provided to The Santiva Chronicle
A July 15 SanCap Chamber ribbon-cutting near LaBelle, Fla., marked the “substantial completion” of Caloosahatchee 43 (C-43) West Basin Storage Reservoir, said Chauncey Goss, Governing Board Member of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD). One of four reservoirs in progress around Lake Okeechobee, it will positively impact water quality, specifically in Southwest Florida, as part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP).
“This is a big deal for this coast,” said Goss. “My first day on the Governing Board — March 14, 2019 — we approved the contract to build this reservoir, so it’s exciting to see it finally come to this stage. It will help with toxic discharges to the Caloosahatchee River and will clean water coming from the lake.”
Gov. Ron DeSantis attended the ribbon-cutting. “This site is capable of storing over 55 billion gallons of water. It’s a massive, massive project,” DeSantis said. “We are, in opening this reservoir, protecting the Caloosahatchee estuary from harmful discharges and ensuring a healthy balance of fresh and salt water, which is essential to … the entire coastal economy. It will benefit Southwest Florida, in particular, in a really, really significant way….This really gives us… an ability to store water, clean water, and ultimately avert the damage that was done [by algal blooms in past] years.”
The reservoir is to the point where the SFWMD will begin to fill the 6-by-3-mile reservoir, which is divided into two cells to avoid water from blowing over its side. Three other reservoirs around the lake will work with C-43 to improve water quality management and provide more options to store water in the wet season and release it in the dry season. They will improve water quality in the Caloosahatchee, Everglades National Park, and Florida Bay by filtering water through the system to the south.
The eastern reservoir C-44 is complete, the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) reservoir to the south is under construction, and the northern reservoir, Lake Okeechobee Component A Reservoir (LOCAR), is in design.
“This is a huge day for Sanibel and Captiva and for Southwest Florida as a whole,” said John Lai, president and chief executive officer of the SanCap Chamber. “It’s what we’ve been waiting and fighting for all these years – an accomplishment that will directly impact the quality of water traveling down the Caloosahatchee and emptying into our bays and the gulf. It’s a huge win for the local economy.”
“The SanCap Chamber was instrumental in helping with advocacy for funding of this and all CERP projects,” said Goss, a Sanibel Island resident. “The chamber has done a great job of educating elected officials about the economic importance of Everglades restoration and the importance of clean water to our economy. Our chamber is a well-respected voice at the table of Everglades policy and funding.”
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