Okeechobee FYN Survey Begins!

US Geological Survey Urban Water Quality Monitor Station and the Yards in the Okeechobee Watershed

In March of 2006 the USGS installed a stream flow monitor in an urban canal in the south portion of the city of Okeechobee . This monitor is part of a Lake Okeechobee restoration project sponsored by the federal government. The monitor will measure two kinds of nitrogen as well as phosphorus.

Control box for USGS Monitoring station being calibrated by Molly Wood. Photo: Dan Culbert, UF/IFAS

Since a large part of the watershed for that monitoring station is yards and neighborhoods in Okeechobee, the Florida Yards & Neighborhoods program is interested in learning whether small changes in landscaping practices might have an effect on the level of chemicals in the water.

The water quality monitor will give us information about the water quality now, and again after our educational program.

The area of Okeechobee that has been sent the Homeowner Questionnaire is about the area inside the green lines. This is the urban watershed that flows through the USGS Monitoring station, located at the point #16 on the map.

We hope to learn about present landscaping practices through a homeowner questionnaire which we are sending to about 1,000 homes in an area from Highway 441 on the East to 24^th Avenue on the West, and from Highway 70 to 34^th street on the south.

If you would like to see the 2 page FYN Practices Homeowner questionnaire, click here for a pdf document.

The next step, once the information is gathered, is to help homeowners learn about easy and inexpensive landscaping practices which reduce chemical runoff into the canals and then on into the lake.

We hope to see cleaner water as a result of small changes made by a large number of Okeechobee residents!

Trade names, where used, are given for the purpose of providing specific information. They do not constitute an endorsement or guarantee of products named, nor does it imply criticism of products not named. The Florida Cooperative Extension Service - Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer authorized to provide research, educational information, and other services to individuals and institutions that function without regard to race, color, sex, age, handicap, or national origin. Florida Cooperative Extension Service / IFAS / University of Florida. Larry A. Arrington, Dean Last update: 04/20/2007 . This page is maintained by Dan Culbert