West Palm Beach: U.S. Army Corps reservoir project threatens city's water reserve supply

West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James said Wednesday that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers violated a legal clause meant to ensure the city's water supply when the corps approved a giant reservoir project designed to help restore the Florida Everglades.

The city has filed a legal brief challenging the corps' interpretation of that clause, part of a long-running legal battle between the corps, the sugar industry, environmentalists and various municipalities as the corps attempts to move forward with the $3.9-billion, 10,500-acre Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir project.

Oral arguments in the case before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals are scheduled to take place Wednesday.

West Palm Beach , like the sugar industry, has argued that the corps is violating the "savings clause" of the Water Resources Development Act of 2000, a federal law that directed the secretary of the Army to develop and conserve water in the United States.

James said the savings clause "guarantees existing water users will always have the amount of water that was in our state permits from the year 2000, and it directs the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to protect the water supply that was in place at that time."

In 2008, the corps lowered water levels at Lake Okeechobee, the ultimate source of West Palm Beach's drinking water, because of structural concerns about the dike there. As it considered whether to approve the EAA reservoir, the corps looked at whether the project would negatively impact water supplies based on a regulation schedule set in 2008 and not in 2000 when the lake level was higher. West Palm Beach and the sugar industry argued that the corps should have relied on the 2000 regulation schedule and not the 2008 regulation schedule.

James said the corps' decision poses a long-term threat to the city's drinking water supply.

"At the end of the day, it is my job to ensure that the impacts of any drought such as we experienced in 2011 — and we were experiencing some very dry conditions even at the beginning of last summer — we don't want to take the chance that, if it were to happen again, we would incur or experience water shortages," James said.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Bobby Powell Jr. joined James at the press conference and echoed the mayor's concerns.

"There is too much at stake for our drinking water and our supply to be at a disadvantage," Powell said. "This is impacts businesses, farmers and communities, who are dependent on a steady supply of clean water."

The corps would not comment on West Palm Beach's decision to enter the legal fray in the reservoir case.

"Due to the fact that this is under active litigation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cannot provide a comment on the West Palm Beach statements about the EAA Reservoir," said Michelle Roberts, corporate communications chief for the corps.

Conflicting interpretations of the water savings clause Lisa Interlandi, policy director of the Everglades Law Center, said the mayor's interpretation of the savings clause is "100% not the case."

"It was never intended to be a guarantor of water supply," said Interlandi, whose organization has joined with the corps in winning a string of legal battles to keep the reservoir project moving forward.

The savings clause, Interlandi said, was written to make sure Everglades restoration could occur, not to ensure that drinking water supplies would be guaranteed in perpetuity.

"Everglades restoration was never intended to ensure agricultural water supplies remain at 2000 levels," Interlandi said in October. "What the sugar companies are really trying to do is shift the burden of maintaining their water supply onto the restoration process — something that could completely derail efforts to protect this fragile ecosystem."

That's not how the industry sees it.

In legal documents, the industry has argued that, in moving forward with the reservoir project based on the 2008 water regulation schedule, it acted in a way that was "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, contrary to law, and without observance of procedures required by law."

The industry argued that a reduction in available water "increases the risk of permanent damage to their land and crops" and that during low rainfall periods "they will not have sufficient and predicable amounts of water to grow their crops."

Not all South Florida cities align with West Palm Beach's thinking While West Palm Beach has agreed with the sugar industry in objecting to the process the corps used to approve the reservoir project, other cities joined with the Everglades Law Center to back the corps.

Stuart, Lake Worth Beach and Islamorada are among the municipalities that joined with environmental groups in backing the corps' decision-making.

For its part, the corps has hailed the reservoir project as a boon to the environment in general and the Florida Everglades in particular. It held a groundbreaking ceremony in February of 2023 to commemorate the start of the project .

"The EAA Reservoir Project will benefit both Florida's environment and economy," the corps said in a statement timed to the groundbreaking ceremony. "In addition to more clean water for the Everglades, the project is creating jobs and providing a significant boost to the nearby local economies south of Lake Okeechobee."

The agency added that "being able to store more water from the lake and ultimately send more water south will benefit the entire region by improving the health of Lake Okeechobee, reducing releases to the estuaries, rehydrating wetlands in the central Everglades and Everglades National Park, and improving the health of Florida Bay."

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Wayne Washington is a journalist covering West Palm Beach, Riviera Beach and race relations for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at . Help support our work; subscribe today .