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Under A Tight Timeline, Planning Is Underway For Reservoir To Help The Everglades

Blue-green algae in Palm Beach County. State water managers are in the midst of planning a reservoir that would reduce discharges of contaminated water from Lake Okeechobee, which can worsen algae blooms.
Allen Eyestone
/
Palm Beach Post
Blue-green algae in Palm Beach County. State water managers are in the midst of planning a reservoir that would reduce discharges of contaminated water from Lake Okeechobee, which can worsen algae blooms.

Water managers planning a massive Everglades reservoir to help end polluted releases from Lake Okeechobee that regularly foul both coasts unveiled early drafts of the project Tuesday.

While still far from final, the plans call for piggybacking the reservoir on an existing water treatment area that helps clean up the dirty water. By law, the South Florida Water Management District must stick to a strict timeline, which district officials dubbed the “beehive,” forcing engineers to squeeze work that normally takes more than a year into six weeks.

The pace, and complexity of the project, also have engineers struggling to design a project that meets multiple objectives on a limited footprint.

Read more: What We Talk About When We Talk About Everglades Restoration

Read more from our news partner, the Miami Herald.

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Jenny Staletovich has been a journalist working in Florida for nearly 20 years.
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