C-43 Reservoir progress: Giant pumps can move 650,000 gallons of water a minute
Caloosahatchee advocates celebrated Tuesday morning, as four of the largest pumps on the planet thrummed to life, sending a muddy surge swirling into a retention pool.
Their purpose: moving water into and out of a once-vast Hendry County citrus grove, now the in-progress Caloosahatchee (or C-43) Reservoir intended to keep the river cleaner and its estuary healthier.
The giant inland lake will help by
Capturing excess basin water from the surrounding area during the wet season
Storing releases from Lake Okeechobee and
Improving the salinity balance for the Caloosahatchee estuary by providing freshwater when the river needs it during the dry season.
With a 2025 target completion date, the reservoir is part of the state-federal Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and will hold some170,000 acre-feet of water (55 billion gallons) in two walled cells and marshy treatment areas that will provide wildlife habitat and eventually be open for recreation. (The morning of the celebration, a young alligator and a male anhinga were already using the retention area around the pump station.) The four pumps will be able to move 650,000 gallons of water a minute, the equivalent of the Kansas City Zoo's aquarium.
Finishing the seven-story pump station was a heartening milestone for the assembled officials, environmental advocates and stakeholders. Building the 11,000-acre reservoir has been a bumpy ride for the South Florida Water Management District, which is overseeing the nearly half-billion-dollar project. After chronic delays and disputes, in June, the district board fired the original contractor, Lane Construction, for not meeting construction deadlines. In short order, Lane filed a federal wrongful termination lawsuit, which it later withdrew, and the district went after Lane for damages.
Then, instead of looking for another principal, the district took matters into its own hands and is now "cooking with gas," Executive Director Drew Bartlett told the gathered crowd at the pump station ribbon-cutting.
The pairs of hands on the giant scissors included: Hendry County Commissioner Ramon Iglesias, LaBelle Commissioner Hugo Vargas, Hendry Commissioner Emory "Rowdy" Howard, Hendry Commissioner Mitchell Wills, Hendry Commissioner Emma Byrd, District Governing Board Chair Chauncey Goss, Florida Rep. Adam Botana; Florida Senate President Kathleen Passidomo, Florida Sen. Jonathan Martin; governing board member Charlette Roman, Sanibel Councilwoman Holly Smith, Hendry Commissioner Karson Turner, LaBelle Mayor Julie Wilkins, Florida Department of Environmental Protection Deputy Secretary Adam Blalock, Army Corps of Engineers Maj. Cory Bell and district governing board member Ben Butler.
The man of the hour? John Creswell the reservoir project manager, under whose watch things have zoomed ahead. "Give him a hug," urged Bartlett, before offering a few now-and-then examples. Lane averaged 92 linear feet of soil cement poured on the embankment per day, Bartlett said. "Now, we're up at 800 linear feet per day," he said. "In the first four years, (Lane built) eight miles of perimeter canal; now we're up to 12 in the last six months."
As Goss, governing board chair, characterized it, "He absolutely turned this project around ... taking it to a whole new level."
Helping the river: Big iron, cement pours, 'mind-boggling' progress: Caloosahatchee reservoir full-steam ahead
For Goss, a Sanibel resident, the project is personal. He's seen the mess a dirty river can make of the estuary that surrounds the region's barrier islands. "This is going to be a game-changer," he said.
Another recurring theme: shared mission. Though inland and coastal communities have sometimes seemed at loggerheads about water quality and who's responsible for what, this project has helped unite stakeholders, pointed out Sanibel Councilwoman Holly Smith, "In 2017 ... people were not at the table together and I look around and see how far we've come getting to the table together," she said. "We're recognizing the importance of what we each have in each piece of the puzzle and knowing together, we're going to succeed, and divided, we're just not."
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Four huge pumps mean progress toward a healthier Caloosahatchee River
