The Sanibel City Council asked the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Tuesday to develop an emergency plan to deal with this summer’s rainy season within 30 days or face a lawsuit.
Last year rains caused the agencies to send 690 billion gallons of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee to the Caloosahatchee estuaries smothering seagrass beds, killing oysters and causing algae blooms.
Sanibel Mayor Carla Johnston said the water management district appears to be making an effort to find alternative land to store water, but she said she’s not so sure about the Army Corps.
“It was perhaps a step in the direction of looking how to solve things. Although it still is not clear that this is going to solve anything in 2006. But it is even more clear that the Corps is, you know, just grinding those bureaucratic wheels like a Swiss watch.”