FROM THE HARVESTER, MAY 1968

FFVA DIRECTORS HEAR WATER RESOURCES PLAN

A water resources plan involving 16,000 square miles in Central and Southern Florida that includes raising the level of Lake Okeechobee four feet was explained to an April meeting of FFVA’s Board of Directors by the top civilian engineer of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville.

Joe J. Koperski said the plan was developed by the corps after a four-year study, and the goal is to ensure a stable water supply for urban and agricultural areas in South Florida.

The primary feature of the plan, Koperski said, calls for capturing rainfall that now runs into the ocean and pumping it back into Lake Okeechobee and the giant conservation areas for storage and use during dry periods.

Engineers calculate billions of gallons of water can be saved by this method and used during deficient rainfall periods, which have plagued the Everglades region in recent years.

The principal objective of the study – which cost $400,000 – was to devise the most feasible means of conserving, storing and directing the flow of water to areas in short supply.

The major tasks were to determine surface and ground water supplies available; the present and projected water needs of the various interests within the study area, including the Everglades National Park; and the cost of the facilities required to increase use of surface and ground water supplies.

Included in the 16,000-square-mile area studied was Lake Okeechobee, its regulatory outlets, the major portion of the Everglades, the upper St. Johns and Kissimmee River Basins, and the lower east coast of Florida.

Koperski outlined many alternatives that were studied to provide additional water. High on the list was additional storage in new and existing water storage areas. Lake Okeechobee was selected because of overall economy and because water could be transferred there by gravity.

He said the plan called for only a few additional canals and improvement to a few existing canals. Back-pumping into conservation areas and increased usage of water from Lake Okeechobee will eliminate the need for major canals to the south.

Back-pumping would be into Lake Okeechobee, conservation areas and the Everglades National Park.

Deep wells to the Floridan Aquifer, reduction of losses by seepage, reuse of sewage effluent in a three-county area, reduction of evapo-transpiration by use of a mono-molecular film, cloud seeding and desalting of sea water were other possibilities studied.

Increased water storage calls for raising the level of Lake Okeechobee by four feet or from 19.5 to 21.5 feet above mean sea level.

The plan includes raising some 150 miles of existing levees by 2 ½ feet; a provision for approximately 65 miles of new interceptor dikes and tieback levees, seven pumping stations and a spillway, lock and dam at Port Mayaca; modification of some 40 project and non-project structures; and raising SR 78.

Koperski said with completion of presently authorized works, the Central and Southern Florida project would perform adequately until about 1976. The recommended modification of this water resources plan would satisfy needs to the year 2000.

The total first cost of this recommended project modification exclusive of recreation features is estimated to be $70,301,300 of which the federal share is estimated to be $51,365,100 based on 80 percent of the total being the federal share and 20 percent local.

Raising Lake Okeechobee a full four feet above its present level would not be accomplished completely until 1981.

--For additional information on this plan, go to http://www.sfwmd.gov/org/wre/usgspartnersold/planning/swimplan/chap5.pdf