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PALM BEACH COUNTY - Governor Jeb Bush today joined local, state and federal leaders to break ground on one of the most expansive reservoirs in the world as part of the massive effort to restore America’s Everglades. When complete, the first component of the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir will cover 25 square miles and provide 190,000 acre-feet of water storage to better manage water released from Lake Okeechobee and to improve the timing and quality of water delivered to the famed River of Grass. The $400 million reservoir is the flagship project of the State’s Acceler8 initiative to complete eight critical Everglades restoration projects ahead of schedule.
“Florida is keeping its promise to restore the River of Grass and protect this national treasure,” said Governor Bush. “By constructing this massive water storage system, we can better control water releases, restore wildlife habitat and protect the state’s estuaries.”
Engineers will move close to 18 million cubic yards of earth to construct the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir on 16,700 acres of former farmland. Along with capturing runoff from agricultural areas, the reservoir will store freshwater releases from Lake Okeechobee to reduce harmful discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries. The reservoir will also provide additional water to hydrate the Everglades, increase flood protection and allow water managers to capture and direct phosphorus-laden water to constructed wetlands for treatment.
“The magnitude of this project is awe-inspiring,” said South Florida Water Management District Governing Board Chairman Kevin McCarty, “yet our commitment to Everglades restoration is just as big. The EAA Reservoir is one of many outstanding projects, and they are all aimed at bringing environmental benefits to the Everglades ecosystem as soon as possible.”
To guide the EAA Reservoir, the South Florida Water Management District initially constructed two storage areas that together held 24 million gallons of water. These test reservoirs, called test cells, provided engineers with critical information to design and build the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir. Scheduled for completion in 2010, the reservoir will store approximately 62 billion gallons of water -- the equivalent of more than 5 million residential swimming pools.
“Today's groundbreaking of the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir is the strongest example yet of how far and fast we have traveled from planning to concrete action in the shared federal/state Everglades restoration effort,” said White House Council on Environmental Quality Chairman James L. Connaughton. “This Acceler8 project is an essential component of the infrastructure needed to fulfill the commitment by President Bush and Governor Bush to provide the water needed to revive this important ecosystem.”
The EAA Reservoir is the largest of three major reservoirs under construction as part of the State’s Acceler8 effort. This project is the first phase of a reservoir system that will store approximately 360,000 acre-feet of water on 30,000 acres of State-owned land between the North New River Canal and the Miami Canal.
Announced by Governor Jeb Bush in October 2004, Acceler8 is stepping up the pace of funding, design and construction to complete eight Everglades restoration projects over seven years. At substantial savings to taxpayers, the projects will restore 100,000 acres of wetlands, expand water treatment areas by close to 29,000 acres and provide 428,000 acre-feet of additional water storage for Everglades restoration a decade ahead of schedule. Five of the eight Acceler8 projects are already underway. Since February 2006, the State has expanded three Everglades Agricultural Area treatment wetlands and launched construction on the C-43 Caloosahatchee West Storage Reservoir, the C-44 St. Lucie Canal Reservoir/Stormwater Treatment Area and the Acme Basin B Discharge Project.
Under the leadership of Governor Bush, Florida has forged ahead to implement the $10.5 billion, State-federal Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. Since 2000, Florida has invested more than $2 billion and committed an additional $3.2 billion through the end of the decade to clean up and restore the famed River of Grass.
For more information on Acceler8, visit
www.evergladesnow.org.
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