To: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District
Cc: Colonel Andrew Kelly; Lieutenant Colonel Todd Polk

Dear Colonel Kelly:

Thank you for your hard work in the LOSOM process and for valuing my feedback as a stakeholder!

Your preliminary determination of Alternative Plan CC is a step in the right direction, although it needs considerable reductions in wet season discharges to be better than current operations for the Caloosahatchee.

Red tide on Florida’s Gulf Coast is a serious problem and Plan CC, as it stands, gives the Caloosahatchee a higher nutrient load which would put us in a worse position than LORS 08 which is unacceptable.

As the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers works toward the final announcement of the three to four focus areas you will use to model in Iteration 3, we urge you to adopt the following focus areas for your optimizations for Plan CC to provide the greatest benefit to stakeholders:

1) Significant reduction in harmful discharges measured at S-79 to the Caloosahatchee, and
2) Allow beneficial flows to the Caloosahatchee and the Everglades across ALL bands.

The South Florida Water Management District developed a sensitivity run known as SR 3.5 that shows that it is possible to significantly reduce harmful discharges to the Caloosahatchee and allow beneficial flows to the Caloosahatchee and the Everglades across ALL bands.

Thank you for your efforts to develop an equitable and truly balanced operational plan for Lake Okeechobee. This water belongs to all Floridians, and optimizing freshwater flows during the dry season, will expedite restoration benefits, aid in conservation efforts on federal lands, and protect the largest constituencies and economies in the watershed.

Respectfully,