Scott says Lake O reservoir plan will help estuaries

About 100 people lined the southern banks of Lake Okeechobee Friday to see Rick Scott sign legislation aimed at building a reservoir that should eventually help ease freshwater discharges to the Caloosahatchee River.

"This continues the puzzle to fix the flow of water and the Everglades through all the Everglades restoration," Scott said. "This is good for all of us. It's good for our wildlife. It's good for our agriculture industry and it's great for this part of the state."

The controversial reservoir originally targeted 60,000 acres of farmland south of Lake Okeechobee but is now being confined to lands already owned by the state along with land and lease swaps with smaller property owners.

Proposed by Sen. Joe Negron, R-Stuart, the reservoir is meant to capture and store excess rain water, much of which is artificially flushed down the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie rivers during heavy rains.

"I don't want ever to see that guacamole algae in Indian River Lagoon and I don't want to see dirty water over toward Sanibel again," Scott said, speaking of the estuaries that received Lake Okeechobee discharges. "None of us do."

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Negron's original plan called for $2.4 billion (split 50/50 between the South Florida Water Management District and Army Corps of Engineers) but is now expected to cost about $1.5 billion.

"We needed additional southern storage south of Lake Okeechobee so we won't haven these poisonous discharges east and west that destroy communities, that destroy our rivers, our estuaries and our oceans," Negron said after Scott spoke. "We kept talking about it, but we kept putting it off further and further."

Sam Simmons of Clewiston wore a shirt that said #ourlivesmattertoo, a social media slogan meant to highlight economic struggles in this part of the state.

Sugar farming, he said, is vital to his and other families living in rural communities south of the lake. Negron's original plan called for finding farmers willing to sell land south of the big lake, but the sugar companies said losing that acreage could lead to job losses, cut into profits and cause at least one mill to close.

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"It means everything," he said. "Either you work with U.S. Sugar or you work for someone who does business with them."

Simmons said he wants to see other regions of the historic Everglades create reservoirs as well, to help out with the larger water quality problem that's plagued South Florida in recent decades.

"There should be one north, south, east and west because I think most of the stuff is coming from Orlando," he said. "There’s all that development and it gets in the water and comes down here. It’s not just us."

Reservoirs are planned for all of those regions.

Albert Polk preaches at Miracle Temple Ministries in Belle Glade and said he was relieved when the bill was changed in recent weeks.

"We feared it because it was written to devastate our community," Polk said. "They wanted to take 60,000 acres of active farm land out of production, that would have devastated our already challenged community."

The Everglades Foundation is one environmental group that has pushed for years for a reservoir south of Okeechobee. Scott credited the group with helping make this legislation possible.

Group director Eric Eikenberg said the bill will help coastal areas that were blanketed with chocolate to black waters this time last year.

"It turned out great, in a manner that helps both the east and west coasts," Eikenberg said. "And it helps Florida Bay to the south, so the three estuaries that have suffered in this crisis will be helped."

While Scott blamed the federal government for not completing work on the dike that surrounds the lake faster, he said President Donald Trump is ready to move forward with this and other Everglades projects.

"I sat down with him several weeks ago and I said we've got to finish the dike," Scott said. "It's been very difficult to get done over the last six years but we've got to get this done. He was all on board. It was something President Trump talked bout during the campaign and he is absolutely committed to making sure this dike gets finished and it gets finished quick."

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