CERP - Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project (LOWRP)

The purpose of the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Restoration Project (LOWRP) is to increase water storage
capacity in the watershed, resulting in improved Lake Okeechobee water levels, improved quantity,
timing, and distribution of water to the Northern Estuaries, improved water supply for existing legal Lake
Okeechobee Service Area users, and to restore wetlands within the project area. The Recommended Plan
would achieve these goals and objectives by reducing high-volume freshwater releases from Lake
Okeechobee by redirecting these flows to an above-ground wetland attenuation feature (WAF) and
aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) wells. Additionally, the Recommended Plan restores approximately
4,800 acres of wetlands along the historic Kissimmee River channel and provides for recreational facilities
at multiple sites in the WAF and wetland restoration sites.
The Recommended Plan includes a flow-through WAF, 80 ASR wells, and the Paradise Run and Kissimmee
River Center wetland restoration sites. By creating additional water storage north of Lake Okeechobee,
the Recommended Plan can facilitate improved flexibility in the timing and distribution of water in the
lake, to the northern estuaries, and throughout the Lake Okeechobee watershed. Water can be stored
during wet times to reduce damaging high lake stages and later be released into the Lake to reduce the
impacts of low stages during dry times. The storage proposed by the Recommended Plan increases the
amount of time that the Lake stage levels are within the ecologically preferred stage envelope (31.2% as
compared to 27.7% for the FWO condition) when modeled over the 41-year period of record (1965-2005).
The Recommended Plan provides a 30% reduction in total flows from Lake Okeechobee to the Northern
Estuaries. The first cost (2020 price level) of the Recommended Plan is $1,963,959,000.