Public Comment on supplemental Environmental Assessment for incorporation of L-67A Backfill Treatment into CEPP South Phase

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District announces a 30-day public comment period for the supplemental Environmental Assessment (EA) and Proposed Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for incorporation of backfill treatments constructed in the L-67C Canal associated with the Installation, Testing, and Monitoring of a Physical Model for the Water Conservation Area (WCA 3) Decompartmentalization and Sheetflow Enhancement Project, known as the “Decomp Physical Model” into the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) (South Phase). Comments are due Feb. 23, 2022.

Please submit comments via email by Feb. 23, 2022 to Melissa.A.Nasuti@usace.army.mil (recommended subject “L-67C Backfill Supplemental EA Comments”). Please call 904-232-1368 if additional assistance is needed.

Review the supplemental Environmental Assessment (EA) and Proposed FONSI for incorporation of the L-67-C Canal backfill treatments into the CEPP South Phase:

Miami-Dade County, Central Everglades Planning Project, L-67C Backfill Treatments

Installation, Testing, and Monitoring of a Physical Model for the Water Conservation Area 3 Decompartmentalization and Sheetflow Enhancement Project: Incorporation of the L-67C Backfill Treatments into the Central Everglades Planning Project

Notice of Availability

Supplemental Environmental Assessment and Proposed FONSI

Appendix A

Appendix B

Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) South

The Congressionally-authorized purpose of the CEPP South Project is to construct infrastructure for later operations to improve the quantity, quality, timing, and distribution of water flows to the Northern Estuaries, Central Everglades (Water Conservation Area 3 (WCA-)3 and Everglades National Park [ENP]), and Florida Bay to aid in restoring pre-drainage vegetative communities and habitat for fish and wildlife.

The Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) was authorized by Section 1401(4)1 of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2016, Public Law 114-322. 

The project area for the overall CEPP project identified in the 2014 CEPP Final PIR/EIS (Corps 2014) encompasses the Northern Estuaries (St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon and the Caloosahatchee River and Estuary), Lake Okeechobee, a portion of the EAA, the Water Conservation Areas (WCAs), Everglades National Park (ENP), the Southern Estuaries (Florida Bay and Biscayne Bay), and the Lower East Coast (LEC). 

The CEPP included features broken into three phases: South, North, and New Water. The purpose of CEPP as identified in the 2014 CEPP Final PIR/EIS is to improve the quantity, quality, timing and distribution of water flows to the Northern Estuaries (St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee), central Everglades (WCA 3 and ENP), and Florida Bay while increasing water supply for municipal and agricultural users (USACE 2014).  Due to the size and complexity of CEPP, project implementation will involve phases of multi-year construction through individual project partnership agreements (PPAs) or amendments to existing PPAs between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD).  Phased implementation efforts maximize the opportunity to realize incremental restoration benefits by initially building features that utilize existing water in the system that meets state water quality standards.  The 2014 CEPP Final PIR/EIS is available at: https://www.saj.usace.army.mil/Missions/Environmental/Ecosystem-Restoration/Central-Everglades-Planning-Project/.

Components of the CEPP recommended plan were grouped into separate implementation phases within the 2014 CEPP Final PIR/EIS based upon the spatial distribution of the recommended plan features and the locations within the CEPP project area where separable hydrologic environmental benefits would accrue.  As described in the 2014 CEPP Final PIR/EIS, these groupings included project features in northern WCA 3A (CEPP North), project features in southern WCA 3A, WCA 3B and ENP (CEPP South), and project features that provide new water and required seepage management that benefits the entirety of the project area (CEPP New Water).

The specific features of the 2016 CEPP Authorized Plan to be implemented in South phase include conveyance features that function to deliver and re-distribute existing water and the additional water that will be provided by the CEPP New Water component from WCA 3A to WCA 3B, ENP and Florida Bay. Construction of features in CEPP South were identified to prepare the system for the future additional inflows from Lake Okeechobee by providing the necessary additional outlet capacity from WCA 3A. As the first phase of CEPP, CEPP South features would begin to reestablish the historical hydrologic connectivity of WCA 3A, WCA 3B, and ENP.

CEPP South Final Environmental Assessment Documents

Aug. 27, 2020, Public Meeting Instructions (Archive)

The next Public Information meeting will be held Aug. 27, 2020, from 2-4 p.m. Due to continuing COVID-19 restrictions on public meetings, this will be held online only.

Registration is required before the meeting.

There are a few changes we are making to improve the flow of the meeting and avoid issues with speakers talking over each other or disturbing participants with background noise by leaving their phone lines open.

  • Online registration is required for all participants.
  • All lines except those who are scheduled to speak will be muted during the meeting.
  • There will be no public comment or question period. Those wishing to ask questions will need to do so through the webinar chat function. Answers to the public questions will be added to the project web page after the meeting has ended as they were from the February 2020 public meeting.

Registration Instructions:

  1.  Visit this website: https://ems8.intellor.com?do=register&t=1&p=831839
  2.  Fill in all fields in the form marked with an asterisk. 
  3.  Hit the submit button and you will receive a separate email with the dial in number and information on how to join the webinar portion of the meeting.
  4. Do not share your individual dial-in or link with others. It is unique to your registration.

Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) South Public Comment (Archive)

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District announces a 30-day public comment period for the Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) and Proposed Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) for proposed construction and interim operations of features of the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) South. Comments are due June 15, 2020.

Please submit comments via email by June 15, 2020 to Melissa.A.Nasuti@usace.army.mil (recommended subject “CEPP South Draft EA Comments”). Please call 904-232-1368 if additional assistance is needed.

Review the Draft Central Everglades Planning Project South Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) and Proposed Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) below:

Central Everglades Planning Project South: Interim Operations 

Notice of Availability

EA and proposed FONSI

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Appendix D

Appendix E


The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District announces a 30-day public comment period on the Draft Programmatic Agreement for the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) South Project. Comments are due May 7, 2020.

Review the Central Everglades Planning Project South Phase Draft Programmatic Agreement at https://usace.contentdm.oclc.org/utils/getfile/collection/p16021coll7/id/13939.

Please submit comments by May 7, 2020 to Christopher.F.Altes@usace.army.mil (recommended subject “CEPP South Draft PA Comments”).

The Congressionally-authorized purpose of the CEPP South Project is to construct infrastructure for later operations to improve the quantity, quality, timing, and distribution of water flows to the Northern Estuaries, Central Everglades (Water Conservation Area 3 [WCA-3] and Everglades National Park [ENP]), and Florida Bay to aid in restoring pre-drainage vegetative communities and habitat for fish and wildlife.

Project Manager
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

904-232-1766

Project Manager
South Florida Water Management District

561-682-6088

Project Documents

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