STUART — In two sessions spreading over more than six hours, the message to the Army Corps of Engineers was loud and clear: Consider our health when you operate Lake Okeechobee.

"The Army Corps has been conveying toxins into our homes for years," said Indian Riverkeeper Marty Baum. "We need to be protected, yet poison continues to be delivered to our doorsteps."

About 175 people signed up to speak at the two meetings, one of several around the state to help the Corps develop new operational guidelines for Lake O — guidelines that will determine, among other things, if, when and how much lake water will be discharged east to the St. Lucie River and west to the Caloosahatchee River.

"We've been dumped on and taken the brunt of this mess for so long and we're sick of it," George Bergalis, of Sewall's Point, said during the evening session.

"We know you're frustrated" about the damaging Lake O discharges, Col. Andrew "Drew" Kelly, Corps commander for Florida, told the evening crowd. "We want to change. We're trying to identify people's priorities, and we realize those priorities have changed over the past 10 years."

The guidelines to be known as the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual (LOSOM) will replace the Lake Okeechobee Regulation Schedule (LORS) developed in 2008.

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Public officials and residents from the Treasure Coast, mostly Martin County, asked the Corps to manage the lake so there will be no discharges to the St. Lucie River.

Some spoke about the damage to the environment, but most emphasized the toll on human health.

"The Army Corps of Engineers has to take human and environmental health into consideration and stop sending Lake Okeechobee water into the St. Lucie River, where it causes environmental and economic harm and a very real risk to human health," said Zack Jud, a marine biologist at the Florida Oceanographic Society.

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Cristina Maldonado, a Stuart veterinarian, noted a dog died last summer from contact with an algae bloom.

"It could have been a child," Maldonado said.

U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, a Palm City Republican, said he wanted to see "that when the Corps says they'll take health and safety issues into consideration (in the new operation manual) that it's not a subhead under flood control."

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By putting people's health and safety into "the calculus" of the new manual, Mast said, "I hope that means our community will no longer have to take these discharges."

The Lake O operation plan the Corps is replacing calls for the lake to be maintained between 12 feet, 6 inches at the end of the winter-spring dry season so it can go up to 15 feet, 6 inches over the course of the summer rainy season.

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Mast has called for the Corps to set a goal of drawing the lake down to 10 feet, 6 inches at the end of the dry season so the lake can hold even more water and reduce the need for discharges.

"Is the lake kept too high?" asked Todd Weissing, of Palm City. "I think it is."

Weissing noted the Florida Department of Health in Martin County posted warnings to stay out of the St. Lucie River nine of the past 15 years — each of them a year of Lake O discharges.

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But several residents of the communities south of Lake O said they need to be represented too.

"If we're not at the table, we're undoubtedly on the menu," said Janet Taylor, former Hendry County commissioner and president of Glades Lives Matter.

Turning to Mast, Taylor said, "Congressman, your plan is dangerous. ... The people south of the lake don't want discharges, but lowering the lake to dangerous levels will not accomplish this goal."

More:Lake Okeechobee area residents voice concerns about lake management

Clara Murvin, a Pahokee city commissioner, countered that Mast's proposal to keep the lake lower would "create drought year after year" and asked the Corps to develop a lake operation manual that "won't harm Glades residents."

The new guidelines will be designed to consider how projects currently under construction could increase the amount of water that can be held in the lake and improve the Corps' ability to move and store water elsewhere around the lake, including the rehabilitation of the 143-mile Herbert Hoover Dike around Lake O.

More:State gives Army Corps money to speed up Lake O dike repairs

The restoration project and the new guidelines are both scheduled to be completed in 2022.

Public comments will be accepted until March 31.

Another round of planning meetings will be held in May and August followed by workshops on proposed alternatives in April and May 2022 and a public comment on the final report in September 2022.

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