The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers predicts that the entire Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir will be completed by 2029.
“Listen to Steve Davis, Chief Science Officer of the Everglades Foundation, explains this new project is incredible,” said WBOB Morning Show host Roger Henderson.
Henderson mentioned a recent interview with Steve Davis about the new canal that will link reservoirs in the Everglades’ agricultural area with Lake Okeechobee.
“This is something,” David said. “It’s 13 miles long and can store the lake water and head south to the Everglades.”
Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation, praised the Army’s partnership. One of the many success stories that Eikenberg tells the audience that they have been in the past few years is that many projects that have begun have ended early, adding cost savings for taxpayers. Eikenberg says the canal project needs to be completed several years earlier than originally planned.
“This has been a decades-long effort to restore natural water flow in South Florida and connect Lake Okeechobee with reservoirs in the agricultural area of the Everglades,” Aikenberg said. “This allows clean filtered water to be stored and sent south.”
“It’s a massive business, it’s a generation at this point,” Colonel Brandon Bowman said with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Colonel also highlighted the amount of work that contributed to the project, billions of dollars, and tens of thousands of men’s time.
Steve Davis said the canal is not only 13 miles long, but it is about 37 feet tall and covers a little over 200 feet of cover at its base.
“It reduces the need for harmful discharges to the East and West Coasts that can cause the blooming of toxic blue-green algae. It benefits us all to send it south, store, clean and flow into the Everglades,” Davis said.
