The first project in Gov. Rick Scott's restoration strategies for the Florida Everglades -- in fact, one of the main components -- is only a few months from completion and the start of operations.
Known as the A-1 Flow Equalization Basin (FEB), the South Florida Water Management District project is basically a vast reservoir designed to increase the effectiveness of wetlands that clean phosphorus from water before it reaches the Everglades.
The A-1 FEB is an engineering feat of considerable proportions, including 16,500 cubic yards of concrete, 2,100 tons of steel and 21 miles of levees.
A SFWMD spokesman told Sunshine State News that district engineers began filling the A-1 in mid-August. "Currently, there's about 2-3 feet of water in it," says Gabe Margasak. The project needs to pass water quality tests under its permit before it can release water. But operations, including discharging from the A-1 FEB into stormwater treatment area (STA) 3/4 should begin in late October, he said.
The A-1 FEB was complete approximately one year ahead of the consent order milestone date issued by the Department of Environmental Protection for the state’s massive restoration strategies to improve Everglades water quality.
“Completing this significant project and continuing progress on others is how we achieve water quality goals,” said Jeff Kivett, SFWMD director of operations, engineering and construction. “The A-1 will soon be fully operating and providing its intended critical restoration benefits to the Everglades.”
Construction of the A-1 benefited from significant work already completed at the site for a reservoir originally planned to provide deep water storage, known as the EAA Reservoir. The reservoir was originally scheduled to go on line in early 2013, but construction was halted and partially dismantled after the Gov. Charlie Crist administration advocated puchase of U.S. Sugar land instead.
Here are some astounding construction facts showing what the A-1 FEB required in land, material and heavy equipment:
- 15,000-acre footprint;
- 1.6 million cubic yards of fill material, all mined on-site
- 3.1 million cubic yards of muck was degraded and used as topsoil;
- 23 massive, 40-ton articulated dump trucks;
- 150 construction personnel on-site each day.
Margasak has provided a full explanation of the A-1 FEB on the district's website. Here is some of it:
A-1: How it Works
"With the capacity to hold 60,000 acre-feet of water at a site west of U.S. 27 in Palm Beach County, the A-1 was designed to capture and store peak stormwater flows during the wet season or during heavy rainfall events.
"Emergent vegetation such as bulrush and cattail planted within the site will help reduce the concentration of phosphorus in the water. A system of 21 miles of earthen levees and 15 water control structures -- 10 with solar power -- within A-1 gives water managers the new ability to deliver water at the right time and in the right quantity to the vast STAs 2 and
3/4 to the south and east.
"Achieving optimal water flow to these constructed wetlands enables emergent and submerged aquatic vegetation such as southern naiad to most effectively and naturally remove nutrients from the water that eventually flows to Everglades National Park.
"The district operates a network of five STAs south of Lake Okeechobee with an effective treatment area of 57,000 acres. Since 1994, the treatment areas have retained more than 2,012 metric tons of total phosphorus that would have otherwise entered the Everglades."
Restoration Strategies Background
"In June 2012, the state of Florida and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reached a consensus on new strategies for improving water quality in America’s Everglades.
"Based on months of scientific and technical discussions, these strategies will expand water quality improvement projects to achieve the ultra-low phosphorus water quality standard established for the Everglades."
Key features of the plan include:
- Design and construction of 116,000 acre-feet of additional storage adjacent to existing Everglades STAs, better controlling water flow into the treatment wetlands and thereby improving their performance. These storage areas, known as flow equalization basins, will be designed to assist all five Everglades STAs.
- Design and construction of the Stormwater Treatment Area 1 West expansion, increasing by 50 percent the treatment capacity of water quality facilities currently discharging into the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.
- Additional sub-regional source controls in areas of the eastern EAA where phosphorus levels in runoff have been historically higher, building on the district’s existing Best Management Practices (BMPs) Regulatory Program.
For more information, go to the SFWD website.
Reach Nancy Smith at nsmith@sunshinestatenews.com or at 228-282-2423. Twitter: @NancyLBSmith
