Lake Okeechobee Hydrological Data

Monitoring of water quality, flow, and other physical parameters for the Lake Okeechobee Watershed (LOW) Project will be conducted at three scales: programmatic, sub-basin, and project. Programmatic monitoring will be conducted through Restoration Coordination and Verification (RECOVER), a program-level activity of CERP. The programmatic monitoring network is designed to assess how well CERP projects meet the overall goals of ecosystem restoration and water supply. In relation to the LOW Project, the primary objective is to determine how Lake Okeechobee and the watershed respond as a whole to CERP projects and how those changes ultimately affect the entire South Florida ecosystem. Project scale monitoring will be conducted to evaluate the effect of individual CERP/LOW Project features on water quantity and quality (i.e., by monitoring immediately upstream and downstream and/or within a particular treatment or storage feature). Lastly, the sub-basin-scale monitoring network, which is described in this proposal, serves to fill the gap between these two scales by allowing evaluation of the cumulative effect of multiple restoration management measures within the watershed basins.

The objectives of the sub-basin-scale monitoring, to be conducted by the USGS over 10 years at 17 sites in the LOWP area, are as follows:

1. Compute loads for phosphorus, nitrogen, and total suspended solids in selected sub-basins with no current load monitoring.

2. Characterize spatial distribution of loads across the LOWP area.

3. Establish a baseline of water quality and streamflow information at the sub-basin level.

4. Provide data to cooperators for planning activities for restoration of Lake Okeechobee.

5. Provide data for evaluating changes in the watershed, particularly the cumulative effect of restoration activities at the sub-basin level.