July 28, 2017
West Palm Beach, FL – The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) conducted two public workshops on the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project (LOWRP) this week, Thursday afternoon in Okeechobee and Friday morning in West Palm Beach. More than 90 Floridians participated in the workshops in person. The meetings were also webcast.
"These planning processes ensure public participation which is critical to the future of Everglades restoration," said SFWMD Governing Board Member Brandon Tucker, who participated in one of the workshops in person. "I am pleased to see so much participation from interested parties. This is how good decisions get made."
The Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project, which began in July 2016, seeks to identify a slate of storage options, including the use of ASR wells and above-ground reservoirs to store water north of Lake Okeechobee. The project will improve the quantity, timing and distribution of flows into the 730-square-mile Lake from the north where approximately 90 percent of the flows originate. A proposed project will also aid in reducing damaging discharges from the lake to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries.
For more information on the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project, visit www.sfwmd.gov/lowrp.