Posted on February 15, 2021
South Florida Water Management District governing board members approved a substantial $175.8 million contract Thursday to finish their part of a fast-tracked reservoir project south of Lake Okeechobee that is expected to reduce harmful discharges to northern estuaries.
The unanimous vote dedicates the money to finish a 6,500-acre stormwater treatment area in western Palm Beach County to filter nutrients from lake water before it goes south to the Everglades.
It is part of an ambitious $1.6 billion project that includes the treatment area and a 10,500-acre reservoir, also in Palm Beach County, that should mitigate the amount of algae-tainted water that is dumped in the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries when Lake Okeechobee is too full.
Tennessee-based Phillips & Jordan, Inc. won the contract in a competitive bidding process. The company, founded in 1952, has offices in the Carolinas, California, Colorado and San Antonio, Fla., a small town northeast of Tampa. It has experience building dams, levees, reservoirs and rehabilitating aging water systems, according to its website.
The contract gives a wider berth than normal for unexpected expenses, allowing for up to $2 million in additional funding without board approval. A $5 million bonus is also on the table if the project is finished by Sept. 21, 2023.
The only comment on the contract was from board member Ron Bergeron, a developer and conservationist, who vouched for the experience of Phillips & Jordan.
“All I can say is it is a nationwide company with a great reputation,” Bergeron said.
While building the stormwater treatment area is the responsibility of the district, the Army Corps of Engineers must tackle the reservoir. Because the reservoir and treatment area are part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, the cost is split between the state and federal government. But it’s not always an equal division on every project. So, while Thursday’s vote fully funds the construction of the treatment area, the reservoir isn’t fully paid for.
Corps spokesman John Campbell said there is $250 million in the 2021 budget to pay for South Florida ecosystem restoration, which includes money for the reservoir. The Corps expects to award its first construction contract for reservoir seepage canals this year.
“The federal government isn’t just going to write a $1.4 billion check for the reservoir,” Everglades Foundation Executive Director Eric Eikenberg said. “Florida remains on the hook for the reservoir.”
Despite the speedy evolution of the project from former Senate President Joe Negron’s initial plan announced in August 2016 to the first removal of Glades muck in late 2019, the proposal has faced hurdles and machinations that led to an exodus of district staff and board members.
A November 2018 vote by the former governing board that gave a new eight-year lease to Florida Crystals on land slated for the reservoir angered environmentalists. State law required the land be used for agriculture until ground could be broken for the reservoir, but Everglades activists said the lease was underhanded, would delay construction, and was only made public as a voting item 12 hours before the November meeting.
In January 2019, newly-elected Gov. Ron DeSantis demanded the resignation of the entire governing board that approved the lease. Former district executive director Ernie Marks, and a handful of administrators, resigned in the following weeks and months.
The new board is made up of all DeSantis appointees.
Another roadblock occurred this year when the reservoir was pulled out of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and made a standalone endeavor. The status it was given was called a “new start” and proponents feared it would delay construction. But the “new start” label was removed in the Water Resources and Development Act of 2020, which was approved by Congress in December.
“I believe we are heading in the right direction,” said Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay, about the reservoir.
McKinlay’s district includes the western reaches of the county where the treatment area and reservoir will be located.
The contract approved Thursday builds on $13.38 million already budgeted to create seepage canals for the treatment area, and a $1.25 million expense to clear grub and muck from areas slated for the canals.
“This has been extraordinary,” Eikenberg said about the progress made since 2016 on the reservoir. “I’m the most optimistic I’ve been in the eight years I’ve been with the foundation because of the momentum and political will in Washington and Tallahassee.”
The water management board is in charge of flood control, water quality and Everglades restoration in 16 counties from Orlando to the Keys – a daunting challenge that in recent years has included devastating bouts of toxic blue-green algae in the northern estuaries, red tide in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic coastline, and sea grass die-offs in Florida Bay.
This year, State Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Spring Hill, began pushing to have more money spent north of Lake Okeechobee to clean water before it reaches the lake. Simpson, a farmer who represents Citrus and Hernando counties, and part of Pasco County, sent a letter to the Corps this month saying that while he has supported the reservoir his concern is “the aggressive timeline for southern storage has been at the expense of very important interventions north of the lake.”
He notes that 95% of the phosphorus and 89% of the nitrogen going into the lake comes from its northern watershed.
Everglades Law Center Executive Director Lisa Interlandi said diverting money from the reservoir would be “an absolute travesty.”
“The project is moving forward quickly, and we have known that it is the most critical project for Everglades restoration since the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was authorized in 2000,” Interlandi said. “It is extremely frustrating for me to hear that money could be taken from it to go to other projects.”
