Lake Okeechobee was the main water source during Florida’ s water shortage. It was only 12 feet deep, but covers 730 sq. miles.
The lake that contributed the most water was Lake Okeechobee. Despite it’ s only 12 feet deep, it has 730 square miles covered. It has a massive water treatment plant and distributed most of the daily 200,000 gallons imported to the other parts of the state. But one problem with it was the agriculture of the people of the everglades. There were 20,000 people in the everglades agricultural area who grew vegetables and sugar on 450,000 acres of land. Lots of water was needed to grow the crops, plus the water it took to give to the people to drink in the first place. Not only that, but the cows were a problem as well. There were at least 45,000 cow in the area north of Lake Okeechobee. Due to this, everyday they created raw waste equivalent to 22 human beings. This 2,295 tons of waste contributed to the daily 1.5 tons of phosphorous and nitrogen that flowed into the bottom of Lake Okeechobee. Rainfall was generous, but not that much. It rain 45-60 inches a year, and mostly in the soggy summer season. This shows that Earth’ s water can be quickly destroyed. But by, exactly … what?