Florida is building the world's largest environmental restoration project

 

Florida is embarking on an ambitious ecological restoration project in the Everglades: building a reservoir large enough to secure the state's water supply.


In February 2023, a large digger broke ground on a multi-billion dollar project that has been decades in the making: building a reservoir the size of Manhattan Island.


The reservoir, which is part of an historic restoration of the Everglades ecosystem, is intended to help bring a secure, long-term supply of clean drinking water to Florida's residents.


The Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) reservoir will be located south of Lake Okeechobee, the largest freshwater lake in Florida, and conservationists have dubbed the project "the crown jewel" of the Everglades' restoration.


"It is the single most important project to store, clean and send water from Lake Okeechobee to nourish the Everglades and supply clean drinking water to millions in South Florida," Meenakshi Chabba tells BBC Future Planet. Chabba is an ecosystem scientist at the Everglades Foundation, one of the non-profit organisations that advocated for the project.



As well as protecting the drinking water of South Floridians, the reservoir is also intended to dramatically reduce the algae-causing discharges that have previously shut down beaches and caused mass fish die-offs. (Read more about the pollution causing harmful algal blooms).


Bigger than Manhattan and Staten Island combined, the reservoir will stretch over 10,100 acres large (4,090 ha), and, in addition, have a 6,500-acre (2,630-ha) stormwater treatment area. It will be able to store 78 billion gallons (295.2 billion litres) of water – enough to fill 118,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.





"The water will help recharge the aquifer that provides drinking water to millions of people in South Florida," says Jason Schultz, a spokesperson for the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD).


The reservoir, a joint project between the US Army Corps of Engineers and the SFMD, is a small cog in a large initiative to restore the Everglades. The multi-billion dollarenvironmentalscientists.org Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was passed by Congress in 2000, and includes 68 infrastructure projects across Florida. The Everglades Foundation tells the BBC the restoration plan is the "largest environmental restoration project" in the world.



The infrastructure projects range from rehydrating carbon-sequestering wetlands, to building a complex network of stormwater treatment areas, smaller reservoirs and water control structures – and they're at varying stages of completion. The whole project is due to be completed in 2029.

Website: environmentalscientists.org

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