On Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis met with Chairmen of the Governing Board of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Chauncey Goss, Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Secretary Noah Valenstein, and CEO of The Everglades Foundation, Eric Eikenburg to announce a unanimously approved agreement between the SFWMD Governing Board and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that will advance the construction of phase two of the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Reservoir Project.
The EAA Reservoir Project includes two major phases or ‘features’ according to Governor DeSantis: one being a treatment wetland that cleans water and a 10,500 acre above-ground reservoir that will store excess water from lake Okeechobee. Governor DeSantis noted that they “initiated the final phase of construction for the C43 reservoir” and were “near completion of the C44 reservoir and storm-water treatment area” that began construction in April of 2020 which was 12 months earlier than scheduled.
The agreement between the SFWMD and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the EAA Reservoir Project is a joint attempt to restore the Everglades by pumping clean water into the Everglades as well as decreasing the amount of harmful algae-causing discharges from Lake Okeechobee into northern estuaries.
As far as fitting the EAA Reservoir Project inside the budget for the 2021 fiscal year, Governor DeSantis noted that earlier this month his administration revised the estimated revenue for Q2 0f FY 2021 and now projects a 300 million dollar increase over what was previously estimated for the month of April alone. The newly revised revenue estimation allows for the EAA Reservoir Project to fit in the budget because “the economy is performing far better than people thought” said DeSantis.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin construction of the storage reservoir in the coming months and all construction regarding the EAA Reservoir Project is estimated to be completed in 2023.
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Casey Owens is a reporter at The Florida Capital Star. Email tips to [email protected]
