Lake Okeechobee discharges to St. Lucie River unlikely for now

Despite all the rain on the Treasure Coast over the weekend, Lake Okeechobee discharges remain unlikely — for now.

Massive amounts of rain — including a reported 14.5 inches in southeastern St. Lucie County, according to the National Weather Service — didn't fall on the 1.5 million acres of Central Florida that drain into Lake O.

"The heavy rain was on the East Coast," Tim Sedlock, a meteorologist at the weather service office in Melbourne, said Monday. "There wasn't that much rain in the interior of the state north of Lake Okeechobee, maybe half-an-inch to an inch."

More:Heavy rain cancels some Memorial Day ceremonies

More rain is forecast in the upcoming week on both the Treasure Coast and the interior, Sedlock said, "but heavy rain won't be as widespread as with the system that went through over the weekend."

More: More rain possible as system moves north

Lake O's elevation was 11 feet, 3 inches Monday morning, having gained only a tenth of an inch since Friday. That's almost 2 feet below the lake's average elevation for May 26 (13 feet, 1⅝ inches) and over a foot below the elevation the Army Corps of Engineers wants the lake to be by June 1, the start of the summer rainy season.

"We believe the lake is in a fairly good spot right now going into the wet season, assuming we get average precipitation," Corps spokesperson Jim Yocum said Monday. "But we rarely get exactly what the average says we should get."

More:Consistently low levels bad for Lake O ecology, expert says

The Corps could release water through the St. Lucie Lock and Dam and into the St. Lucie River to lower the level of the C-44 Canal, which connects Lake O and the river.

For the last few weeks, the Corps has kept the canal level from getting too high by allowing water from the C-44 to flow into Lake O. It's best not to release canal water into the river because:

• The fresh canal water can lower the salinity in the naturally brackish river estuary
• The canal water can contain toxic algae blooms that can spread into the estuary.

A 250-square-foot blue-green algae bloom was reported May 19 in the western end of the canal just below the Port Mayaca Lock and Dam. The bloom was too toxic to drink but well below the threshold for being too toxic to touch, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

Tyler Treadway is an environment reporter who specializes in issues facing the Indian River Lagoon. Support his work on TCPalm.com.  Contact him at 772-221-4219 and tyler.treadway@tcpalm.com.