Okeechobee are complex for they involve problems of Lake regulation for flood control, navigation, and agriculture. The changes which further development of the Kissimmee River basin and the Everglades would bring about must also be considered.
The amount of water to be diverted from Lake Okeechobee for
municipal use in the Miami area would vary greatly with the type of conduit provided to carry the water to the coast. This amount would be essentially that required for treatment, if a pipe line or other water-tight channel were used, but would necessarily be many times greater if an unlined open channel were utilized. In the former case the amount diverted would be only a small percentage of the loss from the Lake by evaporation and transpiration (about 4 feet per year) and seemingly would have little effect upon the stage. For example a diversion equal in amount to the present maximum output of treated water at the Miami water plant would reduce the stage only about a hundredth of a foot in one month over the 500 square mile low-water area of the Lake.
The water in Lake Okeechobee is intermediate in hardness and in
total dissolved mineral matter between that of the Kissimmee River and the surface and ground water in the Miami area. It is suitable for most purposes, and is currently the source of the public water supplies for most cities and towns near Lake Okeechobee.
If diversion from the Lake were through unlined channels, such as
arterial canals, cut through the muck and rock of the Everglades, the water delivered for municipal use at the lower end would differ in both quantity and quality from that diverted from the Lake. Due to the highly permeable character of the rock formations along the lower reaches of such canals water