South Florida Water Management District details Lake Okeechobee storage, treatment and infrastructure plans

Drew Bartlett, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, told the Central Florida Regional Planning Council on its October meeting in Okeechobee that the district is pursuing a mix of large reservoirs, underground storage, wetland treatment areas and in‑lake restoration to reduce discharges from Lake Okeechobee and improve regional water supplies.

Bartlett said the district has congressional authorization to build a large reservoir north of Lake Okeechobee and is pursuing multiple storage projects around the lake. He described a recently completed west‑coast reservoir with a roughly 10,000‑acre footprint that cost about $1 billion, and the Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir (EAA reservoir) on the south side of the lake, which he said carries a price tag “over $3,000,000,000.” “These are all, really expensive infrastructure, but that’s how you improve water management in South Florida,” Bartlett said.

Why it matters: Storage and treatment capacity around Lake Okeechobee affect whether water must be discharged east or west to estuaries, with consequences for algal blooms, fisheries, tourism…