House OKs reservoir to cut Lake Okeechobee discharges; awaits Senate vote, Trump OK

The U.S. House voted Wednesday night to authorize water projects throughout the nation, including the reservoir designed to cut Lake Okeechobee discharges.

The 2018 Water Resources Development Act the House approved by a 408-2 vote includes a "placeholder" for the reservoir. Once the Army Corps of Engineers signs off on the project, the placeholder will be replaced by language authorizing the reservoir.

The Senate is expected to take up its version of the legislation, which also contains a placeholder for the reservoir, this summer. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously approved the bill in May.

The bill also will have to be signed by President Donald Trump.

New projects

A White House statement Tuesday said the House bill "could be improved,” noting a large backlog of projects that have been authorized but not started or completed.

New projects, the statement reads, "should be limited to those most likely to provide high economic or environmental returns to the nation.”

Separate legislation will be needed to appropriate the federal government's half share of the $1.4 billion to $1.6 billion project.

Designing and building the project could take from seven to nine years, Ernie Marks, executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, told a House panel in January.

More: Lake O reservoir could be completed in 7-9 years, district chief says

The House bill also includes an amendment by U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, R-Palm City, authorizing a five-year, $15 million program for the Corps to develop a large-scale water filtration system to detect, prevent and manage harmful algal blooms.

Discharges, algae blooms

Meanwhile, the discharges the project is designed to cut have been ongoing since June 1 and have sent about 4.2 billion gallons of lake water to the St. Lucie River estuary.

More: Keep track of Lake Okeechobee discharges

Beginning Monday, algae blooms started popping up downstream from the Port Mayaca Lock and Dam, where water is discharged east from Lake O, along the canal leading to the St. Lucie River and in the river's South Fork.

On Thursday, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection reported blue-green algae from Port Mayaca tested positive for low levels of toxins. Results of other samples are not yet available.

More: Blue-green algae is toxic, DEP says