By Tyler Treadway
April 5, 2017
TC Palm
Environmentalists who have been calling for the state to “buy the land” say an amended proposal for a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee will work just as well.
Combined with projects already under construction and in the planning stages, Florida Senate President Joe Negron’s revised plan to build a reservoir primarily on land already owned by the state could prevent up to 95 percent of lake discharges to the St. Lucie River.
That was the goal set by the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project, and the proposed reservoir would be on basically the same footprint envisioned when the plan was approved by Congress in 2000.
As Negron was announcing his revised plan in Tallahassee, officials from the water district and the Army Corps of Engineers at a meeting in Okeechobee said their preliminary plans for a reservoir north of Lake O show it could prevent about 50 percent of Lake O discharges to the St. Lucie.
The Corps and the water district already have started building water storage and treatment projects east and west of Lake O, which also are needed to reach the discharge reduction goal set in CERP.
“There still would be discharges in years like 2016” after months of record-setting rainfall, Goforth said. “But would they be as big? Absolutely not. Would algae blooms be as bad? I certainly don’t think so.”
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