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Section 7 Environmental Effects of the Selected Plan

EAA Storage Reservoirs Revised Draft PIR and EIS February 2006

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different hydrologic basins, and as distinct units rather than multiple features

within a single watershed, they will not likely result in a significantly

detrimental cumulative effect.

As part of the CERP, the proposed EAA reservoirs will benefit South Florida

ecosystems. Specifically, the proposed EAA reservoirs will benefit the St. Lucie

and Caloosahatchee Estuaries and Lake Okeechobee as well as improve the

quality and timing of water delivery to the STAs for improved water treatment

within the STAs.

Benefits to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Estuaries will result from reducing

the extreme discharges to the estuaries. Ecological benefits from this project, in

addition to other CERP projects, include:

• Salinities in the riverine portions of the Caloosahatchee River will

increase to allow oyster reef growth;

• Expansion of 18 acres of oyster beds in the Caloosahatchee Estuary to

100 acres in the next 10 to 15 years;

• Increase the spatial extent and improve the function of submerged aquatic

vegetation the Caloosahatchee River and Estuary;

• Salinities in the St. Lucie Estuary will be between 350 to 2,000 cfs to

allow oyster reef growth;

• Expansion of oyster beds in the St. Lucie Estuary to approximately

890 acres of oysters;

• Increase the spatial extent and improve the function of submerged aquatic

vegetation the St. Lucie Estuary; and,

• Increase the health of fish in the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Estuaries

by reducing prolonged discharges of large volumes of lake water. Rather

than relying on Lake Okeechobee to provide water storage, use of the

proposed EAA reservoirs with other CERP reservoirs and ASR for water

storage will have beneficial effects to the health and ecology of the lake.

Reduction of extreme high and low lake levels will:

• Increase the amount and quality of submergent and emergent plant

communities in Lake Okeechobee; and,

• Improve foraging and habitat for wading birds and native fish.

Some improvement of Lake Okeechobee water quality could be expected as a

result of operations of the proposed EAA project, which will redirect EAA

stormwater runoff to the reservoirs rather than directly to Lake Okeechobee.

Improvements to the water quality entering the WCAs will result from the

ability to more effectively store water within the proposed EAA reservoirs by

metering peak flows in the STAs. STAs are intended to provide treatment

rather than store water; however, during the wet season and flood events, they

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