The Everglades are one of the most important ecosystems in the United States, providing drinking water to nearly a third of Floridians. The state is determined to build a massive reservoir south of Lake Okeechobee to secure access to drinking water for South Florida.<\/p>\n
Current drinking water comes primarily from underground aquifers, which are themselves fed by the Everglades. Florida\u2019s rapidly growing population and rising water levels and flooding make restoring the entire Everglades ecosystem urgent. The Everglades Foundation told Lucy Sherriff for the BBC in an August 16, 2024, article that the project is the largest in the world today. It consists of 68 individual, interconnected infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n
The construction of a new reservoir, the keystone of the restoration and a technological feat.<\/strong><\/p>\n Located on an area larger than Manhattan and Staten Island combined, a new drinking water reservoir will span more than 10,100 acres. At an estimated cost of $2.78 billion, it will be capable of storing more than 295 billion liters of water (7.8 billion gallons), enough to fill 118,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. A 36-foot-high embankment wall will encircle it. Another 6,500-acre reservoir for treating storms and rainwater is also planned.<\/p>\n The fight against toxic algae.<\/strong><\/p>\n Another priority of the colossal Everglades restoration project: the fight against the proliferation of algae, which are proliferating with rising temperatures and pollution. The discharge of contaminated water into the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico has already caused beach closures and mass fish deaths.<\/p>\n There is no shortage of money.<\/strong><\/p>\n The comprehensive Everglades restoration plan was passed by the Florida Congress in 2020 and is funded by the state of Florida with federal assistance. Funds are plentiful given the urgency of the situation: a total of $23 billion over several years is budgeted. But the project, jointly managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District, is running behind schedule.<\/p>\n The complexity of the situation.<\/p>\n Jennifer Reynolds, the district’s director for renovation and a former deputy director of the Army Corps, told WLRN’s Jenny Teletovic on Nov. 8, 2024, that the reservoir could not be completed and operational until 2034, four years later than announced last year: “We just can’t dig the ground any faster,” she said. In addition, outside of the gigantic reservoir, pollution emergencies forced engineers to focus on the St. Lucie Estuary and the Caloosahatchee River: the emergency construction of underground reservoirs to store polluted water was necessary in the face of massive algae invasions.<\/p>\n