Last week, Audubon Florida celebrated the groundbreaking of the A-1 Flow Equalization Basin - the first in a suite of projects in Gov. Scott’s $880 million Restoration Strategies plan to store and cleanse water before it flows south to the Everglades.

Audubon Florida Executive Director Eric Draper addressed the audience at the groundbreaking ceremony, emphasizing the importance of the federal and state partnership to advance Everglades restoration and water quality improvements.

“The A-1 Flow Equalization Basin project is a major step toward implementing the Restoration Strategies plan to help ensure clean water flows into the Everglades. Audubon Florida has long advocated for the next wave of action to restore our treasured wetlands. The A-1 FEB project is a good example of the type of water cleansing project needed to protect our beautiful River of Grass, ” said Eric Draper.

Gov. Scott’s Everglades water quality plan will build and enhance the performance of treatment areas that clean up water before it enters the Everglades. The A-1 FEB project will temporarily store up to 60,000 acre feet of water flowing off of agricultural lands in the Everglades Agricultural Area to attenuate peak stormwater flows and deliver them at a steady rate to water treatment areas (STA-2 and STA-3/4 ) to improve their performance. As Sec. Vinyard stated at the ceremony, 60,000 acre feet equals “30,000 Olympic sized swimming pools  of clean water going to the Everglades.”

After the ceremony, Eric Draper joined representatives from the state of Florida and federal agencies  with a shovel to break ground on this project!

It was freezing and windy outside during the ceremony, but any day an Everglades project  begins construction is a good day for Everglades water quality!