West Palm Beach, Fla.-Farmers and other landowners in the area are interested in getting a share of the half-million cubic yards of nitrogen and phosphorus-laced lakebed material that will be dug up from Lake Okeechobee over the next 2 ½ to three months as part of the effort to improve water quality. None of it will be released right away, according to Gary Ritter, a member of the South Florida Water Management District project team, “because we want to hold on until we are absolutely assured there’s nothing there in the way of toxic material.” Ritter said samples are not yet back from the labs and initial core testing was for only phosphorus, but he’s fairly certain there’s high phosphorus, along with nitrogen, some potash, and a few micronutrients. He believes it will make a good supplement for fertilizer, or could be used as a soil conditioner as well. There has been talk for years of clearing away the buildup of decades of plant decay and fertilizer runoff beneath the waters of the 730 square mile lake in the south central part of the state, but officials with the district that manages the lake hesitated because of the high cost of underwater dredging until the recent drought lowered water levels and exposed thousands of acres to easy access. Now conditions in several shoreline areas are sufficiently dry for the district to spend $11.4 million to excavate the surfaces and load and haul away 27,000 truckloads with each carrying 20 tons. One Florida newspaper described the 500,000 cubic yards as enough to fill Dolphin Stadium from ground level to the top of the seating. Officials said what they’re referring to as muck will be stored temporarily along a nearby canal and encircled by a berm. Final disposal will be coordinated with the Corps of Engineers and a group of mostly regional farmers who have expressed interest in using the lakebed material.
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