Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Unfinished reservoir full of promise
Boost to region’s water supplies is worth delays and steep costs, advocates say
After costing nearly $300 million of South Florida taxpayers’ money, a longstalled reservoir for Everglades restoration missed its December construction deadline and could take another year to complete.
Now, even before it’s finished, local officials are pushing for state lawmakers to approve building another reservoir — with a price tag that could hit $400 million — right next door.
Both reservoir projects involve using old rock mines near Wellington to store rainwater that now gets drained out to sea to avoid flooding homes and businesses.
The unfinished reservoir, in the works for a decade, is intended to get more water flowing south to replenish the Everglades. The proposed neighboring reservoir would be tapped to boost drinking water supplies in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
Despite steep costs and lingering construction delays, supporters of the reservoirs say both are still worth pursuing. Backers say that’s because the reservoirs offer the chance to add to South Florida’s water supply — for the benefit of the environment and for a growing population.
“Anywhere that we can achieve storage in [South Florida] will be attractive,” said Jennifer Jurado, Broward County’s director of the Environmental Planning and Community Resilience Division. “We can operate the two projects in tandem and enhance the benefits.”
Recurring problems ‘frustrating’
The unfinished reservoir stretches over 1,000 acres of former rock mines at the Palm Beach Aggregates rock mining company, located north of Southern Boulevard west of Royal Palm Beach.
Called the L8 Reservoir, it reaches 53 feet deep and can hold about 15 billion gallons of water. That’s enough water to cover 34,000 football fields with water 1 foot deep, according to the South Florida Water Management District. That’s also about as much water as Boca Raton uses in a year, according to the district’s Lower East Coast Water Supply Plan.
The L8 Reservoir was originally intended to get more water to the Loxahatchee River in northern Palm Beach County — compensating for flows disrupted by drainage that made way for development.
Plans for the reservoir changed after Gov. Rick Scott took office. Scott’s reconfigured Everglades restoration plans call for sending the L8 Reservoir’s water south as part of the multibillion-dollar effort to revive the famed River of Grass.
The South Florida Water Management District bought the rock pits, converted for water storage, in 2008 for about $220 million.
Getting state money to build a $64 million pumping station and make other improvements has slowed efforts to put the reservoir’s water to use.
Work on the pumping station finally started in 2013 and was supposed to be finished this year. But district officials say that numerous problems with the pumps have delayed completion.
It takes six pumps — each of them 12 feet tall and 12,000 pounds — to get the reservoir’s water flowing from the reservoir at full capacity.
Four of the six new pumps are now working. Getting the remaining two pumps on-line and completing testing and other work could take four months to a year, according to the district.
“It’s frustrating ... to have this kind of recurring problem,” said Daniel O’Keefe, chairman of the district’s governing board. “We are doing everything humanly possible to move that forward.”
More money needed
Amid the lingering delays at the L8 Reservoir, a coalition of South Florida communities has teamed with Palm Beach Aggregates to build support for creating another reservoir beside the existing massive pool of water.
The new reservoir, called the C51 Reservoir, would siphon off more of the rainwater now drained out to sea by South Florida’s canals and instead use that water to bolster drinking water in Palm Beach and Broward counties.
The plans for the proposed reservoir call for using the still-unfinished pumps of the neighboring L8 Reservoir to also get its water flowing. Those pumps would push water from the proposed C51 Reservoir south to the well fields of communities that pay to draw from this added water supply.
The plan calls for Palm Beach Aggregates to turn its leftover rock mines into another reservoir and then get paid by utilities that pass the cost on to water customers.
Sunrise, Dania Beach, Lauderhill and Broward County are among the initial water utilities with plans to draw from the reservoir. It still would have capacity to serve more communities as regional water needs grow.
The first phase of the C51 Reservoir is projected to cost $161 million and be able to deliver up to 35 million gallons of water per day.
The work to turn holes left by mining into a reservoir, with reinforced embankments, improved canals and other upgrades, could be done by 2019, according to project backers.
To get the project started, the Florida Legislature this spring is being asked to pay up to $97 million of the first-phase cost. Water customers in the communities already planning to use the reservoir would pay for the rest.
Building a second phase of the proposed reservoir could provide another 150 million gallons of water a day to South Florida communities, while costing $286 million to complete, according to project estimates.
Hurdles remain
While the prospect of building another reservoir using Palm Beach Aggregates rock mines has been considered for a decade, the proposal was slowed at times due to cost concerns as well as a past controversy tied the property.
After selling the land for the existing L8 reservoir to the South Florida Water Management District, Palm Beach Aggregates reimbursed the district for a $2.4 million “secret success fee” — which was discovered during a federal investigation into Palm Beach County government.
Prosecutors said that fee was paid to an engineering consultant who recommended the reservoir deal to water managers without disclosing his role as a consultant for Palm Beach Aggregates.
That success fee surfaced in a federal investigation that ended up ousting a Palm Beach County commissioner who was a partner in the same engineering firm as the consultant on the reservoir deal. Palm Beach Aggregates never faced any charges in the case.
Palm Beach Aggregates agreed to reimburse that portion of the costs to alleviate any concerns from the district, company representative Ernie Cox said.
“We don’t believe we did anything wrong,” Cox said. “It was really more of a perception thing . ... We have been straight with everybody.”
Politics still could pose a hurdle to getting state funding for building another reservoir using the Palm Beach Aggregates rock mines.
The push for the Legislature to help pay for the C51 reservoir comes as Florida Senate President Joe Negron is also trying to build support for building a $2.4 billion reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee.
Negron’s 120 billiongallon reservoir is intended to create an alternative outlet for lake water now drained to the east and west coasts. While draining lake water to the east and west protects South Florida from flooding, those lake discharges can fuel toxic algae blooms and have other damaging consequences on coastal waterways.
South Florida has enough water-supply needs to justify creating more than one new reservoir, according to supporters of building the C51 reservoir.
Negron’s proposal should help provide support, not create competition, for building another reservoir near Wellington, according to Jurado.
“It’s smart. It’s cost-effective,” Jurado said about the proposed C51 reservoir. “The pressures on our water resources and environment are significant.”