[1:43:08] A lot of people are starting to wonder why we're not taking additional actions,

[1:43:11] implementing different measures.

[1:43:13] This is why.

[1:43:14] So these, you've seen a similar graphic

[1:43:17] like this before and all those other squiggly lines.

[1:43:20] This is just segregating out all of the El Nino years.

[1:43:24] The ones in dashed or all el nino years,

[1:43:27] but the solid lines, those are the super el

[1:43:31] nino years, and what effect they would

[1:43:34] have had on Lake Okechobee given, where we are right now, and

[1:43:37] if we experience those types of rainfalls.

[1:43:40] As we talked about, this El Nino

[1:43:43] is forecasted to be stronger than any of those.

[1:43:47] So, I don't necessarily know where we're going to line

[1:43:50] up or end up, but the forecast

[1:43:53] is for Lake Okechobee stage is to start increasing

[1:43:56] is those rains start to develop.

[1:43:58] There's been a pronounced shift in

[1:44:01] the weather pattern over the last week and a half .

[1:44:03] If we look back all the way from August, there

[1:44:07] were two days in August where we didn't get any rainfall,

[1:44:10] which is highly unusual for South Florida, but

[1:44:14] in the last week or so, there's a pronounced shift in

[1:44:17] the amount of rains that we've started seeing.

[1:44:19] We expect that to continue, especially as we get

[1:44:22] into December and November.

[1:44:25] So I'll, Mr. Chair, I'll pause there to see if

[1:44:29] any members have any questions over the

[1:44:32] conditions report before I go on with an update for the Clusahachie Reservoir.

[1:44:39] Other than building an arc, what, I'm assuming

[1:44:42] that we're, you're,

[1:44:46] figuring operations out for a potential 37

[1:44:49] inches in dry season.

[1:44:51] Correct.

[1:44:52] Um, so we have been conserving

[1:44:55] water as much as possible.

[1:44:56] Um, we're starting to let some of that water go.

[1:45:01] We're moving it down through the system.

[1:45:04] You saw the upper chain is starting to dump down as we cycle

[1:45:07] it down, keeping an eye on Lake Okeechobee.

[1:45:10] But it's still, you got to

[1:45:13] take it when it starts hitting the ground.

[1:45:15] Would this be a not that you know, but would you

[1:45:19] suspect this would be consistent top to bottom through

[1:45:22] the district or you don't know?

[1:45:24] No, it's typically it's not consistent top to bottom.

[1:45:28] It'll be highly depend on where it lands,

[1:45:31] if it lands predominantly in the southern portion of the system that

[1:45:34] may not do Lake Okechobee any good.

[1:45:36] But the only indication I have for that is

[1:45:40] just the district wide numbers.

[1:45:44] I don't think all of that is likely to fall

[1:45:47] only in the South.

[1:45:50] There's no seasonal forecasts have a geographic range.

[1:45:54] They do seem to get it's stronger north

[1:45:57] than it is south.

[1:46:00] Thank you, Roman.

[1:46:01] Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[1:46:02] John, I'm trying to understand this super

[1:46:05] El Nino that we're experiencing right now.

[1:46:10] Is it unprecedented?

[1:46:12] Yes.

[1:46:13] Okay, so we've never had to really manage

[1:46:16] water under these conditions before.

[1:46:20] Well, the forecast, is it for a,

[1:46:23] the forecast is unprecedented.

[1:46:25] We have not seen a forecast like this.

[1:46:26] How that manifests itself, materializes.

[1:46:29] That's what we're waiting to see.

[1:46:32] Okay, thank you.

[1:46:35] Mr. Steinley?

[1:46:35] I guess that's what I was gonna ask.

[1:46:36] So assuming, assuming

[1:46:40] the high end of the range, 37 inches,

[1:46:44] that would bring us, based, would

[1:46:47] we still, we would be over our typical annual 60

[1:46:51] inch average,

[1:46:54] or would that catch up to and be...

[1:46:59] Sorry, I'm looking for the number.

[1:47:01] I think it's on this slide back here.

[1:47:05] Okay.

[1:47:06] So far, we've got 24 and 3761.

[1:47:09] No.

[1:47:10] So, not 61.

[1:47:11] Okay, but it's but it's stacked in months where we typically

[1:47:15] wouldn't have it stacked.

[1:47:16] So what assumptions do you have to make?

[1:47:20] around a 37 inch outcome in

[1:47:23] terms of operational planning.

[1:47:25] What impacts,

[1:47:28] and I know there's so many variables in terms of where

[1:47:31] it hits, what the conditions,

[1:47:35] precedent conditions are in that area, but what

[1:47:38] what important assumptions should

[1:47:42] we be making now in terms of planning?

[1:47:45] So typically, let me just find out a

[1:47:48] slide that has a better map to talk to.

[1:47:51] Typically, is we exit

[1:47:54] the wet season, go into the dry season.

[1:47:56] We look to have all of our storage facilities full.

[1:48:01] We're not planning on that right now.

[1:48:02] We're trying to create some capacity.

[1:48:05] We're trying to create some rooms.

[1:48:07] So right now the A1 FEB down in the EAA.

[1:48:10] It does have 4 feet of water, so we're going to be looking to bring it down some

[1:48:13] and create some storage capacity there.

[1:48:15] LA FEB has some room in it, still to go.

[1:48:18] C 44.

[1:48:20] As I mentioned earlier, we've shifted those operations

[1:48:23] to allow a lot of that basin water to flow back to Lake Okechobee

[1:48:26] to preserve space in the C44 Reservoir and C43.

[1:48:31] I'll talk about in a couple minutes, but it's got a ton of room in it.

[1:48:36] Mr. Spotswood.

[1:48:39] Thank you, Mr. Chair.

[1:48:40] John, so we're talking about Lake Okechobee

[1:48:43] and some of the other infrastructure, but with this amount of rain, and I

[1:48:46] think over the last week, I heard some reports and various

[1:48:49] spots of flooding in residential neighborhoods and other, what

[1:48:53] kind of impact are you you anticipating, you know, on those

[1:48:56] communities and should we be telling people to prepare over this season

[1:48:59] for what appears to be potentially unprecedented rain events?

[1:49:02] Yeah, I mean, when it comes to localized flooding into

[1:49:06] the 298 districts, the cities, and the neighborhoods,

[1:49:09] that becomes a function of the intensity

[1:49:12] of the rainfall in that area.

[1:49:15] So you could take 3 inches of

[1:49:18] rain and spread it out over all of Palm Beach County

[1:49:21] and no one's going to notice it.

[1:49:22] But if you focus it just over Boynton Beach, then

[1:49:26] there's going to be some flooding.

[1:49:28] So it's going to be that sort of dynamic

[1:49:31] of how widespread the rains are, or there are very

[1:49:35] focused, intense areas that result in street flooding,

[1:49:38] citywide flooding, that kind of thing like we saw with the Fort

[1:49:41] Lauderdale Airport, a while ago, that was

[1:49:44] a very intense rainstorm, focused over a very small area.

[1:49:48] Those are the kinds of things that lead to localized flooding.

[1:49:52] It's not necessarily how our system is managed.

[1:49:55] Our system has always been able to accept all of those inflows.

[1:49:58] It's the question of the 298s and the cities being able

[1:50:01] to deliver it to us as quickly as possible.

[1:50:05] Mr. Butler and...

[1:50:07] Go along with that question.

[1:50:08] I mean, when we talk El Nino, Super El Nino,

[1:50:12] you know, our wintertime rain comes from fronts, typically.

[1:50:16] We're looking at kind of like our summertime type

[1:50:19] thunderstorms with the Super El Nino?

[1:50:22] Or, I mean, where's the rain come from?

[1:50:25] Um, yeah, they come from the sky.

[1:50:27] What happens is I

[1:50:30] need to tee that up before somebody else did.

[1:50:33] Sort of what happens is the Jets, the subtropical

[1:50:36] jet stream comes closer down to Florida,

[1:50:39] and when those trade winds start coming across, it holds

[1:50:42] that as a boundary road over the southern continental US,

[1:50:46] right to the southeast, and that's what produces those enhanced

[1:50:49] rains over South Florida.

[1:50:51] And if for some of the maps that Drew was

[1:50:54] mentioning a moment ago, the really high intensity stuff

[1:50:57] is focused over the Mexico

[1:51:00] and into the Gulf.

[1:51:02] And we're just like on the edge of it.

[1:51:10] Yeah.

[1:51:11] So it'll be frontal type reigns, but superfronts.

[1:51:17] Super duper front.

[1:51:20] If I recall, the uh, so the last um,

[1:51:23] Super El Nino was 15, 16, and if

[1:51:27] you could reflect, John, where our challenges were in 1516,

[1:51:30] um, I mean, where, where from an operation

[1:51:34] standpoint, where the critical areas become,

[1:51:37] when you have that Super El Nino experience?

[1:51:41] Yeah, typically, the areas are

[1:51:44] obviously just dealing with Lake Okechobee and its levels and looking at

[1:51:47] estuary discharge.

[1:51:49] The South Day conveyance system, Southern

[1:51:52] Dade area, moving that water down

[1:51:55] through the system becomes problematic at times, especially

[1:51:59] during their dry season because that's where a lot of the,

[1:52:02] at least for the Southeastern US.

[1:52:04] There's winter crops.

[1:52:06] Some or winter vegetables are produced.

[1:52:08] So trying to manage that canal system becomes a

[1:52:11] challenging at times with intense rainfalls.

[1:52:14] But then it is some of the more lower

[1:52:17] east coast, the cities and the towns.

[1:52:20] Obviously, within the Everglades agricultural area,

[1:52:23] managing that for their winter

[1:52:26] vegetable production.

[1:52:28] But the Kissimmee River, um, up

[1:52:32] as you get into the upper chain up there around

[1:52:35] some of those smaller lakes that become very flashy.

[1:52:37] We saw this during Ian with those intense rains.

[1:52:40] That can be problematic and we are very

[1:52:43] proactive in getting ahead of those gate openings and start

[1:52:47] moving that water down the system.

[1:52:49] Yes, thank you, Mr. Chair.

[1:52:52] John, the unprecedented nature of this the

[1:52:55] strength of this El Nino.

[1:52:57] Obviously, if Drew is referring to it as a

[1:53:00] super duper El Nino, there's no meteorological term.

[1:53:06] So there's nothing besides a La Nina

[1:53:09] and an El Nino.

[1:53:11] Correct.

[1:53:11] Okay.

[1:53:12] And is it, um, correct

[1:53:16] to say that it looks like for this year, our

[1:53:19] wet season and dry season of kind of flipped?

[1:53:23] Potentially, yeah, we've had a very dry, or a below

[1:53:26] average dry, wet season, and the dry

[1:53:29] season is forecasted to be well above average.

[1:53:32] Now, how could that influence storm activity?

[1:53:34] Would that flip the storm activity to the

[1:53:38] wetter month?

[1:53:40] Or, you know, being that the summer is

[1:53:44] the drier time and it appears like they could be flipped?

[1:53:47] Where would the storms fall on that?

[1:53:50] I'm not sure I understand what you're asking.

[1:53:52] Well, if you have tropical storms in the summer because of the weather

[1:53:56] patterns and the degree of, you know, large amount of rain.

[1:53:59] And this happens now in the dry season.

[1:54:03] because they're flipped, would our storm

[1:54:06] probability be greater where this,

[1:54:09] no, no.

[1:54:11] Pretty much once you exit the hurricane season towards the end of

[1:54:14] November, it's unlikely that you're going to get tropical systems that come through.

[1:54:18] It's more driven by the fronts that we were talking about that come down.

[1:54:21] Okay, good.

[1:54:22] Thank you.

[1:54:23] John, do you remember the lake level in like November 15th?

[1:54:27] I do not off the top of my head.

[1:54:29] Sorry to just ask you random question, but come on, John.

[1:54:34] I'm guessing it was higher than where it is right now.

[1:54:37] That would be a good guess.

[1:54:39] Okay.

[1:54:40] And it probably couldn't go as high then

[1:54:43] as it can today, correct?

[1:54:45] Correct.

[1:54:45] The one graph that shows the...

[1:54:57] There you go.

[1:54:58] So, we are lower than we were at 50.

[1:55:04] Without, without, without expressing

[1:55:07] mission accomplished, um, you

[1:55:10] know, in terms of where we are in the lake right

[1:55:13] now, and being perfectly set up, um,

[1:55:18] I don't recall us having insight

[1:55:21] into a Super El Nino when

[1:55:24] we went into recovery, or did we?

[1:55:26] How far in advance?

[1:55:29] Now, it's just luck.

[1:55:31] Okay.

[1:55:32] I was gonna give you some genius factor, but I didn't think we could.

[1:55:37] Wow.

[1:55:39] You have anything, Mr. Beller?

[1:55:40] A question, Cassandra, um, you know, when we start talking, just, just...

[1:55:47] We talk SAV and the lake.

[1:55:48] Um, and we see a rising lake in the cooler months.

[1:55:53] What is temperature effect on SAV?

[1:55:55] Is there a temperature effect on SAV growth?

[1:55:58] There is, but at the levels that we have here

[1:56:01] in South Florida, it's minimal.

[1:56:03] There's a slight reduction in productivity,

[1:56:06] but in general, because especially because the water holds heat longer than the air.

[1:56:11] It has less of an impact than you might think.

[1:56:14] And thank you for bringing that up because that was something that I wanted

[1:56:17] to mention, is that, um, Zach

[1:56:20] was telling me about how the

[1:56:23] anticipated rise, rate of rise, the ascension

[1:56:27] rate in the lake is supposed to be.

[1:56:29] It's not an all at once rise.

[1:56:31] It's going to be a slow gradual step.

[1:56:33] And he said, this is going to be very beneficial for the SAV to

[1:56:36] hold on, take on, you know, be able to mature and

[1:56:39] make it through to the spring in a

[1:56:42] very healthy, robust way because of the anticipated

[1:56:46] ascension rates with the way the water's going to come

[1:56:49] in over the dry season.

[1:56:50] And I didn't want to say it out loud.

[1:56:52] I sure hope that comes to fruition.

[1:56:54] It'd be awful cool.

[1:56:54] Yeah, it would be.

[1:56:59] All right.

[1:57:00] So moving on, quick update on the C43 Reservoir.

[1:57:05] As we just talked about, what season started producing that runoff,

[1:57:08] so we are in the initial fill is underway.

[1:57:11] Actually, because of that runoff and the increased

[1:57:15] flows out of the Cloosahachie basin.

[1:57:17] We've been able to put sufficient water into the

[1:57:20] reservoir to achieve the 1st milestone, which is getting it up

[1:57:23] to elevation 25 feet.

[1:57:26] So now that we are at elevation 25, we're

[1:57:29] going to hold for about 30 days and perform

[1:57:32] all the necessary inspections of the dam, drive

[1:57:36] around and look for any increased areas of seepage or anything like

[1:57:39] that and perform all the damn safety checks that we do as

[1:57:42] we go through an incremental rise.

[1:57:44] You will see the pump station running from time to

[1:57:47] time, even during that 30 days, because

[1:57:50] we're just trying to keep it and maintain it at elevation

[1:57:53] 25 feet.

[1:57:55] And it'll fluctuate just a little bit higher around there, but

[1:57:58] we'll also be looking to perform the commissioning of

[1:58:01] the alum system, which is this little building right here for

[1:58:05] the reservoir inflows.

[1:58:07] But what does that initial fill looks like?

[1:58:09] sort of this is sort of the schedule of the initial fill?

[1:58:13] You'll see we're sitting right here, right now at Elevation 25.

[1:58:16] We'll continue to increase cell one.

[1:58:19] This is the cell 2 trajectory.

[1:58:21] We'll keep water in cell one.

[1:58:23] And then we stop and we monitor these various head differentials

[1:58:27] across the intermediate dam such that

[1:58:30] there's water stacked up in cell one, but cell 2

[1:58:33] still is dry relatively dry, except for that direct rainfall.

[1:58:37] And then we continue that testing all the way up to the full pool.

[1:58:40] And then we do the reverse while there's water in

[1:58:43] cell 2 and we draw down cell one, et

[1:58:46] cetera, et cetera, until finally testing is done.

[1:58:49] Given what we just talked about, with the inflows,

[1:58:52] These dates across the bottom could probably move to the left

[1:58:55] if we have sufficient water.

[1:58:56] One of the reasons why it is the way it is now is because of

[1:58:59] that lack of water, but if we get into sufficient amount of water,

[1:59:02] then maybe we can progress through this regimented

[1:59:07] inspection schedule a little bit quicker, but recognizing each

[1:59:11] one of these flat spots are the hold periods.

[1:59:15] So, what does the reservoir actually look like

[1:59:19] as it's building?

[1:59:20] This is a digital elevation model

[1:59:24] we created with LIDAR back before

[1:59:27] we started construction.

[1:59:29] So you're sitting in the northwest corner

[1:59:32] of the reservoir, pump station is right here.

[1:59:34] Ignore these spikes, because

[1:59:38] those were the loading

[1:59:42] mounds that we had constructed to compact the geology

[1:59:45] where the structures would go when we perform this LIDAR.

[1:59:49] So just ignore the spikes.

[1:59:51] Just think of it as still flat.

[1:59:53] So when I hit it here, you'll start to see how the reservoir fills up.

[1:59:56] There's about 10 feet across the reservoir from

[1:59:59] this corner to that corner.

[2:00:01] This is about elevation 17,

[2:00:04] and over here in the southwest corner is 27.

[2:00:07] So cell one will fill up first.

[2:00:08] Image is gonna flip around.

[2:00:10] So you get a better, better vantage point of cell 2

[2:00:13] and then sell 2

[2:00:15] We'll start filling up again from that corner, start working its way

[2:00:19] back up the hill until you get it all filled

[2:00:22] in and you're up ground surface at elevation 25.

[2:00:26] Full pool is up at elevation 44.

[2:00:29] So average depth across the reservoir, 17 feet,

[2:00:33] but the deepest part is over here on the western

[2:00:36] side in the 22, 23 foot range.

[2:00:40] Um, And so

[2:00:43] when that's the theory.

[2:00:45] That's what we modeled.

[2:00:47] That's what the model says, how the reservoir is going to fill up.

[2:00:50] Um, and you know what they say about best laid plans of mice and men.

[2:00:54] So this is what it actually has been looking at.

[2:00:57] This is the a video from yesterday.

[2:00:59] When we were running the pumps.

[2:01:00] You can see all the water out here filling up that corner

[2:01:04] just downstream of the reservoir itself.

[2:01:07] It'll fly over a little bit, and you'll get a better view

[2:01:10] of what it looks like.

[2:01:14] And soon as it's done.

[2:01:16] I'll flip over, and

[2:01:19] see if I can pull this up.

[2:01:24] All right, so now you're sitting up in the air, looking back

[2:01:28] at the reservoir or down at the reservoir,

[2:01:31] this is obviously the pump station.

[2:01:33] You can see the Cloosahachie River off here in the distance.

[2:01:35] This is the Townsend canal coming in.

[2:01:37] State Road 80 is right there.

[2:01:39] Townsend Canal comes in, Inflow Canal

[2:01:42] to the pump station, into the reservoir.

[2:01:45] This is the discharge canal.

[2:01:48] So when the reservoir discharges flows back over this weir

[2:01:51] and is delivered back to the Townsend canal.

[2:01:54] If I rotate it around, you can see

[2:01:57] the sort of the pawning in that corner,

[2:02:00] water's starting to make its way back to the east,

[2:02:03] this is one of the discharge structures itself.

[2:02:06] It's pawning up against the embankment there as

[2:02:09] it starts to spread out over the interior of the

[2:02:12] reservoir way over here in the distance.

[2:02:16] That's the separator dam.

[2:02:19] This is the divide structure that goes into cell 2.

[2:02:23] Waters continue to make it into the interior.

[2:02:28] And then way off here in the distance.

[2:02:30] That's the south east corner of

[2:02:33] cell one with the southern embankment out there.

[2:02:37] Water has made it starting to climb that hill

[2:02:40] a little bit more, spreading out along the western face of

[2:02:44] the embankment itself as it starts to fill in the

[2:02:49] interior of the reservoir.

[2:02:50] So that's what it looks like today.

[2:02:51] Here in this corner, because

[2:02:55] I said, this is the deepest part over here.

[2:02:57] We've got about 7 feet of water, but

[2:03:00] obviously if you're standing over here in this far corner, you're on dry lane.

[2:03:04] So it's starting to work its way up the hill and it's starting to spread

[2:03:07] out over the interior of the reservoir.

[2:03:09] The next stopping point.

[2:03:10] If you remember from the graphic

[2:03:14] is up around elevation 35, I think 30.

[2:03:19] So after we've gone through our inspections over the next

[2:03:22] 30 days, um, then we'll add um,

[2:03:26] 5 more feet of elevation to the reservoir, and then you should

[2:03:29] see all of cell one, at least have water in it to some degree.

[2:03:35] And that's all I have for you, Mr. Cheer.

[2:03:39] And thank you very much for that.

[2:03:40] That's fantastic.

[2:03:42] I know I got a lot of questions about how

[2:03:45] we're doing with the reservoir, and I think this just answered them.

[2:03:48] So I really appreciate that.

[2:03:49] Does anyone have any questions or comments?

[2:03:51] Any questions?

[2:03:53] Yeah, Mr. Sunley?

[2:03:54] Um, on the overall presentation, but I, but I guess, I

[2:03:57] mean, my first comment is, um,

[2:04:01] thank God, in terms of timing, um,

[2:04:04] on when these projects that we've,

[2:04:08] the 43, C 44, the

[2:04:12] reservoirs that, um, everybody has

[2:04:16] spent so much time and money focused on, uh,

[2:04:20] will be, it sounds like, will be available to, um,

[2:04:24] sort of mitigate the impact for the estuaries.

[2:04:28] Seems like the timing is as fortunate as we could have hoped.

[2:04:34] On the on the question on the STA levels.

[2:04:39] I can't remember what page it was.

[2:04:42] But to me, it looked like the water levels were really high

[2:04:45] for the conditions that we're in right now.

[2:04:50] This is on the other...

[2:04:52] Yeah, I'm pulling it back up.

[2:04:56] Maybe I was looking at it incorrectly.

[2:05:03] Okay.

[2:05:04] So, yes, you are correct.

[2:05:05] Right now, the cell elevations

[2:05:09] in the STAs are getting high from the recent

[2:05:12] runoff, and we've been having a lot of conversations about

[2:05:15] how to deal with that, such that we don't have

[2:05:18] impacts to the vegetation itself.

[2:05:21] deep when you have prolonged high

[2:05:25] levels within the STAs, then as we've talked about it,

[2:05:28] a couple prior board meetings, you'll

[2:05:31] have delamination of the vegetation where it literally just pops

[2:05:34] up out of the ground and you'll have tussocks start floating around.

[2:05:37] And we had to take down the eastern

[2:05:40] flow way of STA 34 for that exact reason not too long ago.

[2:05:44] So we are keeping a very close eye on that and how

[2:05:47] we implement the operations within the EAA.

[2:05:51] Specifically, we've been trying to take some

[2:05:54] of that water that would go into 34 STA 2

[2:05:57] and move it over into the eastern flow way and put it into

[2:06:00] the LA FEB that way.

[2:06:02] So just trying to optimize how

[2:06:06] the overall operations work.

[2:06:08] And that's facilitated by the interconnect that we had made with

[2:06:11] the bowls canal a number of years ago to allow us to

[2:06:14] provide some of that additional connectivity.

[2:06:16] I guess I'm still trying to understand why without

[2:06:19] a lot of rain, why are the water levels higher than

[2:06:23] when we have a lot of rain?

[2:06:24] Is that, is it because there's more irrigation occurring?

[2:06:29] No, there has been a lot of rain.

[2:06:31] They have had several one inch rain events over

[2:06:34] the last two weeks or so.

[2:06:36] Not specific area.

[2:06:37] Yes.

[2:06:38] Okay.

[2:06:39] Okay.

[2:06:39] Um, on the, um, on

[2:06:43] the SAV lake, uh, area, um,

[2:06:48] and Ben, this might go to your question.

[2:06:51] The empty square, Seattle.

[2:06:55] So the empty squares does not represent legacy,

[2:06:58] SAV, that we're trying to recover.

[2:07:03] No, sir.

[2:07:04] That is the areas that they surveyed, and they

[2:07:07] surveys those areas because the appropriate depth is available at that.

[2:07:11] So those squares are like the outer edge

[2:07:14] of what is possible for the SAV before it gets too deep.

[2:07:18] And so, as you can see, almost all of it is closer towards shore

[2:07:21] because that's where the ideal location is for them.

[2:07:24] But yeah, those outer squares are just part of the survey,

[2:07:28] and they are potential when the lake

[2:07:31] is really low that the SAB could get that far into the lake.

[2:07:34] Okay, thanks for that context.

[2:07:36] So, just to, but to put it in, uh,

[2:07:39] sort of the context of where we would like to be

[2:07:42] on a historical basis in terms of late

[2:07:45] conditions in SAV, where are we?

[2:07:49] Um, in 26, you see some improvement over 25.

[2:07:53] Where are we relative?

[2:07:55] Can you remind us to where we once were in the

[2:07:59] healthiest situation?

[2:08:00] 2015?

[2:08:02] We are better than we were then.

[2:08:04] So, um, I don't know if we

[2:08:07] have an ideal optimum SAV coverage,

[2:08:10] but I think we're really close to it closer

[2:08:13] than we've been in a decade.

[2:08:14] Wow.

[2:08:15] So we go from pretty much losing

[2:08:19] everything to recovering that quickly.

[2:08:20] Yes, sir.

[2:08:22] So, with the recovery operations that were implemented two

[2:08:26] water years ago, um, drawing the

[2:08:29] lake down and allowing the regermination,

[2:08:32] plus, including the planting activities that

[2:08:35] we have done this past year, has really helped,

[2:08:38] uh, Kickstart the recovery of the SAV,

[2:08:42] and with the continued low water levels that

[2:08:45] we were not anticipating, but have been greatly

[2:08:48] beneficial, has been able to further increase the amount

[2:08:52] of SAV that has come back in, and not

[2:08:56] having rapid ascensions with, like, a hurricane or whatnot has

[2:08:59] really helped us out, is instead of, you know, getting these

[2:09:02] new plants to grow and then killing them with a rapid ascension.

[2:09:06] So we are looking like we are in really great shape

[2:09:09] and probably next spring.

[2:09:11] Assuming that our super duper El Nino doesn't knock us out.

[2:09:15] We're gonna have even more.

[2:09:17] Yeah, that's terrific.

[2:09:18] I mean, I, I, I'm, I'm thrilled that you

[2:09:22] can have a recovery uh, in the ideal conditions.

[2:09:28] Sorry, Mr. Chair, a couple more.

[2:09:30] Um, we, I think, did

[2:09:33] we not used to have on these charger

[2:09:36] reports, um, um, graphing of the

[2:09:39] aquifer, uh, um, stages

[2:09:44] and I guess my question is, yeah, groundwater.

[2:09:48] My question is, based on

[2:09:51] where we are right now, in a very dry situation,

[2:09:55] one of our concerns, always a key thing that we're trying

[2:09:58] to manage for is saltwater intrusion

[2:10:01] into the aquifers, I would think that this would be a time where

[2:10:04] we're really concerned about that occurring.

[2:10:08] Do we have any reporting on that?

[2:10:11] Yeah, we do, you are correct.

[2:10:13] You do get that slide.

[2:10:15] I added in there, depending on conditions and where we are.

[2:10:18] Typically during the wet season, I don't include, because

[2:10:21] for the most part, you're getting that rainfall, the aquifers are filling up.

[2:10:25] Right now, especially along the lower east coast,

[2:10:28] we're not seeing any issues because of those rains

[2:10:31] as we get deeper into the dry season, then that graphic

[2:10:34] will come back into the presentation.

[2:10:36] So right now, with super dry conditions,

[2:10:40] not a lot of water recharging the aquifers,

[2:10:44] we are not experiencing too

[2:10:47] much salt water or more salt water intrusion than we usually do.

[2:10:51] Not alone, Lower East Coast, now, because we...

[2:10:53] We've got the direct rainfall propping up the canal system and holding it back.

[2:10:58] Okay, so far so good.

[2:11:00] The only thing I'm concerned about is the hypersalinity in the bay.

[2:11:04] And I think what's been really helpful in the past is you guys

[2:11:07] have informed us that, in

[2:11:10] terms of the, um, seagrass recovery

[2:11:14] after, was it, 2018 or...

[2:11:17] 15?

[2:11:18] 15?

[2:11:19] That the, that the, um, the growback

[2:11:22] was, um, types of grasses

[2:11:25] that are more resilient to hypersalinity situations.

[2:11:29] Yeah, that was correct.

[2:11:31] And a couple of months ago, I did present the information.

[2:11:34] So we've had a species shift.

[2:11:36] We've got more species, and the plants are farther apart,

[2:11:39] so they don't have that low oxygen condition that they had

[2:11:42] before when they were really closely lumped

[2:11:45] together, and the water couldn't circulate around within there.

[2:11:49] One of the other differences that we are seeing this

[2:11:52] time is that the temperatures are not quite as high as they were.

[2:11:56] So the timing of the temperature with the hypersalinity

[2:11:59] is not lining up in the same way that it did in

[2:12:02] 2015.

[2:12:04] So there's a couple of reasons why we

[2:12:07] are not yet, or hopefully never will see that seagrass

[2:12:10] die off that we saw in 2015, is

[2:12:13] the situation is different in both chemistry,

[2:12:16] temperature, and species dynamics.

[2:12:19] And given the amount of rain we expect over the winter, we

[2:12:22] don't expect, then I assumed it to get to a condition

[2:12:26] where there would be an impact.

[2:12:29] That's correct.

[2:12:30] So we're already starting to see that downturn in the salinity.

[2:12:33] Hopefully, it continues, and as we move into the

[2:12:37] coming weeks, we're gonna expect more above average.

[2:12:40] And I think that the Florida based system

[2:12:43] is one of the areas that's expecting above average terrain

[2:12:46] over the next couple of weeks.

[2:12:48] So we should hopefully continue to see that.

[2:12:49] So I think we're past the point of, uh,

[2:12:53] you know, dire concern and that we're moving now back into

[2:12:57] more normal conditions.

[2:13:00] I mean, it's

[2:13:04] good to hear that we seem to be in good condition for extreme

[2:13:07] conditions, both ways, the dry, and then the upcoming.

[2:13:10] Thanks.

[2:13:13] Anyone else?

[2:13:15] Thank you both.

[2:13:18] We'll move now to the monthly financial report with Ms. Heater.

[2:13:29] Good afternoon.

[2:13:31] So, the monthly financial report.

[2:13:34] Um, in your packet and posted on the web is

[2:13:37] through July 31, 2026.

[2:13:41] Um, through July, we have collected

[2:13:44] um, over a $1000000000 in revenue and

[2:13:48] expended a $1000000000.

[2:13:51] Um, from June to July, revenues

[2:13:54] increased by approximately $90000, uh,

[2:13:58] consisting of 7000000 in Avalorm revenue, 76

[2:14:02] million in intergovernmental, and 7 million from

[2:14:05] permit fees, leases, um, investment earnings,

[2:14:08] and other revenue sources.

[2:14:11] Of the $1000000 collected through July, $586

[2:14:15] million is from the intergovernmental revenues.

[2:14:19] 405000000 from taxes, um,

[2:14:22] and 54000000 from investment earnings

[2:14:26] licenses, permits fees, leases.

[2:14:29] Overall, the district has collected approximately

[2:14:33] 46.9% of the budgeted revenue.

[2:14:36] Again, the drag is the intergovernmental.

[2:14:39] That's based on expenditures out, revenue in.

[2:14:43] So, the good indicators to look at your recurring

[2:14:46] revenue against your recurring expenses.

[2:14:48] So recurring revenue, uh, we've collected 98%.

[2:14:52] So we're in good shape.

[2:14:54] Uh, revenue collections are averaging

[2:14:57] approximately 1000000 per month, and

[2:15:01] then compared to this time last year, we were to 109.

[2:15:05] A million.

[2:15:07] So, we were hiring and grow a mental.

[2:15:10] Um, the expenditure highlights, uh, the $1 billion

[2:15:14] in expenditures uh, programmatically.

[2:15:17] 46 million or 5% is

[2:15:20] in your water supply planning, science areas.

[2:15:24] Uh, 20 million in regulation are 2%.

[2:15:28] 892 million, or 89%

[2:15:31] in Everglades, operations and maintenance

[2:15:34] and land management, 41 million, or 4%,

[2:15:38] supported by administration outreach, which

[2:15:42] remains well below the statutory threshold of 15%.

[2:15:46] Per statute, we have to stay between below 15% or four.

[2:15:50] District expenditures are averaging approximately 1000000

[2:15:55] per month compared with approximately 98000000 last year.

[2:16:00] Finally, we are 76%

[2:16:03] of the budget obligated through July.

[2:16:08] So that concludes my update.

[2:16:14] Does anyone have any questions or comments for Miss Heater?

[2:16:17] Thanks, Will we see you again soon?

[2:16:19] Yes, I'll see you soon.

[2:16:22] We'll move now to a final general public comment.

[2:16:24] Is there any?

[2:16:27] Yes, Mr. Chairman.

[2:16:28] We'll hear from Ben Olsen, followed by Mark Perry.

[2:16:39] Okay, so, as I said, this speech is not so positive.

[2:16:42] I told you last month about the FWC illegally tracking

[2:16:45] me and dozens of others, it's far worse than I ever believed it

[2:16:48] could be at that time, but I had it kind of figured out by the Everglades

[2:16:51] Task Force working group meeting.

[2:16:52] On August 25th, I made comments I never thought I'd have to

[2:16:56] make with respect to an Everglades restoration project.

[2:16:58] Some of you are aware of this, but unfortunately, it's out in the open now.

[2:17:01] There was never any desire to bring this up personally until my hand was forced.

[2:17:05] In 2016, my mother was diagnosed with early onset dementia.

[2:17:09] And through the Battle of Warp, it fell to me to voice her history,

[2:17:12] her experiences and her knowledge.

[2:17:14] Had we been involved from the beginning, she could have told you herself that she swam in Kissimmee

[2:17:17] Billy Pond, as my great grandfather built Kissimmee Billy Road, but

[2:17:20] by the time we were informed of WARP in 2022, she was unable to properly communicate.

[2:17:25] As I said, at the working group meeting, I had informed an FWC superior

[2:17:28] that we uncovered, the spouse of an individual who was tracked, was being illegally tracked as well.

[2:17:32] And the superior told me that it's the standard operating procedure to

[2:17:35] search all individuals in a house.

[2:17:37] I was living with my parents at the time taking care of my mom.

[2:17:40] The working group meeting, I expressed concerns about my parents being tracked.

[2:17:44] I had already submitted requests for them, and I knew my father had to be tracked.

[2:17:47] The information from David was obtained by FWC law enforcement

[2:17:51] to track individuals such as myself through flock cameras.

[2:17:54] The truck I was driving at the drive was registered in my father's name.

[2:17:57] So when I found out that my vehicle was likely in the data, I concluded

[2:18:00] my father would have had to be searched as well.

[2:18:03] On the 31st, we finalized the sale of my parents' home.

[2:18:06] And at 935 that morning, I shut the door on that house one last time.

[2:18:10] I stood there for a moment and I thought about everything I had dealt with in

[2:18:13] that house from a happy childhood memories to the last days of my mother's life.

[2:18:16] When I closed that door, I thought to myself that chapter of my life was over

[2:18:19] and I dammed up those emotions ready to move forward.

[2:18:22] I know it was 935 because at 9.36

[2:18:25] an email came in with my mother's David audit look.

[2:18:28] The FWC illegally searched a woman 9 years into dementia at that point.

[2:18:31] 13 times so they could illegally track her son,

[2:18:34] all because I attend meetings like this.

[2:18:37] Combined, they searched my parents and I 50 times.

[2:18:40] Make no mistake, the developing story that led to the DOT and the governor's

[2:18:43] office, voicing opposition to automatic license plate readers, is this story.

[2:18:47] This is not just about me, but the dozens of lawyers,

[2:18:50] environmentalists, influencers, conservationists,

[2:18:53] and journalists being illegally tracked by ALPR gamers.

[2:18:57] I don't need to sit here and explain the severity of this to you, but

[2:19:00] they're tracking families and they don't care who they target.

[2:19:03] So I apologize if this is a more serious tone.

[2:19:05] And I want to thank you for writing the ship with us, because the Land Steward

[2:19:08] meeting was a huge positive on one of the most chaotic weeks I've

[2:19:12] ever dealt with, certainly, since my mom passed last year.

[2:19:14] But I'll make the same comments I made at the working group here today.

[2:19:17] All legal resource recourse will be taken to

[2:19:21] ensure everyone involved serves maximum penalties from the

[2:19:24] low-level officers that searched us to the highest positions involved.

[2:19:27] Tracking a woman with dementia is so beyond the pale, and

[2:19:30] it will be dealt with accordingly.

[2:19:31] So thank you again for working with us, and I hope you will all

[2:19:34] voice your opposition up the chain to the governor of the state legislature.

[2:19:38] The flock surveillance system can't be allowed in the free state of Florida.

[2:19:41] Especially when they are targeting individuals who simply attend

[2:19:44] your meetings and their families.

[2:19:46] Thank you.

[2:19:46] Thank you, Mr. Olsen.

[2:19:48] We'll hear from Mark Perry.

[2:19:56] Governing, we're just three quick things.

[2:19:57] I meant to show you that big map of the

[2:20:00] district area because of the laterals to the small little blue

[2:20:04] lines that all connect to those project culverts and

[2:20:07] eventually go into the works of the district.

[2:20:09] And the reason is, is that those project culverts

[2:20:12] and those controls should be within your purviews.

[2:20:15] A lot of times, water enters into the works of the

[2:20:18] district canals through either pumps or riser

[2:20:22] boards or things like that.

[2:20:23] So we need to go upstream and basically look at

[2:20:26] what kind of help we can do and controls we can do within the watershed

[2:20:29] to control the flows into works of the district so

[2:20:32] that we can lessen our habit in a store and treat that water out of those canals.

[2:20:36] The 2nd thing, I noticed a lake of chovy recovery,

[2:20:40] uh, kind of, was indicated in the

[2:20:43] in the site, gone from 28,000 to 30,000 acres

[2:20:46] of SAB.

[2:20:48] wonderful.

[2:20:49] We're seeing that lake recovery.

[2:20:50] It did come out at a working working group meeting a week or so ago.

[2:20:55] trying to get the colonel to do some other meetings so

[2:20:58] that we can all weigh in on that kind of Lake Okeechobee

[2:21:02] recovery plan after action report that

[2:21:05] happened there, but it's great to see that

[2:21:08] SAV recovering.

[2:21:10] The 3rd thing is this forecasting for El Nino,

[2:21:13] super duper El Nino, actually.

[2:21:16] And it is gonna be that.

[2:21:18] And those, those three years that you

[2:21:21] saw on that graph that John just showed

[2:21:24] you, one of those was 1998.

[2:21:27] And we all might recall that those discharges

[2:21:30] started, basically started, the lake

[2:21:33] started to rise, and we started discharging in December 18th

[2:21:37] of 1987, or 97, and

[2:21:40] then ended in May 22nd of 98.

[2:21:44] And those discharges ramped up.

[2:21:46] I remember sitting at a workshop meeting.

[2:21:48] Paul Miller, who used to be with the district, came sat next to me,

[2:21:51] said, Mark, you know they're discharging about, this was January, about

[2:21:55] 3500 CFS out of S80 into the St.

[2:21:58] Lucie.

[2:21:58] I said, what?

[2:21:59] That's really strange.

[2:22:00] The lake had risen up.

[2:22:02] We're starting to discharge and it continued to

[2:22:05] discharge right on through May.

[2:22:06] Over a 1000000 acre feet came to the St.

[2:22:10] Lucie from Lake Okeechobee.

[2:22:11] That's 2 feet off the lake.

[2:22:13] A 1000000 acre feet.

[2:22:15] And that 1000000000s of gallons.

[2:22:17] The lake got up to about 17.3 feet.

[2:22:20] And as you saw it peaked out and then came coming

[2:22:23] down during actually during the wet season.

[2:22:25] So it got down at the end of August about 12 feet.

[2:22:28] The other El Nino, 2015 and 16.

[2:22:31] That went way up there too, but

[2:22:35] then it didn't quite come down all the way to 12 feet.

[2:22:38] It went back up to about 14 feet by August.

[2:22:41] So we had a little bit more of a wet season to continue on that lake rise.

[2:22:45] We got to really be conscious.

[2:22:48] I hope he bring this back in the next meeting in the next meeting.

[2:22:51] So as we get closer to this time frame that John has

[2:22:54] outlined that we're well aware of what we need to do to

[2:22:58] keep those flat levels down below that 16 and half feet well.

[2:23:02] Thanks for that forecast, put all those reports on there, great.

[2:23:05] Thank you, Mr. Perry.

[2:23:07] Mr Chairman, we have no additional public comments.

[2:23:10] Great, thank you both for your comments.

[2:23:13] We'll move now to our final board comment.

[2:23:16] Mr. Spotswood.

[2:23:18] Nothing for me, Mr. Chair.

[2:23:19] Thank you, Mr. Steinley.

[2:23:20] Nothing for me, thanks.

[2:23:21] Col Roman?

[2:23:22] Uh, nothing.

[2:23:23] Thank you.

[2:23:24] Mr. Butler.

[2:23:26] Thank you, Mr. Hurley.

[2:23:27] Uh, nothing for me.

[2:23:28] Mr. Bergeron.

[2:23:31] Yes?

[2:23:31] Um, can you hear me?

[2:23:36] Yes, we can hear you.

[2:23:38] Okay, um...

[2:23:40] Well, it's gonna be an honor to serve with you

[2:23:43] all the next 4 years, and, um,

[2:23:47] projecting this extreme high water event.

[2:23:52] I think we have more tools in the box today

[2:23:55] than we had in 2015,

[2:23:59] uh, when we have extreme high water.

[2:24:02] events with the C 43 and

[2:24:06] uh, storage there and a C 44 and

[2:24:10] the emergency deviations that we have on

[2:24:13] the uh, the S 12s uh,

[2:24:16] where we don't have a cumulative back up of water.

[2:24:20] Uh, I think as we approach, uh,

[2:24:24] this extreme condition that

[2:24:27] may happen, uh, we need to be prepared to

[2:24:31] make sure we have no cumulative backups.

[2:24:35] Uh, at the Tamiami

[2:24:38] Trail to make sure that water is moving south,

[2:24:42] compatible with the environment, uh,

[2:24:45] and I think with these additional tools

[2:24:49] we have, uh, we can balance our water

[2:24:52] supply and and try to deal

[2:24:55] with high water events that could affect our environment.

[2:24:59] Thank you, uh, Mr. Chairman.

[2:25:03] Thank you, Mr. Bergeron.

[2:25:04] Miss Martinez?

[2:25:05] Nothing, Mr. Chandler.

[2:25:07] Thanks.

[2:25:08] As I mentioned earlier, we're going to have our public hearing on fiscal

[2:25:11] year 2026, 2027, tenant of Avilor Millage

[2:25:14] rates, non Avilorum tax rolls, and tentative budget.

[2:25:17] Uh, it's gonna be today at 5:15.

[2:25:20] It's about 47 minutes from now.

[2:25:21] If you're joining us, this meeting by Zoom, you're going

[2:25:24] to be able to use the same link you used to get on, the link is also

[2:25:27] posted on the district website, and this meeting is adjourned.

September 2026 Governing Board Meeting

Agenda

Transcript