The South Florida Water Management District board Thursday will consider spending about $7.2 million for an experimental deep water-storage well designed to help cut Lake Okeechobee discharges.

The well would be slightly north of where the Kissimmee River enters Lake Okeechobee.

More:What are Lake Okeechobee discharges?



District officials say 30 to 60 wells drilled at sites around Lake O could dramatically reduce the need for damaging discharges to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers.

Critics say the wells wouldn't be as effective as the district claims, could pollute aquifers needed for drinking water and could detract from larger projects needed to curtail discharges.

Those projects will take several years to complete, district officials argue, so the wells would be a good way to cut discharges in the interim.

More:Proponents, critics debate sending excess Lake O water down deep wells

Known typically as "deep injection wells," and by the district as "emergency estuary protection wells," the wells would pump excess water about 3,000 feet into the ground to a subterranean area known as "the boulder zone."

With each well pumping up to 15 million gallons a day, the proposed 30 to 60 wells could dispose of 450 million to 900 million gallons of water a day.

Lake O discharges this summer often sent that much water east to the St. Lucie and much more west to the Caloosahatchee.

There already are about 220 deep injection wells in Florida. Most of them pump treated wastewater or byproducts from drinking water plants into "the boulder zone."

The Stuart Utility Department, for example, sends about 1.5 million gallons of treated wastewater into two deep injection wells.

The proposed test well will help engineers determine if there's capacity in the boulder zone for all that extra water.

The board will consider paying Youngquist Brothers Inc. of Fort Myers nearly $7.2 million to build the well in 455 days.

The board will meet at 9 a.m.Thursday at the district's headquarters, 3301 Gun Club Road, West Palm Beach, and the meeting will be streamed live at sfwmd.gov.