HEALTH

EAA reservoir work continues with $7 million project to move rocks from A1 to A2 sites

Treasure Coast Newspapers

Sugarcane fields were bulldozed as South Florida Water Management District staff announced preliminary construction of the EAA reservoir on a 560-acre tract of land at a news conference Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018 in western Palm Beach County. Board Chairman Federico Fernandez said the water management district is "expediting this" project because it's "absolutely necessary" to move forward with constructing the 23-foot deep, 10,100-acre reservoir that will be able to store up to 78.2 billion gallons of excess Lake Okeechobee water. "Delaying is not an option," Fernandez said.

A $7 million EAA reservoir rock-moving project began Monday, according to the South Florida Water Management District.

It will take about four to five months to move 800,000 cubic yards of rocks for the EAA reservoir from one site to the project footprint about seven miles away, district officials said.

The rocks will be used for the reservoir's berms, levees and embankment.

The district has been mining and stockpiling the limestone caprock in 30- to 40-foot-tall mounds at the so-called A1 Flow Equalization Basin for the past 10 years, officials said.

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The district will move the rocks to the A2 parcel where the EAA reservoir will be built, and is rushing to do so during the winter dry season, officials said.

The A1 site will be closed temporarily to recreational activities, which popularly include hiking, biking, fishing, frogging, bird watching, waterfowl and alligator hunting.

The EAA reservoir will curb Lake Okeechobee discharges east to the St. Lucie River and west to the Caloosahatchee River, which cause toxic blue-green algae blooms and feed nearshore red tide that plague the coasts during the summer rainy season.