Reservoir to cut Lake Okeechobee discharges makes U.S. Senate panel's WRDA water bill

A U.S. Senate committee Tuesday called for the Army Corps of Engineers to "expedite construction of a reservoir" designed to cut Lake Okeechobee discharges.

The project is included in the water resources bill unveiled Tuesday by the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee — six lines in a 202-page document — as a "placeholder."

If the Corps approves the project, the reservoir can be part of the Water Resources Development Act expected to go to Congress in fall.

The proposed legislation doesn't include any money for the reservoir because the project hasn't gotten a green light from the Corps. The Florida legislation authorizing the project calls for the state and the federal government to each pay from $700 million to $800 million.

The South Florida Water Management District submitted its design for the project to the Corps in late March. The timetable assumed by the state has the Corps approving and sending the plan to Congress by Oct. 1.

More: Lake Okeechobee reservoir plan submitted to Army Corps of Engineers

The district's design includes a:

23-foot-deep, 10,100-acre reservoir to store up to 78.2 billion gallons of excess lake water

6,500-acre man-made marsh to clean the water before it's sent south to Everglades National Park and Florida Bay

The district claims the project will, when used in conjunction with other existing and planned projects:

Reduce the number of damaging discharge events from Lake Okeechobee to the the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers by 63 percent

Send an average of about 120.6 billion gallons of clean water south to the Everglades

The bill is expected to be approved by the committee as early as this month and would then head to the full Senate for a vote.