C‑43 Reservoir Ribbon‑Cut: A Publicity Stunt With No Water‑Quality Cure

Danika Joy Fornear
Jul 16
3 min read

Updated: Jul 18

man standing at podium pretending to care about the environment

Fort Denaud, FL – July 15, 2025, The grand opening of the Caloosahatchee (C‑43) West Basin Storage Reservoir—complete with Governor DeSantis smiling behind a “Protect Our Everglades” sign—offers more optics than solutions. Beneath the ceremony lies a project hamstrung by outdated planning, flawed contracts, and a glaring lack of capacity to tackle downstream problems: blue‑green algae, red tide, and Gulf water quality.

Decades‑Old Design, Youthful Hype

The C‑43 was designed over 15 years ago under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) to manage freshwater flow—but not to address water quality. It focuses on storing water rather than treating it. That means it doesn’t remove nutrient-laden discharges—particularly nitrogen and phosphorus—which are the very pollutants that fuel harmful algal blooms.

This oversight was identified early on. In fact, the South Florida Water Management District’s own expert panels raised concerns about the lack of nutrient treatment in the project as far back as 2003. Without mechanisms like filtration wetlands or water treatment technologies, the reservoir is built to regulate flow—not improve quality.

Contract Chaos and Cost Overruns

The reservoir’s construction was riddled with issues from the beginning. Initially awarded in 2017, the project saw years of delays and cost overruns. In 2023, the South Florida Water Management District canceled its contract with Lane Construction, citing unacceptable delays and poor performance. Lane, in turn, blamed poor site preparation and sued the state.

The project’s price tag now hovers around $500 million. What was sold as a streamlined infrastructure project turned into a bureaucratic nightmare—with few answers about how much of that money has gone to fixing preventable problems.

Algae Blooms Within the Reservoir Itself

In a twist of tragic irony, test cells at the C‑43 site—used to model how the reservoir would behave—once triggered blue-green algae blooms after being filled with nutrient-heavy Caloosahatchee water.

And yet, no meaningful changes were made to the design. The reservoir still lacks any type of nutrient treatment infrastructure, like stormwater treatment areas or filter marshes. So the same nutrient-rich water that feeds algae and red tide could now sit stagnant in the reservoir, grow more algae, and then be released downstream—possibly in worse condition than when it entered.

Red Tide, Coastal Impact, and Misleading Promises

Today’s celebratory speeches from state officials framed the project as a water-quality win. But scientists say otherwise.

Red tide—plaguing Sanibel, Fort Myers Beach, Pine Island, and the Gulf coast—is fueled by high nutrient levels in warm, coastal waters. The C‑43 reservoir doesn’t remove those nutrients. It simply stores water and changes the timing of its release. That means the root causes of red tide, like nitrogen and phosphorus runoff from agriculture and development, remain entirely unaddressed.

Without nutrient filtration, the reservoir won’t stop red tide. At best, it delays the inevitable. At worst, it fuels the very conditions that worsen coastal bloom events.

DeSantis at the Podium: More Theater Than Science

At the ribbon cutting, Governor DeSantis called the project “a landmark in our broader mission to restore the Everglades,” and claimed the reservoir would have an impact “far beyond the Caloosahatchee.” But nearly everything about that statement is misleading.

The reservoir hasn’t been tested under full operating conditions.
It lacks any mechanisms to reduce nitrogen or phosphorus—the two biggest drivers of algae blooms.
There’s no public water quality monitoring plan in place to evaluate whether its discharge meets Clean Water Act standards.
The state’s claims that the project is “on time and under budget” ignore the reality of the contract cancellations and construction delays.

And the biggest irony? DeSantis stood behind a podium branded with “Protect Our Everglades”—even though this reservoir is downstream from Lake Okeechobee and has little to do with the Everglades ecosystem. Its real impact zone is the Caloosahatchee estuary and the struggling Gulf coast.

What’s Still Missing

Despite the headlines and the ribbon cutting, here’s what the C‑43 still lacks:

Wetland filtration areas to treat nutrients before they reach the river or coast
Public oversight and testing protocols to ensure it doesn’t worsen conditions
Transparency in contracting and budgeting for taxpayers who foot the bill
Any real benefit to Everglades restoration, despite the branding

Final Word

Today’s ribbon cutting is a photo op—not a water-quality solution. Without built-in nutrient filtration or long-term monitoring, the C‑43 Reservoir fails to address the real causes of Florida’s environmental crises. The toxic algae blooms, the fish kills, the beach closures—they aren’t just seasonal nuisances. They are the result of decades of poor planning, weak regulation, and now, performative politics.

This reservoir doesn’t change that. It just rebrands it.

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