Through the years, the Okeechobee County School District and the SFWMD’s Okeechobee Service Center have enjoyed a productive partnership emphasizing water conservation, water quality and agriculture education. These efforts are focused on high school and agriculture students.

This October, Okeechobee High School agriculture students and staff will landscape the high school’s agriculture complex, incorporating water-conserving concepts. 7L Brands, LLC, a Division of Lykes Bros. Inc., donated non-cypress mulch (eucalyptus) for weed control and soil moisture regulation. SFWMD donated funds for the purchase of native plants and two rain barrels, which will collect water for landscape irrigation. Cap Stone Industries donated the material and labor for decorative rock walls.

The project will showcase Florida-friendly landscaping techniques and teach students, their families and the community how to incorporate drought-tolerant plants into their landscape. It will provide important information and practical techniques regarding water conservation by teaching water reuse, rain harvesting and individual reduction of water consumption.

Joe Collins, Vice President of Lykes Brothers, Inc., is an at-large member for the area that includes Collier, Lee, Charlotte, Hendry, Highlands, Glades, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola and Polk counties. Mr. Collins is a registered professional engineer in Florida with more than 15 years of experience in water resources in the Lake Okeechobee watershed. This seat was previously held by Malcolm “Bubba” Wade.

Pearce Canal provides navigational access to Lake Okeechobee from the S-127 navigation lock. The dredging project will remove about 39,000 cubic yards of sand and shell rock from the navigation channel to lower the bottom level of the canal to about 8 feet NGVD, which is equal to the bottom elevation of the adjacent navigation lock. This will enhance access to the lake during periods of low lake levels. Glades County is managing the project through a contract with SFWMD and with the assistance of a state appropriation.

The dredged material is pumped through a 12-inch poly pipe to a dewatering site in the Yankee Point spoil disposal area about a mile east of the canal, where the material will be stored for public use. When the dredge boat reaches the farthest extent of the Pearce Canal, it will be pumping the material a total of six miles. In order to help move the material, a large booster pump is placed along each mile of the pipeline.

Slurry from the bottom of Pearce Canal is pumped as far as six miles to this dewatering site situated on Yankee Point adjacent to the Kissimmee River. Dredged material accumulates in the southwest corner of the main pond and will eventually fill the area. The dredged material is mostly sand and shellrock and will be used as fill for public purposes by the Glades County Road Department and SFWMD.

The operator controls both the dredge and a system of five booster pumps through a sophisticated telemetry system from the cab of the dredge. Crews are able to dredge about 250 feet of canal bottom per day.