Virtual Panel Participants Praise Progress in Everglades Restoration

It seems that even the pandemic can't stop the Everglades restoration, as, after many years of delay, the capital environmental project might finally draw to an end.

This is the conclusion of the participants on the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation’s 2020 Everglades virtual panel.

The Everglades and Estuary Restoration project brought together key players from environmental nonprofits, the South Florida Water Management District, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

News-Press reports that the panelists offered their opinion on how the River of Grass works are going, and what we can expect in the future.

“Moderator Rae Ann Wessel opened the panel and offered updates – for example, a water treatment component for the C-43 reservoir that will get underway this fall was “a long time coming," she said, “but we’re moving forward and (it’s) another one of those great news items for us in this opportune time, when leadership, funding and projects are all coming together.” The reservoir is under construction in Hendry County near the Caloosahatchee River and Lee County line.”

Water District director Drew Bartlett commented that the problems with the Everglades and its estuaries are old ones and that since 2000 no one could experience the difference in the system.

In the next five years, he predicts a new reservoir for the Caloosahatchee and the St. Lucie, as well as stormwater treatment areas south of the lake that will capture and treat the water flowing south.