Did you know there are 62,000 acres of Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) south of Lake Okeechobee to help improve and restore water quality for the Everglades?
These large, constructed wetlands work to significantly reduce concentrations of phosphorus in water before it reaches the Central Everglades (also known as the Water Conservation Areas). If not removed, excess concentrations of phosphorus and other nutrients can cause undesirable plants to grow in the Everglades, crowding out native wetland plants and degrading the ecosystem.
The State of Florida has invested more than $3 billion in water quality improvements, including the construction of STAs, to treat water before it reaches the Everglades.
STAs use emergent and submerged aquatic plants to remove nutrients found in water. To date, the Everglades STAs have successfully:
- Treated approximately 24 million acre-feet of water, or close to 8 trillion gallons.
- Retained over 3,000 metric tons of Total Phosphorus.
- Reduced Total Phosphorus Loads by 77 percent.
The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) is continuously monitoring and maintaining Everglades STAs to maximize water treatment capacity, and we’re building additional projects that will further improve the water quality throughout South Florida. Storage features like flow equalization basins (FEBs) are also being used to further optimize the ability of Everglades STAs to treat water.
Learn more about STAs and improving Everglades water quality.