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The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved close to $40 million to help pay for repairs on Lake Okeechobee's Herbert Hoover Dike, Sen. Bill Nelson said.
The money, which will be applied to next year's budget, comes a month after a report written for the South Florida Water Management District warned that the dike surrounding Lake Okeechobee is in extreme danger of failing, risking the lives of 40,000 people and threatening urban water supplies to the southeast.
Gov. Jeb Bush has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for nine measures to stave off disaster, such as speeding up repairs, inspecting the dike daily and keeping the lake at lower levels in hurricane season.
In January, the Corps began the $300 million project to strengthen the dike, which ground to a halt this month after a contractor encountered problems with the method being used to fortify the barrier. Excess sand in the levee compromised the original plan of pouring bentonite, a clay material that expands when wet to form an impermeable barrier, into a 4.6-mile section earthen wall near Port Mayaca.
Work is expected to resume in the next few weeks after engineers decided to try a mixture of concrete and bentonite. The project is expected to take years to complete.
Army officials said the lake is secure and a safety program is in place to protect the public.
Palm Beach County officials have planned a scenario to cope with an evacuation of the Glades area and expect to use buses to shuttle residents to shelters. A Glades evacuation would start two days before a coastal evacuation.
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Anthony Man
