Florida Seeks Input on Northern Everglades Restoration

WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (ENS) - Florida state scientists and engineers recently released a draft technical plan to protect and restore the Lake Okeechobee watershed and improve the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie watersheds, together known as the Northern Everglades.

The "Draft Lake Okeechobee Watershed Construction Project Phase II Technical Plan" is a critical step in the Northern Everglades initiative to protect and improve the quality, quantity, timing and distribution of water delivered to Lake Okeechobee and downstream receiving waters.

The multi-phased plan, developed by three state agencies, outlines the steps needed to reduce pollution, improve the health of the natural system north of the lake and clean water flowing into South Florida's "liquid heart."

"This is a positive step forward in a long-term undertaking to restore Lake Okeechobee," said District Governing Board Chair Eric Buermann. "The state has collaborated with the constituents of South Florida to develop a cost-effective plan that will build upon the work already under way and make a measurable difference to the health of Lake Okeechobee, the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Rivers and their estuaries."

The technical plan identifies projects to improve the health of the Northern Everglades, along with agricultural and urban best management practices needed to achieve water quality targets for the lake.

In addition, it outlines projects for increasing water storage north of Lake Okeechobee that will help achieve healthier lake levels and reduce harmful discharges to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries.

The plan includes short-term measures for implementation during the first three years of the plan and longer-term measures that will be put into operation post-2010.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection and the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services drafted the multi-phase plan together with the South Florida Water Management District.

The plan recommends building treatment wetlands to clean water flowing into the lake and using other "innovative green nutrient control technologies" to reduce phosphorus loads in the watershed.

Creating between 900,000 and 1.3 million acre-feet of water storage north of the lake through a combination of above-ground reservoirs, underground storage and alternative water storage projects on public and private lands is also recommended.

The plan suggests implementing improved agricultural management practices on more than 1.3 million acres of farmland and finalizing regulations that will reduce the impacts of development on water quality and flow.

Due to the Florida Legislature in February 2008, the technical plan is required by the Northern Everglades and Estuaries Protection Program signed into law by Governor Charlie Crist this year.

In addition to augmenting and enhancing restoration under way in the remnant Everglades south of Lake Okeechobee, the draft plan builds on the environmental improvements north of the lake as a part of the state-federal Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, CERP.

Initial measures outlined by the technical plan call for an additional investment of up to $450 million beyond the state's 50 percent cost-share for land acquisition and construction projects as part of CERP.

Since 2000, Florida has invested more than $3.8 billion to improve the quality and the natural flow of water in the Everglades.

Water managers and the State agencies have worked closely with stakeholders to develop the second phase of the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Construction Project and are seeking public input on restoration measures outlined in the plan through December 13, 2007.

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