Everglades gets $265 million boost from Biden administration to build key reservoir

A keystone project for Everglades restoration is getting a $265 million boost from the Biden administration, which could jump-start construction for the controversial Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir Project.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz announced Tuesday that the Biden administration is committing funding to begin construction for the reservoir, a piece of the ecosystem’s restoration project that activists and Florida Republicans argued was being excluded from federal funding.

“Securing this vital reservoir funding has taken me years, including several futile requests for help to the previous administration,” Wasserman Schultz said. “But President Biden’s commitment to Everglades restoration does not waver. His overall funding and this move to expedite the EAA Reservoir proves that.”

When built, the 16-square-mile reservoir will hold a tremendous amount of polluted water from Lake Okeechobee so it can be cleaned and treated in batches. The hope is that the reservoir will hold enough water that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers doesn’t have to send excess water east and west into rivers, causing blue-green algae explosions that kill fish and sour the tourism industry. Instead, that water can be sent south to recharge the thirsty Everglades.

While Gov. Ron DeSantis and some environmental groups support the reservoir, others question if it will work as intended after the Army Corps selected a scaled-down version of the initial proposal.

Sugar farmers, notorious political opponents to Everglades groups, have sued the Army Corps over complaints the reservoir won’t provide them enough irrigation water.

The $265 million is part of a $350 million Everglades restoration budget request made by President Joe Biden last year. With this funding, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is splitting the cost and construction of the project with Florida, is able to advertise for a construction contract for the project’s foundation this summer and complete design and planning by year’s end.

This is on top of the record-breaking $1.1 billion Everglades restoration got from the federal infrastructure law this year and an additional $407 million in the president’s 2023 budget that will go towards several different Everglades restoration projects. Of that future funding, another $300 million is earmarked for the EAA.

But despite the record-shattering funding totals, DeSantis and other Republicans have accused Biden of de-prioritizing the reservoir, a priority of the DeSantis administration. He and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., asked the president to increase his 2023 Everglades funding request to $725 million.

The total cost of the EAA is north of $3.5 billion, split between the Corps and the state, and it’s scheduled to be completed by 2029.

In September, the Corps signed an $80 million contract to start construction on part of the reservoir, and the state has fully funded construction of the water treatment aspect of the project it’s responsible for, which will be done in 2023.