Legislative money could flow into Treasure Coast water farms

“The Caulkins Citrus Co. water farm, a 413-acre reservoir between Palm City and Indiantown, stores excess water from the C-44 Canal, where it evaporates and percolates into the ground instead of reaching the St. Lucie River. The former citrus grove has kept nearly 6 billion gallons of water out of the C-44 Canal.

he 2015 Legislature approved $30 million for dispersed water management projects, which included the water farm projects; but Scott took the money out of the state budget.

Scott said he thought the money should come from the South Florida Water Management District. But Draper said it didn’t help that money for the proposed 35,000-acre Alico Inc. water farm in Hendry County “was rolled in” with the Caulkins and Evans projects.

As approved by the water district board in December 2014, the Alico project was designed to keep 30 billion gallons of water out of the Caloosahatchee River estuary on Florida’s west coast at a cost of $12 million a year for 10 years.

Since starting operations in May, the Evans water farm on the C-24 Canal has met its contract goal of keeping nearly 1.2 billion gallons of water from entering the St. Lucie River. Its contract runs until May 2017; so Evans doesn’t have to get money from the upcoming legislative session.

Instead, Ronald “Ron” L. Edwards, president and CEO of Evans Properties, wants money for two water farms it has proposed: on the C-23 Canal just east of St. Lucie County’s Bluefield Preserve park and on the C-25 Canal straddling the Indian River-Okeechobee county line, where the company’s long-term goal is to build a 3,000-acre reservoir and a stormwater treatment area that would sell water to send north to the St. Johns River.”

ohhhhhh

I see now. We didn’t get our reservoir because someone is planning on building their own and then selling water.

How stupid of me.

and doesn’t this water eventually end up back in the lagoon as it percolates down now with all the  chemicals that are in the soil making the situation worse?

Just sayin.