New water cleaning project aims to improve the health of SWFL water systems

The South Florida Water Management District announced a new water quality project to protect Lake Okeechobee and our coast. The plan is to clean water before it enters the lake.

The project will use wetlands and technology to clean pollution in the river before it goes into Lake Okeechobee and before it makes it to our coast.

It starts by cleaning up the water in the Kissimmee River.

Ben Butler, a member of the South Florida Water Management District’s (SFWMD) board says, “we’re farming plants, and using those plants to uptake the nutrients to help clean the water and eventually send the water on down lake o and eventually down into the everglades.”

Kyle Graham, a senior program manager with Ecosystem Investment Partners, said constructing wetlands north of Lake Okeechobee, with the help of filtering technology, will clean nutrient pollution from the water before it enters the lake.

Graham said, “controlling and doing something about the health of the water that actually enters the lake will go a long way to keeping the water clean and having good water quality to both of those coastal environments.”

Graham says the Kissimmee water quality project should be complete in the next five to six years.

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