U.S. Water News Online
PALM BEACH, Florida -- Cleaning Lake Okeechobee, which sits at the heart of the Everglades, could cost $1.1 billion and involve creating reservoirs and marshes and possibly dredging the polluted lake bottom, water officials said.
The estimate, about triple one made in 2004, includes more strategies to handle the greater pollution in the lake due to recent active hurricane seasons, the South Florida Water Management District said.
The plan also includes expenses for helping farmers curb runoff containing manure and fertilizer.
"If we don't do this, our lake's going to die and our estuaries are going to die," said Paul Gray, of the environmental organization Audubon of Florida.
The district's board voted to send the cleanup plan to the Legislature, which must decide how to pay for it.
The lake's polluted waters can be sent through canals into the fragile wetlands when lake levels rise. The Okeechobee cleanup cost is separate from the estimated $10.5 billion federal and state Everglades marshland restoration plan.
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