JA CEPP EAA Contract 11B Redacted.pdf

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Reviews: I have reviewed this justification and find it adequate to support other than full and open competition.

Early Alteration to the South Florida Ecosystem

The Central and Southern Florida (C&SF) Project was authorized in 1948. The C&SF Project altered significant portions of the historic Everglades ecosystem. As part of this effort, the Kissimmee River was channelized for flood control and navigation, and Lake Okeechobee was diked to prevent flooding of communities around the lake. In addition, the region of the Everglades immediately south of Lake Okeechobee, now called the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), was drained to accommodate agricultural production. A drainage system was constructed in the lower east coast to support and enhance urban, suburban, and agricultural development. An elaborate dike system was constructed in the central portions of the historic Everglades to create the Water Conservation Areas (WCAs), vast tracts of remnant Everglades ridge, slough, and tree island landscapes. Figure 1 shows pre and post alterations to the South Florida Natural System.

FIGURE 1: The pre 1948 natural system of the Everglades Ecosystem (left) and the post-alteration conditions (right).

These infrastructure alterations had unintended consequences, resulting in substantial ecological damage to the Everglades ecosystem, northern estuaries, Florida Bay, and Biscayne Bay. For the human environment, there were impacts to drinking water supply, water quality, recreational opportunities, and tribal interests. Congress authorized a restudy of the C&SF Project to develop a plan to restore the South Florida ecosystem, enhance water supplies, and maintain flood control. Section 309(l) of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 1992, Public Law 102-580, and Section 528 of WRDA 1996, Public Law 104-303

Overview and role of CERP, CEPP, and EAA

The restudy of the C&SF project was completed in 1999, and in 2000, was approved by Congress as the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). CERP is a landmark initiative for the restoration, protection and preservation of the water resources of central and southern Florida, including the Everglades. CERP will address quantity, quality, timing, and distribution problems, it will increase the amount of water available for the natural system and enhance urban and agricultural water supply, while maintaining flood protection. Implementation of the plan will improve the health of over

2.4 million acres of the south Florida ecosystem, including the Everglades National Park. The plan achieves this goal by increasing water storage capacity and redistributing water to reestablish ecologically beneficial patterns of depth, distribution, and flow across freshwater wetlands and estuarine salinity regimes (See Figure 2).

FIGURE 2: The increase of Water Storage and Capacity throughout the Pre, Post Drainage Regime and Restoration goal.

A key component of CERP is the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP), a collaborative effort between USACE and SFWMD. CEPP lays the groundwork for restoring the central Everglades by improving the timing and increasing the volume of freshwater flows to the south, thereby revitalizing critical habitats and ecological processes, including rehydrating wetlands, recharging the aquifer, slowing saltwater intrusion, and improving coastal salinity levels. CEPP includes four phases: EAA, “North”, “South”, and “New Water”. See Figure 3.

Figure 3: Central Everglades Planning Project Four Phases

The EAA Phase is integral to both CEPP and ultimately CERP. EAA plays a pivotal role in capturing water that would otherwise be lost to tide in potentially harmful releases and redirecting it southward where it can benefit the central Everglades, Everglades National Park, and Florida Bay. This is achieved by expanding water storage, treatment, and conveyance capabilities south of Lake Okeechobee, thereby restoring more natural flow patterns, depths, and durations.

a critical and central component of the broader Everglades restoration effort and formalized the commitment to accelerate its development.

In support of these commitments, the MOU established a CERP Oversight Group, comprising leadership from ASA-CW, USACE Deputy Commanding General for Civil and Emergency Operations, the State of Florida Governor’s office, SFWMD, and FDEP.

A primary goal of the CERP Oversight Group is to evaluate and identify authorities and resources for the purpose of accelerating any remaining components of the CEPP EAA Reservoir, with the goal of construction completion in 2029.

Following the MOA, the SAJ began the development of a period of performance reduction analysis to identify criteria for accelerating both Contract 11A and Contract 11B. Subsequently, on 28 September 2025, USACE Deputy Commanding General for Civil and Emergency Operations, issued a memorandum (Enclosure 3, MFR- Expediting the Everglades and Agricultural Area Reservoir) directing USACE to take the steps necessary to accelerate the completion of the EAA Reservoir. The Directive included a finding that it is in the best interest of the U.S. Government to commit the resources required to achieve meaningful completion by 31 December 2029. In response, SAJ has initiated the necessary actions to comply with this Directive, while carefully considering the ecological impacts on Everglades Restoration.

Urgency of Accelerating EAA Reservoir Completion

This modification is necessary because the need for immediate attention to Everglades Restoration is more critical now than when the EAA contracts were awarded. Accelerating the completion of all EAA Reservoir components is critical to effective restoration of the Everglades ecosystem.

Since the initial authorization of CERP ecological conditions have degraded faster than anticipated due to external pressures from faster rates of population growth and sea level rise. In addition, since the initial award of the EAA contracts, conditions in the Everglades have continued to deteriorate. Many hydrologic and ecologic indicators continue to decline, damaging muck fires have burned away peat soils that take hundreds of years to develop, Lake Okeechobee was named the dirtiest lake in America in 2025, and water supply in South Florida is at risk all due to a lack of water storage.

These escalating challenges have made immediate action far more urgent than adhering to the original timeline for completing the EAA Reservoir.

The following paragraphs will provide further detail on this ongoing decline and the anticipated relief that will result from expediting restoration efforts.

i. System-Wide Impacts and Habitat Degradation

The health of the Everglades ecosystem continues to decline. The current lack of water storage and connectivity limits the ability to maintain natural ecosystems while meeting South Florida’s water supply and flood protection needs. Hydrologic and ecologic indicators of system health are evaluated in the 2024 System Status Report (SSR). The

SSR is developed by RECOVER (Restoration, Coordination, and Verification) and provides a detailed assessment of the Everglades from 1 May 2017 to 30 April 2024.

RECOVER is a partnership of agencies, tribes, and institutions that conducts scientific assessments to support CERP’s mission to restore and protect the South Florida ecosystem while meeting regional water needs. It plays a key role in guiding restoration through a system-wide approach. The SSR is prepared by RECOVER and provides a transparent, timely, and geographically detailed assessment of the Florida Everglades.

The SSR applies system-wide monitoring to assess progress of the CERP and Interim Goals and Interim Targets (IGIT). IGIT are incremental benchmarks of CERP progress based on hydrologic and ecological models and are used to guide CERP project design, scheduling, and updates.

The SSR shows that most hydrologic and ecological indicators have either worsened or remained unchanged over this seven-year period. Compared to historic records American Alligators have decreased in abundance and body condition, wading bird populations declined significantly, and many of the other indicators used to measure the health of the ecosystem remain poor and or continue to decline.

RECOVER recommends that CERP Projects be expedited to prevent further decline throughout the system. Restoring the natural flow of freshwater, its volume, timing, and distribution, is essential to Everglades recovery. Reduced dry season flows and compartmentalization have disrupted water movement toward Florida Bay, altering hydroperiods, water depths, and flow directions. These changes have shifted vegetation patterns, with drained areas forming shorter hydroperiod communities and pooled areas developing open water and marsh habitats. Florida Bay has also experienced high salinity events and seagrass die offs due to lack of freshwater flows. The restoration goal for Water Conservation Areas (WCA) 3A and 3B and Shark River Slough in Everglades National Park is to reestablish a healthy mosaic of ridges, sloughs, and tree islands. Water must be distributed to reflect natural conditions and restore historic sheet flow while supporting other regional needs.

ii. Threat of Muck Fires

Muck fires in the High Everglades have worsened in recent years1 due to longer dry seasons and more frequent, deeper dry downs. These conditions expose peat soils to air, causing oxidation and fires. When peat soils are lost in muck fires, land elevation drops, flattening the landscape and blurring the distinction between ridges, sloughs, and tree islands – key features of the Everglades. This damage cannot be repaired quickly.

Peat soils found in the Everglades take hundreds of years to develop. CEPP and the EAA Reservoir aim to reduce these risks by extending hydroperiods and keeping peat soils saturated and less susceptible to catching fire. The long-term goal is to restore natural soil-building processes and achieve a soil oxidation risk index similar to pre-drainage conditions. A 50,000-acre fire in northern WCA3A in 2025 highlights the urgency of these efforts.

iii. Lake Okeechobee Conditions

Lake Okeechobee was named the dirtiest lake in America in a 2025 report2. Due to a lack of water storage in the system, operational plans for the Lake have held water too high to support growth of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in the Lake. A lack of SAV leads to increased turbidity, decreased water clarity, decreased light availability, negatively impacts the Lake’s bass fishery, and leads to a loss of revenue to lakeside communities that rely upon recreational tourism. The EAA Reservoir will provide storage needed to better manage Lake Okeechobee water levels to improve ecological health of the Lake.

iv. Enhancing Water Storage for Coastal Communities and Agriculture

CERP aims to expand water storage capacity within the regional system to support delivery to the Lower East Coast Service Area (LECSA). LECSA encompasses southern Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties, Florida’s most densely populated region. The additional storage capacity provided by the EAA Reservoir will enhance both regional and local water sources, reducing water supply cutbacks, protecting agricultural water supply, and helping to prevent the inland migration of the saltwater interface. This is a critical measure for protecting freshwater supplies and maintaining ecological balance in coastal areas.

In addition, as more CERP components are constructed, including the CEPP and the EAA Reservoir, the regional system’s ability to store and deliver water to LECSA will continue to grow. This expanded capacity will further reinforce efforts to combat saltwater intrusion and safeguard water resources for millions of Florida residents.

v. Role and Impact of the CEPP EAA Reservoir

The EAA Reservoir is a central component of the CEPP. The Reservoir will capture water from Lake Okeechobee that would otherwise be lost to tide and redirect it to benefit the Everglades and Florida Bay and improve the ecological health of the Lake itself. Despite recent weather events, including Hurricane Ian in 2022, several storms in 2023, and the 2023–2024 El Niño, low hydroperiods and water depths persist in northern WCA3A, Taylor Slough, and Lostmans Slough, especially during the late dry season. Dry season flows are also critical to allow wading bird foraging and nesting. Three years in a row- the Aley North Colony (largest wading bird colony in North America) was largely unsuccessful due to dry conditions in Everglades marshes.

The EAA Reservoir would mitigate/alleviate these conditions.

Meanwhile, southern WCA3A continues to experience high water levels. The SSR highlights the need for additional dry-season water from the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual and the EAA Reservoir. CEPP is expected to improve connectivity of flows, increase water volumes, extend hydroperiods, reduce unnatural dry-downs, and enhance water distribution. Its implementation will help hydrate key areas like northern WCA3A, Shark River Slough, Taylor Slough, and Lostmans Slough, and boost late dry-season flows into the Greater Everglades. This will also improve water movement across the east side of Tamiami Trail into Everglades National Park.

In their April 2016 and July 2018 position papers3, the Everglades Coalition, an alliance of nearly 60 conservation organizations, voiced strong support for the urgent development of water storage in the EAA. The 2016 paper highlights Florida’s statewide water crisis and the EAA’s critical role in storing, treating, and conveying water to prevent harmful discharges from Lake Okeechobee and restore clean flow to Everglades National Park and Florida Bay. The 2018 paper endorses the EAA Reservoir’s inclusion in the Water Resources Development Act to advance these restoration goals.

In a press release4, the Everglades Foundation expressed strong support for the agreement between the State of Florida and the federal government to fast-track the completion of the EAA Reservoir by 2029. The Foundation has long championed the urgency of the EAA Reservoir, which it describes as the “crown jewel” of Everglades restoration. Since 2016, it has consistently advocated for accelerating construction of the Reservoir, which is designed to store, clean, and deliver freshwater south to America’s Everglades, dramatically reducing harmful discharges to coastal estuaries.

Per this press release, the Everglades, a $1 trillion natural asset, generates $31 billion in annual economic benefits through tourism, outdoor recreation, real estate, and clean water industries. The expedited timeline for the EAA Reservoir marks a major milestone in safeguarding this vital ecosystem and bolstering Florida’s clean water.

Contract Modification to Meet the 2029 Objective

To ensure the Reservoir is completed by the 2029 objective and to avoid continued decline of the environmental conditions in the Everglades, as identified above, a modification to reduce the period of performance under the existing contract is essential.

This adjustment is the only viable path to meet the accelerated schedule.

b. Justification

Acceleration of the construction of the EAA A-2 Reservoir is vital. The conditions of the central Everglades continue to deteriorate and decline, threatening water resources for communities and greatly degrading habitats and wildlife conditions. Allowing for full and months, beginning with redefinition of project requirements based on current construction conditions, developing a comprehensive Request for Proposals (RFP) and incorporating lessons learned from the terminated for convenience construction contract. This will be followed by market research, solicitation issuance, question period, rigorous proposal evaluation and selection, and concluding with the contract award. The timeframe could be extended by any contract protests. The third phase is anticipated to take 12 months and includes mobilization by the new contractor and initial site work, including time for the new contractor to establish operations, assemble a team, procure necessary equipment, detailed design completion and permitting, and commence initial construction activities. Simply put, a new competitive reprocurement would absorb almost the entire period in which this critical work needs to be performed.

In conclusion, failure to maintain the current contractor will result in a loss of the highly specialized services gained through performance of the contract to date. The process of terminating this contract and reprocuring would result in unacceptable delay to the current period of performance, and would undermine the purpose of the modification, which is to accelerate performance and completion of construction of the EAA Reservoir to 2029.

c. Alternatives

One alternative to accelerating the EAA project was evaluated. However, it did not offer the speed of award and contractor mobilization necessary to achieve the 2029 completion target. No other alternatives were meaningfully considered.

A Termination for Convenience (T4C) and Re-Procurement was initially considered but deemed unsuitable. As shown in the Justification section of this document, above, this alternative will introduce unacceptable delays, by making the 2029 completion goal for 11B unattainable.

d. Impact

Failure to successfully complete this contract will significantly impede the critical need to restore, preserve, and protect the South Florida ecosystem, and compromise regional water management objectives, including water supply and flood protection more expeditiously. The Everglades serves as the primary freshwater source for over nine million people. An accelerated restoration schedule is critical to restoring natural water flow, improving water quality, slowing the decline of the ecosystem, enhancing water supply, combating saltwater intrusion, and increasing flood resilience as described in the “Urgency of Accelerating EAA Reservoir Completion” paragraphs above.

Accelerating the Reservoir project is critical to delivering urgently needed water storage that will help prevent further ecological degradation. It will enhance dry-season water availability, reduce the risk of destructive muck fires, and minimize harmful discharges to sensitive areas such as coastal estuaries. The sooner we implement the CERP, the