Lake Okeechobee

Bulldozers replaced bass boats on a dried patch of Lake Okeechobee on Thursday, scraping away tons of polluted muck. Taking advantage of near-record-low water levels amid a severe drought, water managers have work crews digging out pollution-laden muck from exposed areas in the western and southern portions of the lake.

The water level in the lake that serves as the main backup water supply for 5 million South Florida residents dropped to a record low Thursday. Lake Okeechobee was at 8.94 feet, below the mark of 8.97 feet set during a 2001 drought, the South Florida Water Management District reported. The average level should be about 13 feet this time of year. "There is no joy over this record-breaking event," said Carol Ann Wehle, the district's executive director.

Scientists have found elevated levels of arsenic and other pesticides in thousands of truckloads of muck scooped from the bottom of Lake Okeechobee. Taking advantage of a drought, state water and wildlife managers are removing muck from the 730-square-mile lake to return its bottom to a more natural sandy base and create better habitat for plants and wildlife. Arsenic levels in the northern part of the lakebed were as much as four times the limit for residential land, tests revealed.

Conservationist Marjory Stoneman Douglas once famously grumbled that Lake Okeechobee, the liquid heart of her beloved Everglades, had been poisoned by man's careless disposal of "pesticides, fertilizer, dead cats and old boots." She didn't know about the 1920s steamship, rusty anchors, tractor tires, fishing-boat motors, settlers' stovepipes, Native American tools and jewelry, and the bones of man and beast dating back thousands of years. All were hauled from the lake bottom this summer.

Despite a recent study warning pregnant women to limit exposure to water from Lake Okeechobee, the Environmental Protection Agency took a step Thursday toward allowing farms and cities to continue to send polluted water into the lake. The EPA proposed a rule that would make clear that pollution-discharge permits aren't needed to simply move water from one place to another.

It's been the backyard hill that children rolled down, with a popular hiking path above canals and cane fields stretching to the horizon. The grass-covered ridge affords townsfolk a soothing breeze off the broad, shallow waters of Lake Okeechobee. Now the levee circling Florida's largest lake looms as a landmark of potential disaster.

Areas in the southern part of the state were under a dense smoke advisory as firefighters worked to control several wildfires that have burned about 62 square miles. The majority of fires burned around Lake Okeechobee in Glades County and on the coast in Brevard County.