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BONITA SPRINGS — Water will continue to flow out of Lake Okeechobee and down the Caloosahatchee River next week.

The 4,000 cubic feet per second releases that began nine days ago will stop on Sunday. That day there will be no releases. On Tuesday the releases will start again, this time at 3,000 cubic feet per second.

“We’re looking at a nice weekend,” said Steve Duba, engineering chief for the Jacksonville district. “But we’re smack dab in the middle of the wet season.”

Actually releases from the lake stopped on the afternoon of Sept. 10. With Hurricane Ike in the Gulf of Mexico high tides have been high enough that releases water would have pooled in the upper reaches of the river.

The releases could start again at any time if the water drops, but there will be no releases on Sunday or Monday regardless.

The second round of releases will begin at 7 a.m. Tuesday. They will last for 14 days. In the Caloosahatchee the rate will be 3,000 cubic feet per second. In the St. Lucie Canal to the east of the lake the rate will be 1,500 cubic feet per second.

Duba said the continuing releases are meant to keep the lake in the target range of 12.5 to 15.5 feet.

“We don’t want to go to the higher management band with the higher releases,” Duba said.

The smaller releases also better protect the estuaries from the nutrient-rich fresh water.

“The lower volume is an attempt to put as little stress as possible on the estuarine systems,” Duba said. “We try to balance it as best we can.”

Locals on both coasts have blamed the Lake Okeechobee releases for water quality issues in the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie. Too much fresh water upsets the delicate balance of fresh and saltwater, and the nutrients are blamed for everything from red tide and algae blooms to fish kills.

“It is a hard balance they have to strike,” Lee County Commission Chairman Ray Judah said. “It’s a necessary evil.”