HEALTH

South Florida Water Management District board OKs 1st contract to build reservoir project

Tyler Treadway
Treasure Coast Newspapers

The South Florida Water Management District board Thursday approved the first contract to build the reservoir project designed to cut Lake Okeechobee discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers.

The district is planning to begin construction on its part of the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir Project — a 6,500-acre man-made marsh to clean water as it moves from the reservoir to the Everglades — in May, as soon as the Army Corps of Engineers approves permits.

That part of the project is scheduled to be completed in April 2024.

The Corps will built the project's 10,100-acre reservoir, with 37-foot walls and a capacity to hold up to 78.2 billion gallons of excess lake water. Corps officials have told TCPalm it should be completed in about eight years.

Besides splitting construction duties, district and the Corps are splitting the $1.8 billion cost of the project.

The district board has previously approved contracts for, and crews have completed, some preliminary work at the project site. 

More: District OKs contract to prepare land at reservoir project site

Map showing where initial work on the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir Project, construction of the inflow and outflow canals, will take place.

In November 2018, for example, bulldozers rented by the district began clearing 560 acres of sugarcane fields within the project site to store rock to be used in the dike surrounding the reservoir. The work was seen by many as a publicity stunt by the district's now-replaced board members and administration.

More: Preliminary work begins on EAA reservoir project

The nearly $13 million contract with Ryan Incorporated Southern of Deerfield Beach OK'd by the board Thursday involves the first actual construction.

The contractor will build:

  • About 4.5 miles of the inflow-outflow canal along the project's northern border
  • An adjacent seepage canal
  • The north levee of the project's man-made marsh
Map showing the site of the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir Project.

The Ryan bid was the lowest of four the district received and significantly below the $38 million cost engineers had estimated. Money for the contract will come from the Everglades Trust Fund budgeted for fiscal year 2019-2020.

The project is expected, when used in conjunction with other existing and planned projects, to reduce the number of damaging discharges from Lake Okeechobee to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers by 63 percent.

It also will send an average of about 120.6 billion gallons of clean water south to the thirsty Everglades and Florida Bay every year.

Board member Ronald M. "Alligator Ron" Bergeron of Broward County, owner of the Bergeron Land Development construction company, abstained from the vote.

Board member Cheryl Meads of Islamorada in the Florida Keys attended the meeting by phone, telling fellow members she had been to Italy recently, a country hard hit by the coronavirus.

Meads said she felt fine but, after watching President Donald Trump announce travel restrictions from Europe, "decided to stay here" at home.

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.