[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 116 (Wednesday, July 11, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S4902]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                      Reservoir Project in Florida

  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, I received very good news for Florida this 
morning. The Army Corps of Engineers has signed off on a long-awaited 
report that will allow Congress to authorize a new reservoir project 
south of Lake Okeechobee in the upcoming Water Resources Development 
Act--what we refer to as the water bill. Many of us in Florida have 
been pushing the Army Corps and the Trump administration to approve 
this project for months and months.
  Last week I was in the area of Lake Okeechobee visiting with folks 
affected by the algae blooms on the west coast over in Fort Myers on 
the Caloosahatchee River and on the east coast in Stuart on the St. 
Lucie River. They are facing a problem that seems to repeat itself 
almost every year.
  The heat of summer and the excess nutrients in the water--put those 
together, and you get the algae blooms that suck the oxygen out of the 
river, making it a dead river because there is not enough oxygen in the 
water for the fish. There was a similarly bad algae bloom back in 2016, 
in 2013, and many times in years past.
  The pollution in Lake Okeechobee created a toxic brew of a blue-green 
algae that blooms and that at one point this summer covered 90 percent 
of Lake Okeechobee. Because the lake has risen to a 14\1/2\-foot level, 
the Army Corps will most likely have to resume releasing water to the 
east in the St. Lucie and to the west in the Caloosahatchee because of 
the pressure on the dike around Lake Okeechobee. Thus, here we go 
again--more nutrient-laden water flowing into these waterways in the 
heat of summer, and then the algae blooms just keep going and going.
  There is one of many projects that can help, which is definitely a 
step in the right direction. The reservoir project that the Army Corps 
approved today is so critical because once it is constructed, it will 
provide storage so that the Corps doesn't have to discharge as much 
water to the east and to the west. When you combine that with the fact 
that just last week, the Army Corps, through the White House budget 
office, let us know they have approved the funds to strengthen the dike 
and accelerate its construction--the combination of these kinds of 
things is going to help, so that the Army Corps of Engineers doesn't 
have to release that nutrient-rich water, which will cause the algae 
blooms.
  This reservoir to the south of the lake will include water treatment 
features so that the water can be cleaned as well as stored before it 
is sent farther south in the long journey that Mother Nature intended--
sending that water in a slow, gravity-drained, southward flow through 
the river of grass otherwise known as the Florida Everglades. Many of 
us were cheering the news today that this project will be ready for 
inclusion in the water bill, which the Senate will be taking up perhaps 
next week. It was interesting timing to get the Corps of Engineers' 
report so that we could get this project in as a part of the overall 
Everglades restoration project.