The South Florida Water Management District Wednesday approved a permit for a controversial 35,192-acre water farm that will cost taxpayers $124 million over 11 years.

The water farm on Alico Inc. land in Hendry County is designed to prevent water from the Caloosahatchee River from polluting the estuary near Fort Myers, much like the Caulkins water farm does for the St. Lucie River in Martin County.

A TCPalm investigation in December 2015 found the Alico project would cost much more per gallon of water than Caulkins.

More: A tale of two water farms: Alico and Caulkins

The Caulkins project costs taxpayers $233 for every 1 million gallons of contracted water storage; Alico's 2014 contract would cost $356 for the same amount of water.

Storing 1 million gallons on publicly owned land costs less than $25, according to an audit of the district's Dispersed Water Management Program.

Also, while the Caulkins water farm is a few feet from the C-44 Canal it draws water from, the Alico project is 13.5 miles from the Caloosahatchee and would require a series of three pumps to capture the river's water.

More: Expanded Caulkins water farm begins operation

The Alico project will store about 30 billion gallons of water a year, more than 18 billion of it (60 percent) pulled from the Caloosahatchee, according to a district news release.

The remaining 40 percent will be rainfall runoff from the Alico site that otherwise would have drained into the river.

In TCPalm's investigation, Rae Ann Wessel, director of natural resources policy for the Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation in Sanibel, noted housing developments are required to build detention ponds for stormwater runoff.

"If the concept that the polluter pays applies to urban development, shouldn't it apply to agriculture?" Wessel told TCPalm. "Instead of farmers paying to keep their polluted water out of rivers and canals, they want the state to pay them to do it."

Alico is "committed to combating Florida's water crisis and restoring the health of critical waterways," according to a statement by Remy W. Trafelet, president and CEO of Alico. "Once finalized, our project will provide much needed relief for the Caloosahatchee River and the communities it touches."

Algae-laden Lake Okeechobee water discharged into the Caloosahatchee causes blue-green algae blooms in the river's estuary at Fort Myers, much like discharges spur blooms in the St. Lucie estuary in and around Stuart.

This year, the blooms are much more devastating on Florida's west coast, which also is beset by a red tide bloom coming in from the Gulf of Mexico.

More:Southwest Florida beaches hit with one-two punch

With the Alico water farm in place, water district Executive Director Ernie Marks said, "west coast communities will receive additional relief from local basin runoff and regulatory releases from Lake Okeechobee."

Marks asked Alico officials to expedite construction "so that we can realize this much-needed relief as soon as possible."

A construction starting date hasn't been set, Eva Velez, the district's director of Everglades policy, said Wednesday.

The district will pay Alico $4 million in the first year of the contract to build a 4-foot berm around the property and buy the pumps needed to bring river water to the site.

The district will pay Alico $12 million a year for the next 10 years to store up to the 30 million gallons of water.

If there's a drought at some point during the contract period and no water to be held on the site, the company will still be paid its annual fee.

The water district board specified money to pay the contract had to come from the Florida Legislature rather than the district's own property taxes.

Lawmakers agreed when they approved $31.8 million for Alico and four smaller water farms during the 2015 session. But Gov. Rick Scott vetoed the money, saying it should come out of the water district's budget.

But in 2017, legislators approved a $35 million package for dispersed water management projects that included Alico.