BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — A Boynton Beach resident is looking for answers about who moves the water in Lake Ida and Lake Eden.
We spoke with James Pearce in late June at our Let’s Hear It event in Delray Beach.
He told WPTV the water levels in Lake Ida and Lake Eden were “dangerously” low, and described how it was disrupting recreational activities like boating and water skiing.
“They have lowered the lake 14-and-a-half inches over the past two-and-a-half weeks,” he told us.
At that time, South Florida was in the middle of a moderate drought, but Pearce said they weren’t on any water restrictions. He also had concerns about fish in the lake having “nowhere to go” with the levels so low.
When we spoke with Pearce again in July, at his home near Lake Ida, the water levels were back up to normal after some rainfall.
“I had pictures that I’ve sent in of the lake level, it was so low no one could get their boats off their lifts,” Pearce said. “There were boats that were sitting at the bottom of the lake tilted over because those people don’t have a lift. The beds for the peacock bass, they’re supposed to be covered with water, and in some cases the beds were no longer covered with water, which can affect reproductive capabilities of our peacock bass.”
Pearce says he’s lived on the canal for 25 years, and he’s only seen the levels that low one other time: 2011, when the area was in a major drought.
“We were on water restrictions, it was really, really something,” he said.
In his own quest for answers, Pearce attended a South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) meeting in June, where he was told the Lake Worth Drainage District (LWDD) was responsible for Lake Ida and Lake Eden.
Since then he's started a petition, which he says neighbors and local fishermen have signed.
“The petition I’m putting together is asking for transparency, communication. What the guidelines are and what is the water being used for?” Pearce said.
We took those questions to Tommy Strowd, executive director of the Lake Worth Drainage District.
Strowd says LWDD has two authorized purposes: flood control and water supply. Because navigation isn't a designated function of the agency, they don't issue notices to boaters for low water conditions like FWC or the Army Corps of Engineers does.
Strowd told WPTV that there are “desirable operational ranges” for drainage basins in the region, but there are “no fixed operational minimum or maximum water levels associated with either the operation of the Central and Southern Florida Flood Control Project managed by South Florida Water Management District or the canal system operated and maintained by the Lake Worth Drainage District.”
Pearce says he was told 1.7 billion gallons of water were moved in a two-week period in June, and he wondered where it went.
Strowd says there was some rainfall during that period, and most of that water came from Lake Okeechobee or the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, and came through either SFWMD or LWDD’s canal network.
Then they “pumped it into the upper basin of our district in order to maintain groundwater levels for the utility well fields.”
He added: “We have 13 communities from Lake Worth Beach down to Boca Raton that rely on the maintenance of those groundwater levels to support their utility well fields, that bring the drinking water into our homes and businesses.”
He also addressed Pearce's question about transparency.
“For the residents, I don’t want them to be confused about who they should talk to, where they should bring their concerns,” Strowd said. “We’re the local entity that is responsible and that’s where that responsibility lies.”
