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As authorities celebrated the ribbon cutting of the C-43 Reservoir this month, Calusa Waterkeeper would like to share our position and some of the ongoing concerns with the project.
The Good: Overall, the benefit this reservoir will provide is primarily in the storage and timing of flows to the Caloosahatchee River and Estuary. It should significantly improve water manager's operational flexibility to control flows.
The Bad: Since conception, the reservoir design has lacked adequate storage and ideal treatment for improving the quality of the stored water. Instead of acquiring enough land for more natural solutions such as a stormwater treatment area or filter marsh, an Alum treatment was tacked onto the project in the final stages.
Our concern has long been that the potential for harmful algal blooms in the reservoir and the flocculant from the alum treatment could hamper water managers ability to discharge the water at certain times. It remains to be seen if the reservoir will be operated in accordance with Water Quality-based Effluent Limitations (WQBELS) established by the Clean Water Act.
In general, Calusa Waterkeeper has focused on advocating for water quality solutions and policies that prevent pollution from entering our waterways in the first place, rather than cheer on CERP's "big boxes and pumps" approach to storing more polluted water.
You can read more about our position on the reservoir through a number of documents found here: https://calusawaterkeeper.org/issues/c43-reservoir/
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