George Lindemann Journal "Art Public sculptures will remain after Art Basel 2013 is gone" @miamiherald - Siobhan Morrisey

George Lindemann Journal

 Work by Michelle Lopez will be among the sculptures appearing in the 2013 Art Basel Miami Beach Art Public sector

Work by Michelle Lopez will be among the sculptures appearing in the 2013 Art Basel Miami Beach Art Public sector.


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/29/3763028/art-public-sculptures-will-remain.html#storylink=cpy

Man is by nature a social animal…Anyone who either cannot lead the common life or is so self-sufficient as not to need to, and therefore does not partake of society, is either a beast or a god.

— Aristotle, Politics

Those of us who fall into the middling range of mere mortals may especially enjoy this year’s Art Basel Miami Beach Art Public sector, with works chosen especially to reflect the exhibition’s theme of “Social Animals.”

Nicholas Baume, director and chief curator of New York’s Public Art Fund, selected two dozen works that play on the collective and social nature of a public park. The artists invited to show at Collins Park this year range from emerging to emeritus. There’s even a posthumous display by Charlotte Posenenske, a German artist known for her minimalist works — particularly her steel sculptures resembling ventilation parts. Gallerists Mehdi Chouakri and Peter Freeman are teaming up to recreate six works from her Vierkanthrohre (Square Tubes) Serie D, among the last works she created before abruptly ending her career in the late 1960s. Ironically, during her self-imposed exile from the art world until her death in 1985, Posenenske questioned the worth of public art.

For Silvia Karman Cubiñá, that worth is not questionable at all. As executive director and chief curator of the Bass Museum – which once again joined Art Basel in Miami Beach to produce the outdoor exhibit outside the museum’s front entrance – Cubiñá has seen first-hand how the public interacts with the art previously displayed in Collins Park. Of particular note were six chaise-shaped concrete slabs created by Mexican artist Teresa Margolles, Cubiñá says, explaining how different groups of people would gravitate to the works.

“They turned into a meeting point, which became lovely, because there would be different populations that would crowd around it,” she says. “Early in the morning we had a lot of homeless people that were having breakfast. Then a little later, the dog walkers. Then at 3 o’clock the students who came from the high school would gather there, and some of them started coming into the museum. Then again the dog walkers; then again the homeless people. So, there were different populations, and I just saw it as a gathering place that came together around art.”

This year British sculptor Thomas Houseago is expected to provide visitors with a similar experience. In addition to his Striding Figure (Rome 1), Houseago plans to provide two studio seats and a chaise lounge, which will be an open invitation for the public to drape themselves across his sculptures. Danish artist Jeppe Hein also is expected to add a bit of interactive art with his Appearing Rooms, a constantly changing sculpture in which jets of water form a labyrinth of wet walls that can end up soaking those who get too close. Matias Faldbakken presents a full-scale adaptation of a Peterbilt 281 big rig truck.

This year’s exhibit in the park, which fronts the museum and spans the area between 17th and 25th streets, is aimed to satisfy the senses from sight to sound and runs through March 31. According to Cubiñá, a grant from the Knight Foundation enabled the show to grow from its original four days to four months this year. As a result, she says, the museum plans to use the sculpture garden as a backdrop for its 50th anniversary in January, complete with a full orchestra in the park.

On the days when there is no orchestra, visitors to the park may hear the chirping of crickets, as imitated by a clarinet player. That’s courtesy of American artist Mungo Thomson, whose installation goes by the working title of “Cricket Solo for Clarinet.”

Abstract expressionist Mark di Suvero, 80, is the show’s oldest artist. His monumental work, Exemplar, was created in 1979 and consists of two intersecting I-beans. British land artist Richard Long will also be showing an earlier work. His Higher White Tor Circle was created in 1996 and is made up of Dartmoor granite chunks arranged in a mosaic-like circle.

Other featured artists include Huma Bhabha, Carol Bove, Olaf Breuning, Aaron Curry, Sam Falls, Tom Friedman, Alicja Kwade, Michelle Lopez, Matthew Monahan, Scott Reeder, Santiago Roose, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Tony Tasset, Pascale Marthine Tayou, Oscar Tuazon, Maarten Vanden Eynde and Phil Wagner.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/29/3763028/art-public-sculptures-will-remain.html#storylink=cpy

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George Lindemann is an American businessman and the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Southern Union, a pipeline company.[2][3][4][5][6] He also owns 19 Spanish-language radio stations.[4][6]

, http://hyperallergic.com/86669/art-movements-15, http://museumpublicity.com/2013/10/03/bass-museum-of-art-announces-planned-expansion, http://therealdeal.com/miami/blog/2013/10/04/bass-museum-of-art-gets-7-5m-grant-for-new-wing, http://www.allartnews.com/bass-museum-of-art-receives-7-5-million-for-expansion-celebrating-50th-anniversary, http://www.artandeducation.net/news/?currentYear=2013&currentMonth=10#news_8940724, http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/morning-edition/2013/10/the-bass-museum-of-art-gets-75m.html, http://www.forbes.com/profile/george-lindemann, http://www.georgelindemannjr.me, http://www.georgelindemannjr.me/2013/04/lindemann-wins-inaugural-better-beach.html, http://www.georgelindemannjr.me/p/george-lindemann-jr-bio.html, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tara-solomon/the-love-of-liz_b_1245595.html, http://www.linkedin.com/in/georgelindemannjr1, http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dir/George/Lindemann+Jr, http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/02/3665208/with-75-million-grant-bass-museum.html, http://www.onenewspage.us/n/Press+Releases/74w2qqbcn/Bass-Museum-of-Art-Reveals-Planned-Expansion-of.htm, http://www.pamm.org/blog/2013/10/bass-museum-celebrates-its-50th-anniversary-2014-building-expansion, http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/10/prweb11193520.htm, http://www.sfgate.com/business/press-releases/article/Bass-Museum-of-Art-Reveals-Planned-Expansion-of-4876801.php, http://www.topix.com/forum/city/miami-beach-fl/T01GVI4BG7MC9EBDS, http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/georgelindemannjr, http://www.youtube.com/user/GeorgeLindemannJr1, https://plus.google.com/103463047172674086583, https://twitter.com/GLLJunior, https://www.facebook.com/pages/George-Lindemann-Jr/284564361662689, Jr George Lindemann, Lindemann, Lindemann Family, lindemann George, lindemann George jr, miami, Miami Art, miami beach, New York, New York Art, georgelindemann.com, georgelindemann.posthaven.com, Lindemann-George-Jr, George-Lindemann-Jr, Lindemann George, George Lindemann, Lindemann-George, George-Lindemann, horse, http://www.bassmuseum.org/about/presidentgeorgelindemannjr/, https://twitter.com/BassMuseumPres, http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/125anniversaryissue/lindemann.html, http://www.linkedin.com/pub/george-lindemann/b/945/78a, http://www.therichest.com/celebnetworth/celebrity-business/investors/george-lindemann-net-worth/, georgelindemannenvironment.posthaven.com


"George Lindemann Journal" -Director sees Miami’s new art museum as ‘town center’ @indulge

George Lindemann Journal

For Thom Collins, director of the striking new Perez Art Museum Miami, the past couple of years have rushed by like the time lapse video of the construction project posted on the museum’s website: cranes moving in; rebar and concrete materializing; walls and columns shooting up; wrap-around terraces stretching out — all at dizzying speed.

Collins spent five years as director of the Neuberger Museum of Art in Purchase, N.Y., before taking the helm of Miami Art Museum in the summer of 2010, as the museum prepared to build a new home on the water’s edge. With the Herzog & de Meuron-design art house taking shape, he has lost count of how many groups he has taken on dusty tours, his white cowboy-style hardhat tipped against the blazing sun.
 Museum director Thom Collins walks among the works being installed on Tuesday October 29 2013 for the opening in December 2013 of the Perez Art Museum Miami
Museum director Thom Collins walks among the works being installed on Tuesday October 29, 2013 for the opening in December 2013 of the Perez Art Museum Miami.
PATRICK FARRELL

View photos

“When I was growing up in Philadelphia, we went to the art museum every month. I think the PAMM could emerge as that kind of institution for Miami, a culturally oriented town center where people and ideas meet, and where you know you will always find thoughtful, sophisticated programming.’’

Soon after arriving in Miami, Collins, who favors skinny suits and square-framed glasses, moved to a working-class neighborhood bordering art-centric Wynwood, determined to understand from the inside this young city experiencing a modern cultural boom.

“This is a place with such dynamic cultural diversity, and that gives it such potential. This is a city where the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, the New World Center, the new science museum and the PAMM are all going up within a period of about 10 years. That’s remarkable. That’s instant cultural infrastructure.”

The PAMM is scheduled to open during Art Basel week, on time and within budget — though not without its share of controversy over its name honoring Miami developer Jorge Perez, who in 2010 donated $40 million in cash and art. Still, Collins is celebrating the fact that the museum has locked in more than 90 percent of its $220 million fundraising goal ($100 million came from public funds).

“There is a lot of aspiration in Miami. And a recognition that we are building a real repository for the city’s shared cultural heritage. You can see this in the support the museum is receiving.”

Collins himself managed to gain broad support from the community almost from the time he arrived — which is no small feat.

“Thom makes it all look easy,” says Michael Spring, director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs. “For the whole cultural community to move forward, you have to have top leaders at the flagship institutions who are steady professionals, who can earn the respect of the people around them.

“When you talk to Thom, you get a sense of confidence. This is someone who is a national leader in the visual arts. And he is charming, funny, good in social situations, which is very important when it comes to building relationships with donors and collectors.”

Perez Art Museum Miami opens Dec. 4 in downtown Miami’s Bicentennial Park. 305-375-3000; pamm.org.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/29/3782668/director-sees-miamis-new-art-museum.html#storylink=cpy


George Lindemann Journal "No plans for repeat of Florida's massive python hunt" @miamiherald

George Lindemann

PythonsintheEverglades

The event drew more than 1,500 would-be snake killers from across the United States. News crews arrived from around the world to film the spectacle. And it netted 68 Burmese pythons, the huge non-native constrictors that have challenged alligators for supremacy in the South Florida swamps.

But there are no plans for a repeat of the Python Challenge, the two-month snake-killing contest that took place at the beginning of the year. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission called it a success despite its modest tally because it delivered a mountain of data to scientists and allowed the agency to more sharply focus the future fight against the snake.

But once was enough.

"Our primary goal for the Python Challenge was to raise awareness, and we felt like we reached that goal," said Kristen Sommers, the wildlife agency's Exotic Species Coordination Section Leader.

Everglades National Park last week hosted a meeting of representatives of various state and federal agencies to discuss how to proceed in the fight against the snakes. They assessed various tactics, such as the use of dogs and fitting female snakes with transmitters.

"All of the data is coming back and scientists are looking at it," said Linda Friar, spokeswoman for the park, the center of the infestation. "A number of these techniques work. The big challenge in South Florida is the landscape. They're very difficult to see. The challenge is how you find and remove snakes in this big wilderness that has so many protections. You have 2,400 square miles, and most of it is inaccessible. It's just a very challenging wilderness."

Hunters have never been allowed to go after pythons in Everglades National Park because national parks don't allow hunting. But the park has tried many tactics to eradicate the snakes, which are blamed for taking a growing toll on the park's wildlife, from wading birds and alligators to the rabbits, raccoons and opossums that had once been common sites along the main park road.

"It remains a high priority, and we're concerned," said Friar. "We are seeing less small mammals. We know through necropsies that they eat them, in addition to wading birds."

During the state's Python Challenge, which took place on Everglades lands outside the park, it quickly became clear that the most successful hunters were the ones who had experience catching pythons. So the wildlife agency has begun meeting with hunting groups to train them in the rudiments of finding and killing pythons as they tramp through the woods during hunting seasons that run roughly from August through the middle of April.

"Just because we're not having a Python Challenge, doesn't mean there aren't the opportunities for people to hunt pythons," Sommers said.

It was one such accidental encounter in May that led to the killing of the state's record python, an eighteen-foot, eight-inch monster spotted in some bushes by a man riding an all-terrain vehicle near Florida City. He killed the 128-pound female with a knife, after a long struggle in which the snake wrapped itself around his legs.

The wildlife commission has also established programs to train people who are out in the wild anyway – such as electric company workers and law enforcement officers – how to kill or where to report sightings of the snakes. Since 2010, they have trained 449 people, as well as an additional 1,000 or so in how to detect them.

George Lindemann Journal - "A Blend of Beauty and Violence" @wsj -By Mary Lane

George Lindemann Journal

 
 
"A Blend of Beauty and Violence"
By
Mary M. Lane

Updated Nov. 15, 2013 12:13 p.m. ET

On a fall evening in 2007, New York-based dealer Arne Glimcher sat in a Sotheby's BID +2.46% Sotheby's U.S.: NYSE $51.99 +1.25+2.46% Nov 15, 2013 2:20 pm Volume (Delayed 15m) : 685,095 P/E Ratio 33.76 Market Cap $3.49 Billion Dividend Yield 0.77% Rev. per Employee $536,709 5352515010a11a12p1p2p3p 11/14/13 Peltz Holds On to Mondelez Sta... 11/14/13 'Pink Star' Diamond Fetches Re... 11/12/13 Stocks to Watch: Sarepta, Dish... More quote details and news » BID in Your Value Your Change Short position auction room in London and watched bidding soar for "Garden of Earthly Delights III," a fantastical painting by artist Raqib Shaw.

The seascape—made with glitter, rhinestones and enamel—featured underwater fights between marine chimaera, including a toucan-headed man attacking a malevolent creature with piranha fangs. When the hammer fell, the painting sold for $5.5 million, almost seven times its $811,000 low estimate. (Mr. Glimcher had given up after $2.5 million.)

Seeing the works convinced Mr. Glimcher that the Calcutta-born artist would be a perfect addition to Pace, his New York-based gallery. The dealer began wooing Mr. Shaw with an ambitious plan to fill three of Pace's four Manhattan spaces with the artist's work for his debut gallery show in America.

That exhibition, "Paradise Lost," opened last week and runs through Jan. 11. It depicts bizarre fantasy worlds being destroyed by violent savagery through 10 paintings, three sculptures and three works on paper. The show has been drawing 1,000 visitors a day—a lot for a small gallery space—and represents four years of labor for Mr. Shaw, a self-described "recluse" who goes weeks without leaving his London studio. He lives there with his dogs Minty and Mr. C and a collection of over 50 indoor bonsai trees.

"I don't do friends and family. I think they're a waste of time," he says, adding that he leaves the long-term safekeeping of his career to Mr. Glimcher, who nurtured the careers of heavyweight artists Robert Rauschenberg and Agnes Martin.

At the Pace show in New York, Mr. Shaw's paintings run from $500,000 to $1.5 million, his works on paper are $275,000 and his sculptures are $375,000 to $3 million. All have already sold.

Each of Mr. Shaw's works requires several months. The 39-year-old artist says that their painstaking detail has ensured that he hasn't taken a vacation in 15 years.

He spends weeks crafting intricate drawings on vellum parchment before transferring them to absorbent, high-grain birchwood panels reinforced by metal. Then, Mr. Shaw uses flammable enamels including Mercedes-Benz auto paint to create fantasy characters in loud colors, including neon green and orange.

In "Arrival of the Rain King—Paradise Lost II," Mr. Shaw depicts an imposing neoclassical edifice being torn apart by zebras with human arms and lion-like heads. The creatures also battle for dominance, tearing off chunks of each other's flesh.

Mr. Shaw's inspiration was the contemporary clash between Eastern and Western cultures, the writings of John Milton and the apocalyptic paintings of Hieronymus Bosch, he says.

The trio of sculptures by Mr. Shaw all feature athletic male nudes with smooth bodies that contrast sharply with the heads of reptiles, rams and rhinoceroses. Each creature wears a pair of trendy, lace-up boots, a reference to Mr. Shaw's original wish to become a fashion designer as a child.

"I can't do scissors and stitching," he says.

"Scott urges feds to step up funding for damaging Lake Okeechobee release" @ miamiherald

 Susan Werb right wears a protective mask as Gov Rick Scott and Sen Joe Negron tour part of the St Lucie River near Stuart

Susan Werb, right, wears a protective mask as Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Joe Negron tour part of the St. Lucie River near Stuart.
J Pat Carter / AP

By CURTIS MORGAN

Cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com

Gov. Rick Scott on Tuesday pledged $40 million to speed up a project intended to help clean up polluted Lake Okeechobee water that has poured into the St. Lucie River this summer, triggering toxic algae blooms, killing oysters and sea grass and angering residents and tourists.

But the governor placed most of the blame for the worsening disaster in the St. Lucie, and a similar mess in the Caloosahatchee River on the southwest coast, on the federal government.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Scott criticized it for “inaction” on repairing the deteriorating dike around the massive lake and for failing to adequately fund water quality and Everglades restoration projects that could help reduce periodic damaging releases of lake water.

“Sadly, had the federal government met all of its obligations in maintaining the Lake Okeechobee dike system . .. the environmental conditions of this region could have been improved and the crisis in the region today would have been mitigated,” Scott wrote in a letter to Corps Brig. Gen. Donald Jackson.

Scott also called on the Corps and other federal agencies to pour $1.6 billion into South Florida environmental projects — “which you owe the state,” he wrote — under 50-50 cost-sharing agreements.

Scott made similar comments later Tuesday after touring a massive flood-control gate along the St. Lucie River where the Corps is releasing about three billion gallons a day from the rain-swollen lake to ease pressures on the aging, leaky dike. The dumping has lowered the lake by several inches in the past few weeks, but massive slugs of nutrients and sudden influx of fresh water have decimated rivers and estuaries on both coasts.

The Corps released a statement defending its work on the dike, which includes a recently completed $220 million project to shore up the most vulnerable 21-mile stretch of the massive earthen embankments and ongoing work to replace 32 culverts that more recent studies suggest are major weak points.

The Corps, said Jacksonville district commander Col. Alan Dodd, can only build what Congress authorizes and agrees to pay for.

“The Corps is disappointed in Governor Scott’s letter,” Dodd said. “However, we welcome the opportunity to better educate our partners and enhance our relationship.”

The lake releases and declining conditions in the St. Lucie and the larger Indian River Lagoon system have become a major issue along the Treasure Coast. Several hundred people showed up to wave “save our river” signs as Scott toured the St. Lucie locks.

Scott said he would ask lawmakers for $40 million next year to speed up completion of the C-44 reservoir and stormwater treatment area in western Martin County, which is intended to clean runoff before sending it to the estuary. The Corps is responsible for building the $225 million-plus project, which includes a 3,400-acre reservoir, but doesn’t currently expect to complete it until 2020.

Scott didn’t address the protesters, but environmentalists were generally pleased with Scott’s announcement — and advocacy for increased federal support for Everglades and water quality projects.

Julie Hill-Gabriel, Audubon’s director of Everglades policy, called Scott’s pledge of an additional $40 million a “positive sign.” But she also said that the C-44 was just one piece of a nearly $1 billion array of projects to store and clean up water flowing from the lake and other areas along the Indian River Lagoon. They can’t move forward without increased political support and funding from both federal and state leaders, she said.

“It’s encouraging but we can’t forget that there are a whole lot of other things that still need doing,’’ she said.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/20/3575475/scott-urges-feds-to-step-up-funding.html#storylink=cpy

"Everglades restoration plan approved; hurdles remain" @sunsentinel

A nearly $2 billion project to move more Lake Okeechobee water south to the Everglades cleared a key hurdle Thursday, though significant obstacles remain to actually getting water flowing.

The South Florida Water Management District gave initial approval to the Central Everglades plan, despite ongoing concerns about the price tag as well as the ability to meet federal water quality standards when moving more lake water south.

Moving forward still requires the district and Army Corps of Engineers to finalize the agreement for divvying up costs and responsibilities for completing the Central Everglades plan.

And perhaps more daunting, state and federal officials have to persuade Congress to help pay for it.

"We have a unique window of opportunity," said Cara Capp, co-chairwoman of the Everglades Coalition, which backed the deal. "The Everglades can't wait."

The Central Everglades plan includes a series of construction projects that would get more lake water flowing south toward Everglades National Park by removing portions of levees, filling in sections of canals and boosting pumping capacity.

In addition to replenishing the Everglades, restoring more water flows to the south would provide a drainage alternative that lessens the need for damaging lake flood-control discharges to the east and west — which are polluting coastal waterways.

Lake Okeechobee dumping into the St. Lucie River this summer has been blamed for killing oyster reefs and sea grass, scaring away game fish and toxic algae blooms that make waterways unsafe for human contact.

"We can kill the river or we can fix it," said Martin County Commissioner Sarah Heard, among a contingent of river advocates backing the Central Everglades plan.

Despite the optimism about the Central Everglade plan, actual construction could still be more than a decade away.

Also, district board members warned that a cost-sharing arrangement with the federal government and the water quality issues must be addressed before the agency can be expected to give its final approval this fall.

"We have been working on it for two years and there hasn't been a hint of a resolution," district Board Member James Moran said.

Water that once naturally overlapped Lake Okeechobee's southern shores and flowed south to the Everglades, now gets drained out to sea to make way for South Florida farming and development.

Florida already spent nearly $2 billion on Everglades restoration and has another $880 million Everglades water pollution cleanup plan in the works.

The $1.8 billion Central Everglades proposal calls for the federal government and the South Florida Water Management District to split the cost.

While the Central Everglades plan could bring a water quantity boost that the Everglades needs, it could create a water quality problem due to an increased influx of water pollution.

Polluting levels of phosphorus — found in fertilizer, animal waste and the natural decay of soil — washes off agricultural land and urban areas and drains into the Everglades.

Water district officials want federal assurances that investing in getting more water to the Everglades won't end up generating federal sanctions for failing to meet water quality standards.

abreid@tribune.com, 561-228-5504 or Twitter@abreidnews

"Pollution of our Waters UNACCEPTABLE"

Aerial view of the brown water of the river and inlet areas near the St Lucie Inlet Photo credit Martin County BOCC

Aerial view of the brown water of the river and inlet areas near the St. Lucie Inlet. Photo credit: Martin County BOCC.

The discharges of polluting water from Lake Okeechobee and the C-44, C-23 and C24 agricultural drainage canals are having major impacts on the St. Lucie River Estuary, Indian River Lagoon and nearshore reef habitats. Salinities are at critically low lethal levels for oyster reefs in the middle estuary and the pollution is covering the seagrass beds in the outer estuary and Indian River Lagoon killing these valuable habitats as well. The pollution discharges are going out the St. Lucie Inlet and covering the State Park coral reefs and living worm reefs.

The current destructive water conditions started June 6, 2013 and will apparently continue as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District say there is nowhere else to put the water and public safety around Lake Okeechobee is at risk. Currently the St. Lucie Estuary is receiving 3.1 Billion Gallons per day which includes approximately 36,600 lbs. of Nitrogen, 7,600 lbs. of Phosphorus and 241 cubic yards of silt every day, which turns to muck.

This pollution has already caused algae blooms in the middle part of the Estuary. According to the Martin County Health Department the bacteria levels in the estuary are at the highest levels ever recorded and their advisories are warning the public to “avoid contact with the water”. This is tough on the waterfront communities of Martin and St. Lucie Counties where water-related business generates $840 million annually including 26,500 jobs and where waterfront property is the most valued.

Several “protected” areas are now being damaged including two State Aquatic Preserves, the Indian River Lagoon National Estuary, NOAA Essential Fish Habitat, and EPA Critical Habitat for Seagrass, the St. Lucie Inlet State Preserve Reefs, and the St. Lucie Nearshore Reefs nominated for National Marine Sanctuary designation. These estuaries and coastal ecosystems are habitat for over 4,000 species of plants and animals, including 36 endangered and threatened species. Where is the protection for these special “protected” areas? Where are the agencies that are charged with enforcing these protections?

We must demand that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District stop all pollution discharges from the major drainage canals of C- 23, C-24, C-25 and C-44 (which includes the Lake Okeechobee pollution discharges) IMMEDIATELY. Lake Okeechobee discharges are the largest single freshwater source to the St. Lucie Estuary, more than twice the volume of any other sub-basin in the St. Lucie Estuary watershed. We must demand moving the water South from the Lake to save the coastal Estuaries and restore the River of Grass.

Mark D. Perry, Executive Director
Florida Oceanographic Society, July 22, 2013

"Despite Lake Okeechobee dumping, dike danger continues to rise" @miamiherald - The George Lindemann Journal

By CURTIS MORGAN

Cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com

Lake Okeechobee keeps rising — and so do worries about an aging dike the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ranks among the most vulnerable to failure in the country.

With the massive lake swollen by a more than a month of heavy rain, the Corps cranked the flood gates open to “maximum” two weeks ago. That move infuriated residents on both coasts, coursing billions of gallons of foul nutrient-laced runoff down two rivers, but it also managed to at least slow the rate of rise.

So far, however, it hasn’t been nearly enough to reverse a troubling climb. Even with South Florida dodging the wettest remnants of Tropical Storm Dorian last week, daily storms continue to slowly push water levels up and put pressure on the 143-mile-long Herbert Hoover Dike.

The Corps held a news conference Wednesday to insist federal engineers are doing everything they can to minimize environmental impacts while protecting public safety but cautioned that nature, particularly the tropics, may play the biggest role in whether the lake will reach the dike’s danger zone over the next few months.

“We still have several months left in the wet season. We still have not reached the peak of the hurricane season,’’ said Lt. Col. Tom Greco, the Corps’ deputy district commander for South Florida. “We’re taking that very seriously.’’

Lake water levels were set to top 16 feet sometime Wednesday. That’s just six inches short of a mark that triggers the Corps to move from weekly to daily inspections of a massive but nearly 80-year-old mound built out of sand, shell, rock and peat. Despite some $300 million-plus in on-going repairs, sections remain highly vulnerable to high water and storm damage, weakened over the decades by internal erosion.

At current rates, Greco said, the lake will hit 16.5 feet in about two weeks. Unless the lake slows, projections show a 50-50 chance it could top 18 feet in coming months, which would significantly raise the risk of a potentially disastrous breach.

Emergency managers and leaders in Pahokee, Belle Glade and a string of other small towns in the shadow of the dike are monitoring water levels daily and consulting with the Corps and the South Florida Water Management District, which runs the regional flood control system.

“We’re starting to get nervous,’’ said Palm Beach County Administrator Robert Weisman. “It’s added a whole new level of risk in that area. You can’t drain water of the lake quickly enough if there is a substantial rainfall.”

The lake, which doubles as a flood control and water supply reservoir for the sugar industry, has risen 1.27 feet over the last 30 days. In the past, hurricane and tropical storms have raised lake levels twice as fast and experts are forecasting an active next few months.

Since 2006, when an alarming report by state engineering consultants pronounced the dike “a grave and imminent danger,” the Corps has shored up the dike’s most vulnerable stretch from Port Mayaca to Belle Glade with a cement-like internal dam engineers call a “curtain wall.” The agency also is overhauling or planning to beef up half of the lake’s 32 drainage culverts, considered high-risk spots.

The Corps adopted a new scheme to protect the levee by keeping a lake that doubles as a flood control and water supply reservoir at lower levels, aiming to have it rise and fall seasonally from 12.5 feet to 15.5 feet.

At its current level, the Corps considers the risk of a breach minimal and Greco said that surveys showed no significant increases in seepage. But, with the lake more than two feet above its historic average for this time of year and more than three feet above where the Corps wants it, risks will only rise through hurricane season.

According to a 2000 Corps study, the risks of a dike failure rise significantly at 17 feet. At 18 feet, the probability is 45 percent. At 20, a breach somewhere along the dike is likely, with damaging and potentially deadly flooding. Those probabilities didn’t take into account the most recent repairs, but even with those, the Corps still rates the dike among a handful of the most high-risk in the nation.

The lake has topped 18 feet a handful of times in the past. It peaked at 18.8 feet in 1995, an event that opened serious leaks at nine spots along the south and southeast shorelines, and again topped 18 feet after a string of hurricanes in 2004. In 2005, Hurricane Wilma chewed a chunk from the dike near the Pahokee airport. The Corps cited an old repair job that failed and said the dike was not at risk of a breach.

With or without storms, the Corps expects to continue dumping water down the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Rivers for the foreseeable future.

The surge of polluted water, high in phosphorus and other agricultural chemicals, has added to local runoff that has fouled waters on both coasts, angering residents, tourists, environmentalists and local political leaders. Besides killing oysters and sea grass, the dumping has triggered a toxic algae bloom in the St. Lucie River and warnings from health authorities to stay out of the water.

State agencies on Wednesday released a joint statement saying that state and local governments had already spent more than a half-billion dollars to reduce pollution impacts from local runoff and were looking for solutions to address “complex environmental and public health issues’’ that balanced flood control, water quality and water supply needs

Greco said the Corps was working with water managers and state agencies for potential solutions, including putting more water into already brimming Everglades water conservation areas, but public safety concerns about the dike have forced dumping “that isn’t popular but is necessary.”

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/08/07/v-fullstory/3549066/despite-lake-okeechobee-dumping.html#storylink=cpy

"Lake Okeechobee dumping spells pollution problems for coastal rivers" @miamiherald

Henri Janneau, left, of Naples and Denis Floch, of Port St.
 

By CURTIS MORGAN

cmorgan@MiamiHerald.com

With Lake Okeechobee two feet too high and still rising after a month of heavy rain and far-off Tropical Storm Dorian posing a potential but highly uncertain threat, federal engineers on Thursday cranked opened the flood gates on the big lake, spilling tens of billions of gallons of polluted water down rivers on both coasts.

The “maximized” releases are intended to protect public safety, making room for flood waters and easing pressure on the aging, vulnerable Herbert Hoover Dike. The lake remained more than a foot below the danger zone where risks of leaks, erosion or even potentially catastrophic breaches to the massive levee begin to sharply rise. But Dorian or some other future tropical deluge could quickly fill that gap as South Florida enters the peak of the hurricane season.

“It is imperative that we take additional measures to control the rise of the lake to ensure we have enough storage capacity,’’ said Col. Alan Dodd, commander of the U.S. Army Crops of Engineers’ Jacksonville District.

But stepped-up dumping flow spells an expanding environmental disaster for once-rich estuaries on both sides of the state: the Caloosahatchee River on the southwest coast and the St. Lucie River on the southeast. Sprawling black plumes already foul both rivers, a brew produced by local storm runoff but worsened by weeks of steadily increasing dumping of lake water laced with farm and yard nutrients like phosphorous, nitrogen, animal waste and silt.

In the St. Lucie, oysters are shriveling, sea grass beds are withering and waste-related bacteria levels have soared so high that Martin County health authorities have posted signs warning people not to swim in the river. It’s a mess that makes an unrelated algae bloom in Biscayne Bay appear relatively benign.

For frustrated residents, river advocated and environmentalists, it’s dirty water déjà vu.

Both rivers, which double as relief valves for Lake Okeechobee in the region’s flood-control system, have been repeatedly pounded by lake dump over the last few decades. The St. Lucie, about 50 miles north of West Palm Beach, has been hammered hardest — most recently and destructively after the hectic 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons repeatedly filled Lake Okeechobee.

Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, a commissioner for Sewall’s Point, an upscale enclave near the mouth of the St. Lucie inlet, has regularly flown in her husband’s plane to photograph impacts that have spread though much of the Indian River Lagoon complex, from Fort Pierce to south of Stuart.

“This is just ridiculous for black water to be running through our estuaries in front of our homes where we play and fish,’’ said Thurlow-Lippisch. “I am angry at my government and I am part of the government. There is no excuse for this to keep happening.’’

The Corps, which co-manages the lake and regional flood-control system with the South Florida Water Management District, insists the agencies are doing everything they can with an outdated regional drainage system periodically overwhelmed by South Florida’s extreme weather. When it rains like it has so far in July, approaching double the typical amounts in some areas, the lake can rise much faster than the Corps can lower it.

“We really are constrained in terms of where water can go,’’ said Thomas Greco, the Corps’ deputy district commander. “We’re doing our best.’’

The Everglades also are brimming but even if the marshes weren’t full, unfiltered lake water is far too dirty — high in the damaging fertilizer ingredient phosphorous — to send south without violating state water quality standards and federal court settlements to stop the flow of damaging pollution into the Everglades.

A $1 billion network of massive artificial pollution-scrubbing marshes built by the state doesn’t yet have the capacity to handle a heavy volume of water. Earlier this year, Gov. Rick Scott and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection agreed to a nearly $900 million expansion of the cleanup projects but it will be more than a decade before the work is completed.

Drew Bartlett, DEP’s director of environmental assessment and restoration, said his agency had been “aggressive” in setting tough water quality standards, announcing a plan for the St. Lucie basin in May that calls for some $300 million in local and state projects to clean or hold storm water and reduce polluted runoff from groves, farms and other local sources. The restrictions should start reducing nutrient loads into the St. Lucie over the next five years, he said.

The DEP is now working on a similar but far more complicated plan to clean up Lake Okeechobee, primary source of water for a politically influential sugar industry that environmentalists largely blame for polluting the Glades. While Bartlett said the agriculture industry shared a goal of improving water quality in the region, he said ironing out details can be difficult.

“I have been doing these water quality programs going on 10 to 12 years,’’ he said. “It’s a constant battle to have to bring stakeholders together to reach agreements.’’

Critics acknowledge water managers have few options when the lake rises dangerously high but they argue that’s largely because state and federal agencies charged with protecting the estuaries simply haven’t done enough. They say promised projects have been delayed and dogged by inadequate funding, bureaucratic red-tape, engineering problems and flagging political support at the state and federal level.

Scott, questioned by a West Palm Beach television reporter about the foul river during a visit to St. Lucie County last week, pointed the finger at federal agencies.

“A lot of decisions are made at the federal level and they’re not saying, ‘Gosh, governor, what do you think?’ everyday,’’ Scott said.

Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society, scoffed at the response, urging the governor to press his water district appointees to endorse and expedite a $2.2 billion Central Everglades project that, in a decade or so, would provide at least some relief by expanding storage, cleaning more lake water and sending it south into the marshes that need it.

“He said, basically, it’s out of my control now,’’ said Perry, a member of the Rivers Coalition of 69 civic, business and environmental groups formed after a 1998 dump of river water slimed the St. Lucie. “Absolutely not. It’s totally in his control.”

Thurlow-Lippisch echoed that view, saying she was “embarrassed” by state leaders, including fellow Republicans, who protected agricultural interests at the expense of natural resources and the economic interests of coastal communities.

“They should be trying everything to take care of this situation,’’ she said. “Get together, have a meeting and figure it out. This is a crisis for the Treasure Coast.’’

For now, with the lake 15.62 feet above sea level, the Corps is confident in the integrity of the massive 143-mile-long levee.

But the Corps began weekly inspections this week and stepped up releases in hopes of keeping the level below 17 feet, when the risks of internal erosion called “piping’’ begin to increase. The massive dike, build of sand, gravel and rock in the 1930’s after deadly floods from two hurricanes, has leaked in some past storms. It’s been beefed up in one problem stretch over the last decade but the Corps still puts the odds of a failure of some sort when it reaches 18.5 feet at 55 percent.

Even without more rain, it would take a month to drop the lake a foot, said Greco.

Paul Gray, Audubon of Florida’s science coordinator for Lake Okeechobee, said he understood why the Corps was opening the flood gates. The lake rose six feet after four hurricanes in 2004, he said, and Tropical Storm Fay in 2008 shot lake levels up 2.5 feet in a week.

“That’s what the district and the Corps and everybody is afraid of right now,’’ he said. “We haven’t even gotten into August in the hurricane season.’’

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/07/25/3522302_p2/lake-o-dumping-spells-pollution.html#storylink=cpy

"Lake Okeechobee water draining increases, threatens estuaries" @sunsentinel - The George Lindemann Journal

By Andy Reid, Sun Sentinel

9:54 a.m. EDT, July 23, 2013

Easing South Florida flooding concerns means sending a bigger polluting flush of Lake Okeechobee water toward the already-suffering coast.

Above-normal July rains prompted the Army Corps of Engineers on Friday to increase the amount of water being drained from Lake Okeechobee west to the Caloosahatchee River and east to the St. Lucie River.

The Army Corps since May has been dumping billions of gallons of lake water through the rivers and out to sea to ease the strain on Lake Okeechobee's 70-year-old dike — considered one of the country's most at-risk of failing.

 

But the lake draining that helps flood control also wastes water that could be needed to boost South Florida water supplies when dry weather returns. And of greater concern now for the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries, the prolonged dumping from the lake is fouling coastal water quality and killing marine habitat. That threatens fishing grounds and can make waterways unsafe for swimming.

"It is a damaging, devastating, horrible effect," said Mark Perry, executive director of the Florida Oceanographic Society in Stuart. "We are expecting [environmental] damage all across the board."

The increased Lake Okeechobee water releases could drain up to 6 billion gallons per day of lake water, enough to fill more than 9,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Lake Okeechobee on Friday had risen to 15.24 above sea level, about 3 feet higher than this time last year.

The Army Corps tries to keep lake levels between 12.5 feet and 15.5 feet, both for the environmental health of the lake and to protect the dike. The dike is in the midst of a decades-long rehab, the initial phases of which are expected to cost $750 million.

Rising lake levels increase the risk of erosion in the lake's earthen dike, which can lead to a breach.

"We are hopeful these larger [lake] releases will allow us to stabilize the rising lake before we have to maximize flows throughout the system," said Jorge Tous, the Army Corps' chief of water management for Florida.

Lake water being dumped into the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers is a man-made consequence of the vast flood-control system aimed at keeping South Florida dry.

Water once naturally overlapped Lake Okeechobee's southern rim, flowing south in shallow sheets that replenished the Everglades.

But then farming and development got in the way, leading to the creation of the 143-mile-long Herbert Hoover Dike that now encircles the lake. Drainage canals were added to send lake water to the coast.

In addition to threatening the dike, high water can have damaging environmental consequences for the lake — drowning the aquatic plants that provide vital wildlife habitat and fishing grounds.

Yet high-volume, prolonged releases of lake water into the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers throw off the delicate balance of fresh and salt water in the estuaries. They also bring an infusion of pollutants and cloud the water along the coast.

That damaging combination can kill off oyster beds and sea grasses — vital habitat for fish, manatees and other marine life. The lake releases are already leading to algae blooms that can lead to fish kills and even make contact with the water harmful to people.

Aside from beefing up the dike, long-term help to avoid releasing lake water to the coast involves building more of the water storage and treatment areas that are part of backlogged Everglades restoration plans.

Until then, the rainy-season lake releases are expected to continue.

"It's a major problem right now because we are in the early part of tropical storm season," Perry said. "Where's our protection?"

abreid@tribune.com, 561-228-5504 or Twitter @abreidnews

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