Trump budget falls short on Everglades work, omits new reservoir plan

President Donald Trump’s proposed budget slashes spending by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers by 31 percent and fails to include money for an Everglades reservoir aimed at reducing polluted water flushed from Lake Okeechobee to coastal estuaries.

In a Washington press conference on Tuesday, R.D. James, Assistant Secretary of the Army for civil works, and Corps commanders said the proposal includes $63 million to help restore Florida’s wetlands and other ecosystems. That includes completing two small reservoirs east and west of Lake Okeechobee, and restoring winding bends in the Kissimmee River. But that’s well short of the $200 million Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida lawmakers requested for Everglades work.

The budget also omits a vast 17,000-acre reservoir on sugar fields south of the lake to reduce the polluted discharges that last year helped fuel slimy green algae blooms and a red tide that littered the Gulf Coast with dead fish.