The South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) is encouraging our partners, stakeholders, and the public to review the SFWMD's North of Lake Okeechobee Storage Reservoir (LOCAR) Section 203 Draft Final Feasibility Study and Report.
The purpose and need of the LOCAR Project is to identify storage north of Lake Okeechobee. The LOCAR project proposes to construct a 200,000-acre-foot reservoir to store water north of Lake Okeechobee for later use during dry periods and offer operational flexibility to draw and store water from the lake and basin to improve its littoral ecosystems.
The LOCAR Recommended Plan would achieve CERP goals and objectives by improving the quantity, timing, and distribution of water entering Lake Okeechobee; provide for better management of lake water levels; reduce high flows to the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie Estuaries downstream of the lake; and improve systemwide operational flexibility.
Read the LOCAR Section 203 Draft Final Feasibility Study and Report at SFWMD.gov/LOCAR.
Concurrently with the LOCAR Section 203 Study, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers prepared an Environmental Impact Statement for the LOCAR Study. The Final Environmental Project Statement was posted in the Federal Register in January 2024. For more information visit the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lake Okeechobee Component A Storage Reservoir (LOCAR) webpage.