Specifications

Section 4 Identification of Problems and Opportunities
EAA Storage Reservoirs Revised Draft PIR and EIS February 2006
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Okeechobee littoral shelves and subaquatic vegetation, and the northern
estuaries from damaging high water levels and untimely discharges. When Lake
Okeechobee exceeds its regulation schedule, water that currently impacts the
lake’s littoral zone or disrupts the ecological communities in the northern
estuaries, could be moved southward into new storage areas and then, water
quality permitting, to the WCAs.
4.1.5 Water Supply to Water Conservation Areas
The C&SF Project compartmentalized natural system areas into Water
Conservation Areas (WCAs) to control flooding and to provide a source of water
to meet water supply demands. This compartmentalization has altered the
hydrologic regime of the natural system communities within the WCAs,
including modifying the frequency and duration of hydroperiods and
hydropatterns and the magnitude of interannual wet and dry cycles. A portion
of the water from the WCAs is allocated to water supply for the heavily
populated lower East Coast. Water in the WCAs is needed for industrial,
commercial, agricultural, municipal, and residential uses, as well as for
protecting the surficial aquifer from salt water intrusion. The WCAs also
function as a source of water for Everglades National Park. These competing
functions have also lowered the regional ground water in and adjacent to the
WCAs.
The EAA Storage Reservoir project represents an opportunity to improve the
quantity and timing of delivery of water from the C&SF Project released to
natural system communities in the WCAs, particularly WCAs 3A and 3B. Water
in Lake Okeechobee that is currently discharged to tide via regulatory releases
can be diverted and stored in a reservoir and subsequently delivered to meet
environmental targets. Similarly, runoff originating in the EAA can be captured
and stored in the reservoir and subsequently released for agricultural water
supply purposes.
The EAA Storage Reservoir project will also moderate the flow to STA 3/4. This
should enhance the efficiency and longevity of that STA. Reduced nutrient
loading coming from the EAA via sequestration in the reservoir should provide
long-term water quality benefits to the natural areas in the downstream WCAs.
4.2 PLANNING OBJECTIVES AND CONSTRAINTS
The planning objectives of the project are:
• Improve the timing of environmental deliveries of water to the WCAs,
• Reduce regulatory releases of water from the EAA to the WCAs,