Lake Okeechobee, hammered by drought-driven lows over the last decade, brimmed Thursday with more than 15 feet of water. It will continue going up for several more days.
Problem is, South Florida's hurricane and rainy seasons are right around the corner. The big lake is rising when it ought to be falling.
That's not a good scenario for its aging dike or aquatic life in the lake and river systems that will soon be getting big doses of dirty lake water. By next week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has been slowly trying to lower Lake O for months, will likely crank open the flood gates a lot wider.
``We would expect this during the wet season, but we're seeing it during the dry season, said Luis Alejandro, Lake Okeechobee basin manager for the Corps. ``We are in the high end of the range we would like to see.''
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