Palm Beach County gets nearly $50 million for new reservoir at Palm Beach Aggregates
Published: October 16th, 2021
Original Article: https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/weather/2021/10/16/new-palm-beach-county-reservoir-help-droughts-and-floods/6040168001/
Tens of millions of dollars have been earmarked for Palm Beach County to buy space in a vast network of reservoirs that will hold water for aquifer recharge and protect the Lake Worth Lagoon.
The $48 million allotted in this year’s state budget allows the county to take advantage of pits dug at Palm Beach Aggregates, where water storage has already been reserved by utilities in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Palm Beach County did not join the counties to the south in buying space in the much-anticipated C-51 reservoir, which broke ground in March, but the state money will reserve 6,100 acre-feet, or 1.9 billion gallons, for it in an adjoining second phase of the project.
Creating space to store water is vital in South Florida for Everglades restoration and to buoy water supply. Flood control efforts that rerouted the natural flow of water means it often goes to the wrong places at the wrong time and is lost to the ocean when discharged through estuaries such as the Lake Worth Lagoon.
“When the lines were drawn to provide flood protection, we started pumping half of the water off the Everglades on top of the other half that we chose to save,” said Ron Bergeron, a South Florida Water Management District board member. “The bathtub is half the size but we still get 52 to 60 inches of rain each year.”
The first phase of the C-51 project will hold 14,000 acre-feet of water in a Palm Beach Aggregates pit about 15 miles west of Palm Beach International Airport. It is expected to be finished by January 2023. A budget request made by Palm Beach County’s Department of Environmental Resources Management says Phase II is already permitted and could be completed on the same schedule.
Why the reservoir is so important to Palm Beach County
While 6,100 acre-feet is small compared to two reservoirs nearing completion east and west of Lake Okeechobee, water managers said putting water into areas where there's already a hole in the ground just makes sense.
The C-43 reservoir west of Lake Okeechobee in Hendry County will hold 170,000 acre-feet of water. The C-44 reservoir in western Martin County will store 50,600 acre-feet of water.
This could be an important first step in storing water that is currently discharged and harms the Lake Worth Lagoon,” said Everglades Law Center Executive Director Lisa Interlandi about phase II of the C-51. “It would be great to see water managers start working on infrastructure so this could also be used to provide water to the Loxahatchee River when needed.”
The Loxahatchee River relies on Grassy Waters Preserve for water during the dry season, but Grassy Waters is also the main source of drinking water for West Palm Beach, Palm Beach and South Palm Beach.
In recent years, South Florida has struggled with too much water, a challenge that has pushed Lake Okeechobee to its capacity and forced harmful discharges that foster toxic algae growth in estuaries.
But it wasn't too long ago that drought was the bigger concern.
In 2011, a severe drought forced the city of West Palm Beach to buy water from the county, public fountains were shut off countywide, and neighbors tattled on each other for watering their lawns. It got so bad the monkeys at the Palm Beach Zoo had to be moved inside temporarily when the moat that prevents their escape from their islands got too low. Droughts also plagued 2000 and 2001, when the harshest water restrictions in South Florida's history were put in place, including allowing just one day a week for landscape watering.
“We’ve been talking about added storage in this county for a long time,” said Palm Beach County Water Resources Manager Jeremy McBryan during a September water task force meeting.
County officials are working with the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on an agreement about how the $48 million will be received. The county’s request for the money says the reservoir will be managed by the water management district when it’s completed.
The county was scheduled to get a reservoir in the same area as the C-51 through the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, but it was instead used as a reserve to feed water to stormwater treatment areas, which use plants to clear nutrients from water before it is sent into the Everglades.