SFWMD gives update on Lower Kissimmee Basin Stormwater Treatment Area

Storm clouds gather over the Everglades.

The last large piece of the state’s plan to restore the Everglades was the topic of a public meeting hosted by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), and the state’s most influential environmental advocates were dialed in to cheer it on.

The SFWMD provided an update on the Lower Kissimmee Basin Stormwater Treatment Area (LKBSTA). It’s a project that started nearly five years ago when the District and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) began their search for a project to reduce nutrient levels in Lake Okeechobee. The District convened 28 stakeholders, including governmental agencies and local entities, to address the S-154 and C-154 basins.

In 2020, DEP provided funding to start the project, and in 2021, the SFWMD solicited proposals for a partner to design, construct and operate a stormwater treatment project in the Lower Kissimmee Basin.

The Lower Kissimmee Basin Stormwater Treatment Area is a public private partnership between SFWMD and Ecosystem Investment Partners (EIP) with support from Phillips & Jordan, Inc. The project will capture and clean water from the Kissimmee River and associated canals before it is discharged into Lake Okeechobee. By SFWMD’s estimates, the stormwater treatment area will remove between 20 and 22 metric tons of total phosphorus per year.

Improving the health of the water will substantially improve the health of the Kissimmee River and Lake Okeechobee, which serve as an important source of freshwater and provide habitat for wildlife, including many endangered species.

“You’re taking out of production a high (nutrient) loading piece of land and putting in its place something that will treat the surrounding basin to allow all the other agricultural communities to continue to operate as they do now,” said Anna Upton, CEO of Everglades Trust. “It’s the type of thing we need to do more of throughout the state.”

Lake Okeechobee was deemed an impaired waterbody in 1998 due to high levels of phosphorus. These high levels of phosphorus create toxic algal blooms in the lake that are harmful to humans and animals, and limit the use of the lake for drinking water, irrigation, and recreational use, like swimming.

When the lake is high, discharges distribute the polluted water through streams and rivers to the coastal waters.

“Whenever we have these huge discharges, we see outsized impacts on our ecosystems, the general environment of our coastal communities and the economy of our coastal communities,” said Matt DePaolis, environmental policy director for Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation.

“Until we have enough storage in the system to effectively contain and treat the water and put the water where it needs to go in the Everglades, we’re going to continually see those impacts.”

Cleaning the water before it reaches Lake Okeechobee will mitigate the damage to these precious ecosystems and alleviate the impacts on residents, businesses and wildlife.

Also present at today’s meeting in support of the project were: Florida Oceanographic Society, Everglades Foundation and Everglades Law Center.

The project is expected to be on the agenda next week when the full SFWMD meets in Stuart.