Via American Rivers:

Don’t Let the Corps Kill the Caloosahatchee: Tell the Corps to Go Back to the Drawing Board!

Just six months after American Rivers listed Florida’s Caloosahatchee River as one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers due to releases of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee, the Army Corps of Engineers is set to make the problem even worse.

Already, the Caloosahatchee regularly gets inundated by a so-called “chocolate soup” of toxins from the lake proven to irritate human skin, cause nausea and vomiting, and affect liver functions. These toxins are also believed to be the cause of periodic outbreaks of Red Tide, blue-green algae and other never-before-seen species of algae that have turned the Caloosahatchee a kaleidoscope of colors and decimated river wildlife.

The Corps has now issued a draft plan that would lower the maximum level of Lake Okeechobee by more than one foot, requiring that more polluted water be dumped into the Caloosahatchee on a regular basis. The agency’s plan threatens the lifeblood of Southwest Florida. The Caloosahatchee contributes more than $2 billion annually to tourism through recreational use and cultural events. It provides drinking water for 40,000 residents in Lee County and irrigation for citrus and sugar crops on Florida’s west coast. The river basin also comprises part of the Great Calusa Blueway — a celebrated water trail home to dolphins, manatees and more than 300 species of birds.

Tell the Army Corps of Engineers to go back to the drawing board — Please do it TODAY since the comment period ends on Monday! Urge the Corps to scrap its harmful plan in favor of one that will reduce — not increase — pollution in the Caloosahatchee River.