HEALTH

Lawyers get open-ended contract in South Florida Water Management District firing case

Tyler Treadway
Treasure Coast Newspapers

The South Florida Water Management District board agreed Thursday to an open-ended contract for lawyers defending the agency in a lawsuit filed by a fired Fort Pierce contractor building a water-cleaning project a in western Martin County.

Since Blue Goose Construction of Fort Pierce filed a wrongful termination lawsuit days after being fired in November 2018, the board had agreed to increase the pay for Kirwin Norris, a law firm based in Orlando and Fort Lauderdale specializing in construction cases, from an original $150,000 to $1.1 million.

The new C-44 Reservoir Stormwater Treatment Area on Friday, Nov. 8, 2019, in western Martin County. The new Stormwater Treatment Area project, located near the Indiantown Airport off Citrus Boulevard, is a major component of the Indian River Lagoon-South Restoration Project to improve the health of the Indian River Lagoon ecosystem, which includes the St. Lucie Estuary.

And Thursday, the board agreed — without discussion — to give its own attorneys authority to "increase funds as reasonably necessary" in the contract with Kirwin Norris.

The board also agreed to pay for contracts with "experts to defend the district’s interests."

Blue Goose, which was awarded a $100.8 million contract in September 2014 to build the STA, claimed its workers had completed over 75 percent of the project by Nov. 7, 2018, when the district said work was behind schedule and fired the company.

More: Fired C-44 project contract sues water management district

This past November, Gov. Ron DeSantis pressed the button to start pumping water into half of the 6,300-acre stormwater treatment area.

More:Cleaner water coming to St. Lucie River as DeSantis turns on STA pump

Map showing the site of the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area, as well as the drainage area from which the project will draw water.

The company the district gave a $25 million contract last February to replace Blue Goose was Bergeron Land Development, owned by Ronald M. "Alligator Ron" Bergeron, who joined the water district board last April.

More: Would-be board member signs $25 million contract with water district

Bergeron abstained from the vote on the contract with the law firm. The issue was on the board's consent agenda and was approved without discussion.

More: 'Alligator Ron' Bergeron OK for district board, ethics panel says

The $765 million C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area is one component of a suite of 68 CERP projects to curb Lake Okeechobee discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers and send clean water to the Everglades.

Column: Seeing water finally flow gives hope for Florida's future

The STA's job is to clean polluted stormwater runoff taken in from the C-44 canal — but not directly from Lake Okeechobee — that otherwise would have headed for the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon.

Water in the C-44 canal comes from local basin runoff along the 23-mile man-made canal, as well as from Lake O during times where flood control deems discharges necessary.

The man-made wetland uses plants, particularly cattails, to suck up algae bloom-feeding nutrients and hold sediment.

Once the water is cleaned, it's put back into the C-44 canal. If the St. Lucie Lock and Dam is open because the lake and/or the canal is too high, the cleaned water flows into the St. Lucie River.

Dirty water is worse, but even clean water is bad for the river's estuary because it lowers salinity; and blue-green algae blooms need low-salt water to thrive.

The fully functional STA, expected by mid-2020, is designed to treat about 46 billion gallons of water flowing into the canal each year, removing about 45,200 pounds of phosphorus, according to the SFWMD. That's about:

  • The weight of 3½ African bull elephants
  • 40% of the 112,136 pounds of phosphorus that flows, on average, from the C-44 Canal basin into the St. Lucie River each year

The Army Corps of Engineers originally was scheduled to build the project, but to help expedite relief from Lake Okeechobee discharges, the SFWMD took over construction of the STA. The Corps is still building the 3,400-acre reservoir on the property, scheduled to be operating in 2021.

Tyler Treadway is an environment reporter who specializes in issues facing the Indian River Lagoon. Support his work on TCPalm.com.  Contact him at 772-221-4219 and tyler.treadway@tcpalm.com.