Reservoir remains key to Everglades restoration

Florida’s new Senate president is proposing a bad idea at a bad time.

Wilton Simpson, a Republican who represents a district north of Tampa, said after taking office that the Legislature had made a “mistake” three years ago by approving a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee. It will reduce or eliminate releases of polluted lake water that poison coastal estuaries to the east and west.

If cleaning Lake Okeechobee is the goal, Simpson said, the state could get “twice the bang for our buck” with a massive system of underground wells north of the lake. Pollution wouldn’t enter the lake and the water could be stored for use later.

Simpson then noted Florida’s budget problems from the COVID-19 pandemic. Compared to original projections, state economists forecast a $5.4 billion drop in revenue this year and next.

Those forecasts have improved a bit since they were made in September. Still, Simpson said of the reservoir, “Can you afford that now?”

The answer is yes.

Joe Negron was Senate president in 2017 when he used all his political capital to secure approval of a reservoir in the farming region known as the Everglades Agricultural Area, or EAA. Negron represented Martin County, where discharges of water from the lake – to relieve pressure on the Herbert Hoover Dike – into the St. Lucie River had turned waterways green.

Similar damage occurred on the west coast. The Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the lake’s level to protect the dike, also sent water into the Caloosahatchee River to Fort Myers. Some scientists believe the discharges exacerbated red tide outbreaks in the Gulf of Mexico.

Those discharges have resumed. The Corps began releasing water in late October, after rainfall from Tropical Storm Eta swelled the system. They will continue until early January. Water storage areas in South Florida remain almost two feet above normal for this time of year.

So the need for added capacity south of the lake is obvious. But Simpson misses another key point.

The reservoir will benefit not just the estuaries. It will help the Everglades.

When the Corps completes the construction, the reservoir will connect to a 6,500-acre treatment area that the South Florida Water Management District is building. The treatment area will filter the water before sending it south to the Everglades and finally to Florida Bay.

Though it may be the “River of Grass,” the Everglades too often has lacked sufficient water at the right time of year. The reservoir will supply it. That water won’t be available if it goes into wells north of the lake. Farmers likely would have the first option.

Chauncey Goss is chairman of the water district’s governing board. He acknowledges the need for more water storage to the north, east and west of the lake. But the southern reservoir, Goss said, “is the linchpin of Everglades restoration.”

Florida Politics has reported that Simpson — who owns an egg farm — may run for agriculture commissioner when he is term-limited in 2022. His support for those deep wells and opposition to the reservoir aligns with the position of the state’s sugar growers.

Reservoirs take land out of production. Lobbying by the sugar industry caused the EAA reservoir to be much smaller than Negron had envisioned.

Negron also had to overcome resistance from the water management district. Former Gov. Rick Scott, an ally of the sugar growers, had appointed all the board members. The district lobbied against the reservoir.

That attitude shifted when Ron DeSantis became governor. The sugar industry had backed Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam. DeSantis made water quality a priority and replaced all the board members.

So Simpson favors a policy that the governor opposes. He’s also late to the issue.

Next month, the water district will seek bids for the remaining work on the stormwater treatment area. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2023.

Meanwhile, Congress authorized the reservoir in the 2018 Water Resources Development Act. This year’s version will speed up construction by removing language that the Corps had used to move more slowly.

Work could be done by 2027 or 2028. Fortunately, the treatment area can begin taking water when it is built.

Finally, it’s unclear whether Simpson could deny state money for the reservoir. As noted, it’s a federal project.

And a district spokesman said money for the treatment area has been allocated.

Twenty years ago, the original Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan envisioned more than 300 underground aquifer storage recovery wells north of Lake Okeechobee. Scientists discovered, however, that the scale was too vast. The aquifer couldn’t hold all those wells.

Yet the sugar growers continue to insist that the wells are a better option. For the agriculture industry, they would be. For the overall Everglades system that begins south of Orlando and runs to Florida Bay, however, the EAA reservoir makes more sense.

During last week’s water district board meetings, a series of speakers praised the southern reservoir. It took decades for Florida to see water as an environmental and economic resource, not just the property of farmers. Simpson should not reverse that progress.