West Palm Beach, FL - The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) submitted its plan to build the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Storage Reservoir for federal approval.
A Post Authorization Change Report (PACR) seeking to build the reservoir as part of the congressionally approved Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) was submitted to the Assistant Secretary of the Army (ASA) for Civil Works today in accordance with state law.
The Tentatively Selected Plan (TSP) for the proposed EAA Storage Reservoir included in the PACR will meet the goals set forth by the Florida Legislature when it passed Senate Bill 10 in 2017. It will reduce damaging discharges to the northern estuaries, deliver clean water for Everglades restoration and achieve water quality standards.
"After many months of hard work by District staff, this is a momentous day for the future of the Everglades and for all who call South Florida home," said SFWMD Governing Board Chairman Dan O'Keefe. "This agency has done its job and created a plan that combines sound science with public feedback to achieve the goals and objectives of state law. It's now up to our federal partners to carry the momentum on southern storage."
Together with authorized projects, the TSP will send an annual average of approximately 370,000 additional acre-feet of clean water south to the Everglades that will be protected by rule or reservation to benefit the natural system. The TSP will also reduce the number of damaging discharge events from Lake Okeechobee to the northern estuaries by 63 percent when used in conjunction with authorized projects.
The additional flows south to the Everglades proposed by the TSP will be treated in a new 6,500-acre Stormwater Treatment Area (STA) in
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SFWMD has informed the public of progress on the Everglades Agricultural Area Storage Reservoir through an innovative web page that features an interactive map and milestone tracker. |
combination with existing STAs and Flow Equalization Basins (FEBs), such as the A-1 FEB, to achieve state water quality standards. The reservoir will store 240,000 acre-feet of water on the 10,100-acre site comprised of the District-owned A-2 parcel and lands to the west as identified in Senate Bill 10. The TSP will work in conjunction with Gov. Rick Scott's
Restoration Strategies for a total of 350,000 acre-feet of storage south of Lake Okeechobee.
The net increase in cost over the currently authorized CEPP is $1.1 billion. The total cost, defined as the capital investment costs, of the authorized CEPP, as modified by the PACR TSP, is $3.17 billion (2018 price level).
The PACR was approved by the SFWMD Governing Board on March 8 and submitted to the ASA along with an independent peer review that found the PACR to be technically sound.
To read the full PACR report or for modeling data and more information on the previously held public meetings, including agendas and presentations, visit
www.sfwmd.gov/eaareservoir.
