Army Corps: No plans for additional releases in response to Idalia

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is not expecting to increase Lake Okeechobee releases to the Caloosahatchee River in response to Hurricane Idalia.

Army Corps spokeswoman Erica Skolte said the agency is expecting 2 to 4 inches of rain across the Kissimmee River valley, a system of lakes and rivers that drain into Okeechobee.

That's not enough to cause the agency, which is over Lake Okeechobee management, to increase release rates in order to lower the lake.

Okeechobee has been high this summer, and Col. James Booth has indicated that a lake level of 16.5 feet above sea level would likely prompt increased releases.

The surface of the lake was 15.3 feet above sea level Monday morning, according to Army Corps records.

For most of the summer the agency has set the discharge rates at 2,000 cubic feet per second as measured at the W.P. Franklin Lock in Alva.

That structure divides the brackish estuary from the freshwater, upper reaches of the river.

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Flows this summer at times have been above 2,000 cubic feet per second, and the vast majority of the water was rain that fell over the Caloosahatchee River watershed and drained into the river.

The Army Corps is expected to hold a press call on Friday to update conditions and management plans.

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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Good news: no extra lake water expected to flow toward the west coast