SFWMD Starts Filling New Reservoir With Lake Okeechobee Water

To help lower Lake Okeechobee and benefit the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries, the South Florida Water Management District this week began emergency operations to send lake water directly into a new reservoir designed to capture excess stormwater.

Recent dry conditions lowered water levels in the new A-1 Flow Equalization Basin in western Palm Beach County, creating capacity for SFWMD to move 9.8 billion gallons of water from the lake directly into the Basin. A project in Governor Scott’s Restoration Strategies Plan to improve the Everglades, the Basin temporarily stores water for delivery to South Florida’s Stormwater Treatment Areas in a manner that optimizes their ability to clean water before sending it into Everglades National Park.