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Lake Okeechobee back pumping concerns Treasure Coast residents

Posted at 6:42 PM, Jun 25, 2017
and last updated 2017-06-26 07:04:48-04

The South Florida Water Management District has begun back-pumping water into Lake Okeechobee.

This comes after 18 inches of rain has been dumped this month into the Everglades west of Broward and Miami Dade Counties.

The area is swamped with water with levels rising two feet and wildlife has nowhere to go.

 

The district now has emergency permission to back pump clean-treated water into the South side of Lake Okeechobee.

People on the Treasure Coast don't believe that water is clean.

"My concern is it's going to feed another algal bloom like we had last Summer. It's going to feed all those nutrients from the nitrogen and phosphorous and feed a new algal bloom that could potentially come my way," says Kenny Hinkle Jr. in Stuart.

A SFWMD spokesperson says that water is treated and clean.

It's unclear how long the back pumping will last.