Lake Okeechobee ( ) is the largest freshwater lake in the U.S. state of Florida. It is the eighth-largest natural freshwater lake among the 50 states of the United States and the largest natural freshwater lake contained entirely within the contiguous 48 states, excluding Lake Michigan which is connected to Lake Huron. The name Okeechobee comes from the Hitchiti (the ancestral language of most of the Seminoles in Florida) words (water) and (big).
Okeechobee covers and is exceptionally shallow for a lake of its size, with an average depth of only . It is the largest lake in Florida and the southeastern United States, and is too large to see across. The Kissimmee River, located directly north of Lake Okeechobee, is the lake's primary source.
All of Lake Okeechobee was included in the boundaries of Palm Beach County when it was created in 1909. In 1963, the lake was divided among the five counties surrounding the lake: Glades, Okeechobee, Martin, Palm Beach, and Hendry counties. All five counties meet at one point near the center of the lake. It is the only point in the US where more than 4 counties meet.
History
Early history While people may have entered the Kissimmee River valley during the Archaic period (8000–1000 BCE), occupation of the area around Lake Okeechobee probably began about 1000 BCE, when the Belle Glade culture, which lasted until about 1700 CE, appeared. The population in the Belle Glade culture area was sparse, with many sites apparently occupied by one or two families, but there are many large mounds and other earthworks in the culture area. European goods have been found in many archaeological sites in the Belle Glade culture area, but little is known of what happened to the people. The area was unoccupied by the time Seminoles settled in southern Florida.
In the 16th century, Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda reported a lake in the interior of southern Florida called Mayaimi, meaning "big water". Escalante Fontaneda also reported that several towns around the lake, including Mayaimi, Cutespa, Tauagemere, Tonsobe, and Enenpa, which were in the Belle Glade culture area, were subject to the Calusa that lived in the Caloosahatchee culture area on the southwest coast of Florida.
Slightly later in the 16th century, René Goulaine de Laudonnière reported hearing about a large freshwater lake in southern Florida called Serrope. By the 18th century the largely mythical lake was known to British mapmakers and chroniclers by the Spanish name . In the early 19th century it was known as Mayacco Lake or Lake Mayaca after the Mayaca people, originally from the upper reaches of the St. Johns River, who moved near the lake in the early 18th century. The modern Port Mayaca on the east side of the lake preserves that name.
The Battle of Lake Okeechobee was fought on the northern shore of the lake in 1837 during the Seminole Wars. On the southern rim of Lake Okeechobee, three islands—Kreamer, Ritta, and Torey—were once settled by early pioneers. These settlements had a general store, post office, school, and town elections. Farming was the main vocation. The fertile land was challenging to farm because of the muddy muck. Over the first half of the twentieth century, farmers used agricultural tools—including tractors—to farm in the muck. By the 1960s, all of these settlements were abandoned.
20th century In legislation passed in 1905 and 1907, the Florida Legislature created the Everglades Drainage District to lower the water level of Lake Okeechobee and drain the Everglades. Dredging of the New River Canal began in 1906. The North New River, Miami, Hillsboro, and West Palm Beach canals were completed by 1917. The drainage of the lake by those canals combined with a severe drought in 1917 to lower the lake's level until much of the lake bed was exposed, and muck fires burned much of the exposed peat.
Despite the drainage, the lake continued to periodically overflow onto the newly developed farmland near the lake. The Everglades Drainage District began construction of a levee around the southern side of the lake in 1921, from just north of Moore Haven to just south of Pahokee. The levee, built with mud, sand, clay, and shell, was wide at the base and rose to above sea level, which was lower than the highest recorded level for the lake. The levee was first breached in 1924. In September 1926 the lake water level was above sea level, just short of the levee's top. On September 26, the Great Miami Hurricane crossed the lake, collapsing the levee on the western side and killing approximately 300 people in the Moore Haven area.
The Everglades Drainage District responded by spending $800,000 to raise the top of the levee by , to an estimated above sea level, which was higher the lake's normal high level, and above ground level outside the levee. The work raising the levee had not been completed in August, 1928 when the 1928 Fort Pierce hurricane crossed over central Florida and the 1928 Haiti hurricane passed along the west coast of the Florida peninsula, both bringing heavy rainfall which filled the lake. Rainfall and wind from the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, which reached the lake on September 17, pushed the lake water level to above sea level, overtopping the levee and causing vast flooding. The Red Cross reported 1,836 deaths from the flooding, a figure which the National Weather Service initially accepted, but in 2003, the number was revised to "at least 2,500".
Following the 1928 hurricane, the U.S. Senate issued a report in 1929 that recommended enlarging drainage canals, raising the levee to , covering it with riprap, and extending it further around the lake, and lowering the control level of the lake from a range of above sea level to above sea level. U.S. President Herbert Hoover visited the area personally, and afterward the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed a plan incorporating the construction of channels, gates, and nearly 140 miles of levees to protect areas surrounding Lake Okeechobee from overflow, creating the Herbert Hoover Dike. In 1931, the Florida Legislature created the Okeechobee Flood Control District, distinct from the Everglades Drainage District, to be responsible for flood control around Lake Okeechobee and the Caloosahatchee River and Canal.
The enlarged water control structures around Lake Okeechobee and in the Everglades did not prevent either frequent floods or dry spells in which cattle died for lack of water and fires burned in the peat of the Everglades. Then, in 1947, two hurricanes, the 1947 Fort Lauderdale hurricane and the 1947 Cape Sable hurricane, brought so much rain that parts of southern Florida remained flooded for months afterwards. In 1948, the Army Corps of Engineers began work on the Central and South Florida Flood Control Project, described as "the biggest engineering project that the world had ever seen." Florida replaced the Everglades Drainage District and the Okeechobee Flood Control District with the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control District, predecessor of the South Florida Water Management District.
21st century
Four recent hurricanes – Frances, Jeanne, Wilma, and Irma – had no major adverse effects on communities surrounding Lake Okeechobee, even though the lake rose after Hurricane Wilma in 2005. Hurricane Ernesto increased water levels by in 2006, the last time it exceeded . However, the lake's level began dropping soon after and by July 2007, it had dropped more than to its all-time low of . In August 2008, Tropical Storm Fay increased water levels to above sea level, the first time it exceeded since January 2007. Over a seven-day period (including some storms that preceded Fay), about of rain fell directly onto the lake. In 2007, during a drought, state water and wildlife managers removed thousands of truckloads of toxic mud from the lake's floor, in an effort to restore the lake's natural sandy base and create clearer water and better habitat for wildlife. The mud contained elevated levels of arsenic and other pesticides. According to tests from the South Florida Water Management District, arsenic levels on the northern part of the lake bed were as much as four times the limit for residential land. Independent tests found the mud too polluted for use on agricultural or commercial lands, and therefore difficult to dispose of on land."Polluted Muck Taken from Florida's Lake Okeechobee Prompts Fears on Land" , Environmental News Network
Through early 2008, the lake remained well below normal levels, with large portions of the lake bed exposed above the water line. During this time, portions of the lake bed, covered in organic matter, dried out and caught fire.Lake Okeechobee Brush Fire, WINK News In late August 2008, Tropical Storm Fay inundated Florida with record amounts of rain. Lake Okeechobee received almost a increase in water level, including local run-off from the tributaries.
In 2013, heavy rains in central Florida resulted in high runoff into the lake; rising lake levels forced the CoE (Army Corps of Engineers) to release large volumes of polluted water from the lake through the St. Lucie River estuary to the east and the Caloosahatchee River estuary to the west. Thus the normal mix of fresh and salt water in those estuaries was replaced by a flood of polluted fresh water resulting in ecological damage.
Since 2013, the CoE has been forced to pump billions of gallons of water out of the lake to avoid jeopardizing the integrity of the Hoover dike holding back the water from inundating the surrounding populated area. Some claim that sugar plantations have been pumping polluted water from their flooded fields into the lake, but U.S. Sugar claims back pumping is only to avoid flooding of communities, never to protect farmland.
In March 2015, the rate was daily. This results in pollution problems for the Treasure Coast, St. Lucie estuary, and the Indian River Lagoon.
In May 2016, of the southern portion of the lake were affected by an algal bloom. The outbreak was possibly due in part to nutrient-laden waters reaching the lake from farms and other sources. Microcystin was found among the other species involved in the outbreak.
In July 2016, the federal government denied Governor Rick Scott's request for Federal Disaster Aid to the Treasure Coast as a result of the toxic algal bloom in the St. Lucie Estuary which was responsible for millions of dollars of lost income for local businesses: this reaffirmed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) finding that the lake's water quality was a state issue. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Martin County had carried out toxicity testing on the algae, but had not funded any work to clean up the water, and a FEMA spokesman said that "The state has robust capability to respond to emergencies and disasters."
On June 23, 2017, the South Florida Water Management District was granted emergency permission to back pump clean water into Lake Okeechobee to save animals and plants in bloated water conservation areas."
In October 2017, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced that President Donald Trump had instructed Mick Mulvaney to accelerate the repair of the Herbert Hoover Dike. It was estimated that the repairs would amount up to $200 million or more a year to finish the repairs in four years.
In January 2023, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completed the Herbert Hoover Dike rehabilitation project after 18 years of repairs. The project was reported to have cost $1.5 billion, and it was finished three years ahead of schedule.
Uses
According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the congressionally authorized uses for Lake Okeechobee include the following: Flood and storm risk management Navigation Water supply for the following: Salinity control in estuaries Regional groundwater control Agricultural irrigation Municipalities and industry Enhancement of fish and wildlife Recreation