SFWMD and Wellington Celebrate Project Milestone

The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and the Village of Wellington....

  The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and the Village of Wellington recently celebrated the completion of another milestone for Everglades's restoration, cutting the ribbon on the S-7 pump station in central Palm Beach County. The pump station is a component of the Acme Basin B Discharge Project, part of the state’s Acceler8 initiative and one of five water preserve area projects to improve water quality in the Everglades water conservation areas. When complete, the project will divert urban stormwater runoff from the local drainage basin, known as Acme Basin B, away from the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, ending all direct discharges into the federally-managed lands.“By diverting nutrient-laden stormwater away from the Wildlife Refuge, the natural hydrology of the area’s sensitive ecosystem can be restored, allowing the native flora and fauna to recover and flourish,” SFWMD Deputy Executive Director for Everglades Restoration Ken Ammon said. “The district’s partnership with Wellington demonstrates how governments can successfully work together with the community to achieve incremental restoration of the ecosystem.”Operation of the S-7 pump station will move water from the C-1 Canal into the C-51 West Canal and subsequently to Stormwater Treatment Area 1 East for treatment prior to being discharged to the refuge, part of the Everglades Protection Area. The treatment wetland uses plants to naturally clean phosphorus from water flowing into the Everglades. Over the last decade, the state has constructed more than 36,000 acres of treatment wetlands, which are currently cleaning water to levels of phosphorus as low as 12 parts per billion. The Acme Basin B Discharge Project includes improvements to nearly three miles of the C-1 Canal, which will offer increased conveyance capacity, and a new impoundment and second pump station to provide temporary offline water storage of 1,028 acre-feet of water — the equivalent of more than 22,000 residential swimming pools. This will maintain flood protection in the basin and reduce nutrient loads flowing into the C-51 Canal and subsequently to the Everglades Protection Area. Future components of the project will provide recreational opportunities, such as walking trails, overlooks and equestrian trails.Wellington Village Manager Charlie Lynn, the Wellington Village Council and SFWMD staff inaugurated the pump station at a ribbon-cutting ceremony recently at the intersection of Southern Blvd. and Flying Cow Road. The village has partnered with the SFWMD to expedite the various components of this project.One of the SFWMD’s priority initiatives; Acceler8 is facilitating funding, design and construction of critical Everglades's restoration projects. Together, the projects will restore 100,000 acres of sensitive wetlands, expand water treatment areas by close to 29,000 acres and provide 428,000 acre-feet of additional water storage for Everglades's restoration a decade ahead of schedule. In 2000, Florida forged a 50-50 state-federal partnership to implement the massive Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. The state and SFWMD have invested close to $2 billion to improve the quality, timing and distribution of water in this unique ecosystem, including $312 million of work underway or completed as part of the Acceler8 initiative. In addition to acquiring land and constructing projects as a part of the comprehensive plan, Florida has invested more than $1.8 billion to improve water quality in the Everglades. During Water Year 2006, the state’s stormwater treatment areas captured and treated nearly 1.5 million-acre feet or 488 billion gallons of water, reducing phosphorus loads to the famed “river of grass” by close to 70 percent.