Guest speaker tells Fort Myers Beach advisory committees Everglades restoration is key to reducing harmful discharges

Captain Chris Whitman, co‑founder of the nonprofit Captains for Clean Water, told a joint meeting of the Anchorage Advisory Committee and the Marine and Environmental Resource Task Force in Fort Myers Beach that restoring historic flows to the Everglades is the most effective way to reduce freshwater discharges from Lake Okeechobee that damage the Caloosahatchee estuary and local beaches.

Whitman, who described how repeated freshwater “blowouts” have killed seagrass and oyster beds and driven away tourists and fishing clients, said Everglades restoration projects now under construction will progressively reduce damaging discharges. “We are at the hump of it,” Whitman said. “If funding stays consistent … I would estimate, you know, late thirties” for broad completion, and he said the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) reservoir and associated engineered wetlands could cut discharges by roughly 60–80 percent in years when projects are operating as designed.

The nut graf: Fort Myers Beach officials and residents depend on a healthy estuary for tourism and fisheries, and Whitman emphasized that infrastructure projects to change timing, conveyance and treatment of water south of…