USACE Releases Draft Report on OWW Master Plan Update

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Jacksonville District released the Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) and Proposed Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for updating the 1986 Okeechobee Waterway (OWW) and Lake Okeechobee (LO) Master Plan.

A public workshop is scheduled in LaBelle and public comment will be accepted through September 21, 2018.

A Master Plan is required for each civil works project for which USACE has administrative responsibility. It serves as a planning document that anticipates what could and should happen at an USACE project, but is flexible enough to address changing conditions.

The primary goals of this Master Plan are to update the overall land and water management plan, resource objectives and associated design and management concepts, which:

• provide the best possible combination of responses to regional needs;
• contribute toward providing a high degree of recreation diversity within the region;
• emphasize the particular qualities, characteristics, and potentials of the project;
• exhibit consistency and compatibility with national objectives and other state and regional goals and programs.

This Master Plan update includes current and projected future land use and recreational sites adjacent to the OWW and LO Project. The project is located in south central Florida within Glades, Hendry, Lee, Okeechobee, Palm Beach and Martin Counties.

“This update of the OWW and LO Master Plan does not include operations of Lake Okeechobee or components of Herbert Hoover Dike Rehabilitation. Items related to those projects are or will be covered under separate studies and future NEPA assessments,” USACE said.

USACE will host the public workshop on Monday, August 13, 2018, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the LaBelle Civic Center, 481 W. Hickpochee Avenue (State Road 80), LaBelle, Florida.