By Treasure Coast Newspapers Editorial Board
Feburary 27, 2018
TC Palm
For years, local residents have demanded an end to damaging discharges from Lake Okeechobee, imploring water managers figure out a way to send water south toward the Everglades — where it flowed before man decided to subdue Mother Nature and send it instead to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries.
But after decades of ecological damage and repeated calls for action, action finally happened. Senate President Joe Negron pushed his plan for a southern reservoir through the Legislature last year, and the South Florida Water Management District is putting the finishing touches on a proposal to build a 10,100-acre, 23-foot-deep reservoir that could hold up to 78 billion gallons of water.
Coupled with other other water projects under construction and in the planning stage, discharges could be reduced by a total of 56 percent.
We might, finally, “send it south.”
But only if the job is done right. And there are legitimate concerns about whether that will happen.
What if it’s not?
What if the water isn’t clean enough to send to the Everglades?
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