Water held in Kissimmee Chain of Lakes to benefit restoration

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District (Corps), in coordination with the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) began implementation of the Increment 1 Planned Temporary Deviation to the Interim Regulation Schedule for Lakes Kissimmee, Hatchineha and Cypress (Lakes KHC), Aug. 14, which includes adjustments to the regulation schedule for these lakes.

This deviation is the first step in the phased implementation of the Kissimmee River Restoration (KRR) Project Headwaters Revitalization Schedule (HRS) for Lakes KHC (Figure 1). The Increment 1 Deviation (shown in Figure 2) also includes updated operating criteria at S-65 and S-65A structures to optimize releases for Kissimmee River restoration.

“We celebrated the completion of construction on the Kissimmee River Restoration Project in July of 2021,” noted Tim Gysan, Resilience Senior Project Manager. “That completed the first step in the restoration process, the physical restoration of the river.”

The purpose of the HRS is to reestablish historical (pre-channelization) flow patterns to the Kissimmee River. The HRS is the final component of the KRR project, which was authorized by Congress in 1992, and has been jointly developed and constructed by the Corps and SFWMD over the last 30 years.