Contract awarded for massive reservoir

FORT MYERS — The South Florida Water Management District awarded a $10.8 million contract to Blue Goose Construction of Fort Pierce to start building a 10,000-acre water reservoir in Hendry County.

The reservoir located west of LaBelle in Hendry County will eventually be able to hold 170,000 acre-feet of water that will capture and hold excess water from Lake Okeechobee during the rainy season. During the dry season, the reservoir will help engineers maintain a minimum flow of fresh water down the Caloosahatchee River to Fort Myers.

Water issues have pitted tourism officials and urban residents against rural areas and agriculture interests as fresh-water flows from Lake Okeechobee affected the water quality downstream in Fort Myers and the beaches of Sanibel. The reservoir is one solution to the vexing problem, water officials say.