From Captains for Clean Water:
Crossing the finish line on a five-year effort to improve Lake Okeechobee operations.
Today calls for a celebration five years in the making, as the new Lake Okeechobee System Operation Manual (LOSOM) has OFFICIALLY been signed into effect.
Replacing the old Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule 2008 (LORS08), LOSOM is the manual the Army Corps of Engineers will use to manage Lake O’s water levels over the next 5-7 years.
It has a direct impact on reducing the toxic discharges that can lead to ecological collapse and cripple our coastal communities—and it represents a major improvement to the management of Lake Okeechobee.
Brig. Gen. Daniel Hibner, Commander, South Atlantic Division, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, signed the LOSOM Record of Decision (ROD) Monday, completing the final step in the approval process.
“This is a wonderful day and we’re really excited to see LOSOM finalized after five years of hard work and public advocacy,” said Capt. Daniel Andrews, Captains For Clean Water Executive Director. “LOSOM will provide both coasts with measurable relief from harmful discharges and flow more beneficial water south through the Everglades into Florida Bay—that’s great news for our National Treasure and for anyone who lives in or visits South Florida.”
A long road to get to this point
Throughout the three-year planning process from 2018-2021, we were active in the conversations and development meetings, fighting to ensure the plan would be more equitable and protect Florida’s environment.
And thanks to the support of over 30,000 people taking action to secure a favorable outcome, the final framework selected for LOSOM was one that will significantly reduce damaging discharges to both coasts and send a lot more beneficial freshwater south to the Everglades, when it’s needed most.
But since that framework was selected back in 2021, LOSOM had been bouncing through bureaucratic hoops, awaiting final approval and official implementation. Now, it has finally crossed the finish line through the signing of this Record of Decision.
“Historic. Collaborative. Important. We have worked for five years to get to the record of decision, and we are finally here,” said South Florida Water Management District Board Chairman Chauncey Goss.
“I’m proud of the South Florida Water Management District staff who worked with the team at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to ensure [LOSOM] was implemented in a manner that reduces harmful discharges into our estuaries, sends more water south to benefit the environment and meets the needs of our communities.”
A true seat at the table
This more equitable final product is momentous for a number of reasons, not the least of which being that the development process for LOSOM was really the first time in Florida’s water management history that all stakeholders and the public had truly been given a voice in the process.
For decades leading up to LOSOM, the industrial sugar industry had maintained a stranglehold on lake management to guarantee water irrigation for their crops at the expense of all other users. That status quo had always left the rest of South Florida without commensurate representation in the conversation, ultimately leading to management that caused more discharges and a degrading Everglades.
As a result, as development of this new management plan began to threaten Big Sugar’s control, they made several attempts to undermine the process and “hijack” LOSOM. Thankfully, with your help through massive awareness campaigns and calls-to-action, we were able to defeat their attempts.
It’s because of your advocacy that we can celebrate this milestone today.
“LOSOM represents a significant shift in operational philosophy to a system-wide benefits approach,” the Army Corps of Engineers wrote in a press release. “LOSOM also improves the ability of water managers to use system-wide analysis to adapt to real-time conditions to make informed decisions on lake releases. The plan also facilitates more robust, structured communication and collaboration between USACE and stakeholders, as operational decisions are made.”
That kind of equity, transparency, and collaboration was unheard of ten years ago—now it’s a mark of progress.
But this isn’t the final finish line in this fight. There’s still a lot more work to do and progress still to achieve.
If there’s anything that the LOSOM development process taught us, it’s that improved lake operations can help provide relief to South Florida’s water crisis, but they can only get us so far. Ultimately, additional infrastructure is required to provide full-scale relief across the system.
“This is a day to celebrate in the fight for clean water, but this is also a reminder to keep the pedal down on completing critical restoration projects, like the EAA Reservoir, that can create more capacity in the system and provide benefits on an even greater scale,” added Andrews.
Thanks for your help in making this moment happen, now let’s keep the momentum going strong.
