Audubon of Florida Lake Okeechobee Science Coordinator Dr. Paul Gray reports in from his experience at the Society of Environmental Journalists' annual meeting in Miami:

I was honored to help lead an all-day tour to Lake Okeechobee, the Everglades Agricultural Area, Stormwater Treatment Area 3-4, and the Water Conservation Areas, during the national Society of Environmental Journalists' annual meeting, held last week in Miami. Neil Santaniello, Instructor from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, organized the tour and the co-leaders were Stuart Appelbaum, Chief of the Policy and Planning Division for the Jacksonville District of the US Army Corps of Engineers, and Cynthia Barnett, author of “Mirage:  Florida and the vanishing water of the eastern US,” and “Blue Revolution: Unmaking America’s water crisis”.  The trip was entitled, “Big sugar, big clean-up, big lake” and traveled from Miami to the Lake and back again, stopping at important sites.  Some 35 journalists and other people from across the US, and one from the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), were aboard.

We first drove to Clewiston on Lake Okeechobee with Neil, Stuart, and me narrating background information and pointing out landscape features along the way. At Lake O, we joined Don Fox, FWC, and boarded several airboats supplied by the Corps, FWC, and local captain, Terry Garrels of “Big O Airboat Tours”. Recent rains had increased the Lake’s level by a foot and we were greeted with a gorgeous needle rush flat (Eleocharis cellulosa) and crystal clear water for our first stop. Don narrated the changes the lake has been going through with alternating extreme high and low levels, and how this brilliant habitat could occur more often if we could control levels better.  And in spite of recovery visible here, the Crappie fishery has yet to recover from the 2004-05 hurricanes.

We returned for lunch at the historic Clewiston Inn and David Guest, attorney for Earthjustice, who has successfully litigated Okeechobee pollution cases for decades (especially Everglades Agricultural Area “backpumping” law suits that I and myriad people testified in), give us a history of pollution control efforts in and around the EAA.  Next, Judy Sanchez, Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Public Affairs for the United States Sugar Corporation, took us to their Clewiston sugar processing mill and to a sugar cane field and narrated their perspectives. Hearing the same story, back-to-back, but from two different perspectives was a highlight of my day, and I think the journalists alike. Cynthia Barnett lead a “fact checking” discussion on the bus afterward that really showcased her experience with water issues and the various parties involved.

Next stop was STA 3-4 and its massive pumping station, G-370. Ernie Barnett, Director, Office of Everglades Policy and Coordination for the SFWMD, joined us and narrated the efforts to clean water before it is released to the Everglades habitat of the Water Conservation Area 3. This STA has performed better than others and is tantalizingly close to meeting the 10 ppb phosphorus standard for the Everglades. That good news is tempered by the fact that we need tens-of-thousands more acres of STAs to reach ultimate Okeechobee/Everglades goals, but it is reassuring to see such promise and progress.

We returned to our hotel one minute before our schedule of 5 PM, remarkable, after that many events.  The next day, I joined “Florida’s Iconic Wildlife” panel to present the Everglade Snail Kite situation, moderated by Ari Odzer, Reporter for NBC Miami. Journalists are inquisitive people and it was enriching for me spending time with these professionals from a related, but different discipline.