The graph above shows the past 5 years of flow at the W.P. Franklin Lock and Dam (S-79) in Alva. The shaded green areas represent the 6 months of the year that are typically associated with the wet season and are the official Atlantic hurricane season. The pie charts in each section represent the percentage of time spent in the
RECOVER 2020 flow envelopes for the Caloosahatchee Estuary. The optimum flow envelope represents the range of flows that provide salinity regimes that are beneficial to the biology and ecology of the estuary.
So far this year, the percentage of time spent inside the optimum flow envelope (39%) was greater than the previous four years with 2018 being the least (28%). The 2021 wet season also had the least amount of time spent outside of the optimum flow envelope (61%) compared to the worst year, 2018 at 75%. There are still about 7 weeks left of the hurricane season, but barring any tropical storm or hurricanes, the flow patterns from this years wet season have been marginally better that previous recent years. There is still a lot of room for improvement for water management throughout the Greater Everglades, including sending less water to the Northern estuaries in the wet season, sending more water to the Everglades, creating more water storage throughout the watershed to reduce flows in the wet season and to provide beneficial flows in the dry season, and to optimize the Lake Okeechobee Systems Operation Plan (LOSOM) to reduce the burden on the Caloosahatchee Estuary.