Pictured are County Commissioner Brian Hammond, Policy Director Matt DePaolis, the prior Acting Assistant Secretary for the Army (Civil Works) Lee Forsgren, and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Water, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Policy, Wes Brooks.

SCCF joined state, federal, and NGO partners to celebrate an additional $2 billion in funding for the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir. The funding will allow the project to be completed in 2029, five years ahead of schedule. 

With its new completion date, the reservoir will be able to provide benefits across the entire system much sooner than expected. The Manhattan-sized reservoir will hold 78 billion gallons of water when complete. As the lynchpin of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), the reservoir will help to reduce damaging discharges to the northern estuaries.

“When there is an excess of water in the system, the damaging discharges from Lake Okeechobee wreak havoc on our estuaries,” said SCCF Environmental Policy Director Matt DePaolis. “This funding will help us bring the project online much sooner and allow water managers to control the quality, quantity, timing, and distribution of the water necessary to restore our ecosystems.”

Coupled with the benefits from the C-43 reservoir, the Caloosahatchee estuary will soon have powerful new tools to help balance the water in the estuary. While watershed nutrient sources will still have a massive impact on our water quality, these reservoirs will be instrumental in controlling the quantity of water that reaches our estuaries, preventing damaging releases in the wet season and providing beneficial flows during the dry season.

Speakers highlighted the speed with which this project would now be completed — commenting on the difficulties over the years of building momentum, securing funding, and ensuring consistent, bipartisan support. Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory and Scientific Affairs at EPA’s Office of Water, Wes Brooks, remarked that this was a “project so nice, it had to be authorized twice,” through the requisite ‘Water Resources Development Act’ (WRDA) process, and all speakers celebrated current leadership and the across-the-board support for restoring America’s Everglades. 

Attendees included Gov. DeSantis, Representatives Mario Diaz-Balart and Brian Mast, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle, Secretary for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Alexis Lambert, Jacksonville District Commander Col. Bowman, South Florida Governing Board Members, Chauncey Goss, Ron Bergeron, Benjamin Butler, and Thomas Hurley, as well as local leaders Commissioner Brian Hammond and Sanibel Vice Mayor Holly Smith to celebrate the good news for the estuaries.

Everyone was thrilled with the accelerated timeline and the prospect of protecting our northern estuaries by being able to send the much-needed water south to the Everglades. Speakers celebrated the announcement while behind them, one of the largest drag-lines in the world continued apace, reminding everyone of the work being done.