Trump Signs off on
Major Reservoir Project
NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA
OCT. 23, 2018 | JIM TURNER
TALLAHASSEE — Construction of a reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee that state lawmakers
envision as a way to help a region beset by toxic algae blooms was part of a wide-ranging water
bill signed Tuesday by President Donald Trump.
The $6 billion America’s Water Infrastructure
Act of 2018 includes authorization for the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers to begin work on
a massive reservoir project that has been a
priority of Florida Senate President Joe Negron,
R-Stuart.
The next step is for Congress to allocate the
$200 million a year needed for construction of
the roughly $1.6 billion project, which supporters
have envisioned as being half-funded by the
federal government.
Negron on Tuesday called the reservoir “an
indispensable component to ending the ruinous
discharges from Lake Okeechobee.”
The idea of the reservoir is to move water
south from Lake Okeechobee into the reservoir
instead of releasing it into the St. Lucie and
Caloosahatchee estuaries in Southeast and
Southwest Florida.
The issue has been high-profile in Negron’s
Treasure Coast district, where residents blame
releases from the lake for algae-tainted water in
the St. Lucie Estuary.
“Simply put, it is time to start construction of the
reservoir that will reduce discharges from Lake
Okeechobee by 63 percent and send more than
120 billion gallons of clean water south to the
Everglades each year,” Negron said in a statement.
OCTOBER 2018 • DITCHMEN
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