A Lake in South Florida Floods Rivers with Garbage; Neighbors Cry Foul

In South Florida, on the estuaries of Lake Okeechobee, there's a problem brewing. As swimmers head down to the shoreline, they see the signage:

"Advisory," read the one around the estuary, according to the New York Times. "High bacteria levels. Avoid contact with the water. Increased risk of illness at this time."

Okeechobee is no small lake: at 730 square miles, it's about half the size of Rhode Island, and it's the largest lake in the United States. And the problem it's creating is no small potato, either.

With the lake full of polluted water and the dike holding the water in vulnerable to storm and hurricanes, Florida was recently put in an unenviable position: risk the 143-mile-long dike breaking during tumultuous weather - a measure that would've proven disasterous to nearby lakeside communities - or drain billions of gallons of polluted water into the nearby brackish estuaries.

The Army Corp of Engineers chose the estuaries, following guidelines established after the catastrophic levee breaks in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina in 2005. That storm killed over 1,800 people when broken levees in the storm surge devastated the city's inhabitants.

For Florida, the flooding - while less dramatic - is still damaging, and no permanent solution seems close. The St. Lucie River estuary to the lake's east and the Caloosahatchee River estuary in the west, both a delicate ecological balance between fresh and salt water, were flooded with billions of gallons of freshwater, not to mention septic/sewage water and the pollutants from farms, ranches, and golf courses. As the freshwater overpowered the saltwater, smaller marine life like oysters were wiped out en masse while larger marine life like manatees were likewise hit.

Public reaction to the ecological disaster was so strong that politicians have shown signs of taking action. Governor Rick Scott has proposed $130 million in projects to help the estuaries, including diverting more water into the everglades and cleaning up water in the St. Lucie River basin. But skeptics remain.

"I've seen this time after time," Mayor Phillip Roland of Clewiston, a lakeside town, told the Times. "This problem hasn't just started."