PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Marco Rubio accused Democrats in the federal government of not prioritizing Florida Everglades restoration projects.
DeSantis and Rubio talked to reporters on Monday afternoon at the Stormwater Treatment Area 1 East in Palm Beach County about the Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir project.
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DeSantis said they were asking President Joe Biden’s administration and Congress for more funding for the EAA reservoir, an ongoing Everglades restoration project.
“We are all here united, calling on the Biden administration to include at least $725 million for Everglades restoration in the upcoming FY23 budget,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis and Rubio said there is an urgent need to address some of the discharges with toxic blue-green algae from Lake Okeechobee that are affecting the quality of the water.
“My hope is that we will be able to go back here, we will have a regular spending bill out of Congress, as we do every year, and that in that regular spending bill ... we can continue on that trajectory of consistent and steady funding, so you can do the long-term planning that results in real projects happening, contracts being put out,” Rubio said.
Rubio said it is a state and federal partnership that lacked priority for more than a decade. Rubio and DeSantis said The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and The South Florida Water Management District are working together on the projects.
According to the SFWMD, the EAA reservoir project includes a treatment wetland that will clean water and a reservoir that will store excess water from Lake Okeechobee.
The SFWMD is tasked with building the 6,500-acre wetland known as Stormwater Treatment Area. The construction began in April 2020 and was set to be completed in 2023.
The Corps of Engineers is tasked with building the reservoir to hold 240,000 acre-feet of water. They haven’t broken ground yet or awarded the contract.
View SFWM records on the project
On Aug. 31, 2015, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy signed off on the Central Everglades Planning Project, which includes the EAA project.