HENDRY COUNTY, FL - The Southwest Florida Water management district devised a plan to syphon water from the Caloosahatchee river, north of the Franklin Locks, to impede fresh water mixing with the normally briney river. The fresh water comes from Lake Okechobee. When the lake fills, the Army Corps of engineers releases water to keep the lake within acceptable levels. Those releases, in the billions of gallons, enters the Caloosahatchee and mixes with the briney water. Some believe that causes fish kills, oyster bed destruction, even red tide. So, over the weekend huge pumps were set up to suck water from the river and pump it into a 3,500 acre plot of state owned land. The field will be flooded over the next two weeks with more than 2 billion gallons of water. The fresh water will seep back into the ground over time and make its way back to the river but experts say it will be at a much slower pace that should have less of an ecological impact.