The C-43 Reservoir is finished. Governor DeSantis marked its official opening on July 15, 2025, and the pump station has been operating since. For most of Southwest Florida, that closed the story on one of the largest water storage projects in state history.
For landowners in Hendry and Glades counties, an operating reservoir raises a different set of questions than a proposed one. The land was assembled years ago. What is new is 10,000 acres of stored water sitting next to properties that were dry before, moved by a pump station capable of 650,000 gallons per minute.
This post explains what the project actually is, what claims survive its completion, and where the legal limits on a water management district’s power sit. For a fuller overview of our work, see our Florida eminent domain attorneys page.
Is the C-43 Reservoir Still Acquiring Land?
No. Construction is complete and the reservoir is operating.
According to the Executive Office of the Governor, the official opening occurred July 15, 2025, in Hendry County. The announcement described the completion of the 10,000-acre reservoir and confirmed the pump station, capable of moving 650,000 gallons per minute, was fully operational. Florida reported that South Florida’s water storage capacity had tripled to 176 billion gallons.
The reservoir footprint sits on former agricultural land west of LaBelle that was acquired years before construction. In Glades County, the District and Lee County acquired roughly 1,773 acres for a water quality treatment and testing facility designed to remove nitrogen from water headed to the estuary. That acquisition, like the reservoir footprint itself, is complete.
If an agency contacts you today about property connected to C-43, that is unusual enough to warrant a call before you respond. The more common situation now is an owner with a problem and nobody asking about it.
What the Reservoir Does, and Why It Matters to Neighbors
The reservoir is a component of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. It does two things.
During the wet season it captures excess runoff from the C-43 basin and regulatory releases from Lake Okeechobee that would otherwise rush into the Caloosahatchee Estuary. During the dry season it releases stored water back to the estuary to balance salinity and protect fish and wildlife.
That cycle is exactly why adjacent landowners should pay attention. An aboveground reservoir holding roughly 170,000 acre-feet, filling and drawing down on a seasonal schedule, alters the hydrology around it. The features that make it work, large storage cells, perimeter canals, levees, and a high-capacity pump station, all influence how water moves on neighboring land.
What Claims Survive a Completed Reservoir?
Four, and they are easy to miss once the ribbon is cut.
1. Seepage, Water Table, and Drainage Effects on Adjacent Land
This is the claim most specific to a reservoir that recently began operating.
Storing water at elevation next to land that was previously drained can raise the water table, saturate root zones, drown pasture, kill citrus, or make ground unworkable for equipment. Perimeter canals and seepage collection systems are engineered to manage that, and the question in any given case is whether they are performing as designed on your parcel.
Where government action physically damages property without a formal taking, Florida recognizes inverse condemnation. Our overview of inverse condemnation claims in Florida explains when the remedy applies. Where regulation rather than physical impact is the problem, the Bert Harris Act runs on a separate track.
Document conditions now. Standing water, altered flow, salinity changes, and crop loss that appeared after startup are evidence, and they are far easier to prove while they are happening.
2. Compensation That Was Deposited but Never Finally Determined
Florida infrastructure projects are often acquired through quick-take under Chapter 74. The agency deposits a good-faith estimate, the court enters an Order of Taking, and title passes. Work proceeds while the fight over value continues.
The deposit is not your final payment. You can often withdraw it and still pursue more. Owners routinely treat a closed construction project as a closed compensation file. It is frequently neither.
3. Apportionment Among Competing Interests
Where a parcel carried a mortgage, a lease, an agricultural tenancy, or multiple owners, the award still has to be divided. That can remain open long after the reservoir fills, and it is where unresolved boundary line disputes, murky easements and restrictive covenants, and lingering quiet title issues resurface.
4. Severance Damages Never Fully Developed
If only part of a parcel was taken, the remainder may have lost value through lost access, an awkward configuration, or changed drainage. Our detailed treatment is at severance damages in Florida, and these questions frequently overlap with complex real property improvement issues.
What Are the Legal Limits on a Water District’s Power to Take Land?
Narrower than most owners assume, and this matters for the CERP projects still to come.
Under Article X, Section 6 of the Florida Constitution, private property cannot be taken except for a public purpose, and the owner must receive full compensation, a broader standard than the federal “just compensation.”
But a water management district faces an additional statutory limit that a road agency does not. Under section 373.139(2), Florida Statutes, a district’s eminent domain powers may be used only for acquiring real property for flood control and water storage, or for curing title defects or encumbrances on property the district owns or is acquiring from a willing seller.
That is a real constraint. A storage reservoir like C-43 fits squarely within it. A project whose purpose is aquifer recharge, conservation, or water supply development does not obviously fit, and an owner facing one should ask the question early.
Much of what a water district does is willing-seller acquisition rather than condemnation. Those are different transactions with different leverage, and an owner should know which one is actually on the table.
What Does Full Compensation Cover?
More than the land’s sale price. The general procedures live in Chapter 73 of the Florida Statutes.
Severance damages. Compensation for the loss in value to the part you keep when only a portion is taken.
Business damages. Florida is one of a few states allowing certain established businesses to recover for damage to the business itself from a partial taking, not just the real estate. The statute requires a business of more than 5 years’ standing. For a grove operation, a packing facility, or a ranch running on land in the project area, this is a major and often overlooked category. See our introduction to business damages and our deeper look at calculating and proving business damages.
Attorney’s fees and costs. In a filed Florida condemnation case, the condemning authority generally pays the owner’s reasonable attorney’s fees and litigation costs, including appraisal and expert fees, tied to the benefit obtained above the agency’s offer. That fee-shifting operates inside a condemnation proceeding. A negotiated sale to a willing-seller program that never becomes a filed case does not carry the same statutory entitlement, which is worth confirming before you assume representation is free.
For the basics in one place, see our overview of the eminent domain process for Florida commercial property owners and our explainer on eminent domain versus condemnation. Related issues sit within our broader real estate transactions and disputes practice.
What Should Hendry and Glades County Owners Do Now?
- Watch the water. Document standing water, seepage, water table changes, salinity, and crop or pasture loss that appeared after the reservoir began operating. Dated photographs and records are the case.
- Confirm whether your file actually closed. If land was taken, find out whether compensation was finally determined or only deposited, and whether apportionment was completed.
- Compare against pre-project conditions. Old surveys, aerial imagery, yield records, and insurance photos establish the baseline.
- Ask which power is being used if any agency approaches you about a future CERP component. Willing-seller acquisition and condemnation are not the same, and section 373.139(2) limits when a district can condemn at all.
- Do not sign or cash anything without review. A first offer is a starting point, not a verdict.
Our team handles condemnation and valuation disputes for landowners, ranchers, growers, and businesses across South Florida, including the eminent domain and condemnation issues that follow a completed project.
How Jimerson Birr Helps
Large public projects like the C-43 Reservoir do important environmental work, and they should not come at the quiet expense of the owners whose land made them possible, or the neighbors who now live beside 170,000 acre-feet of stored water.
Once construction ends, nobody is knocking on doors anymore. The owner with a seepage problem or an unfinished compensation file has to raise it.
If your property sits near the C-43 footprint in Hendry or Glades County, or something changed on your land after the reservoir began operating, our eminent domain attorneys can review your situation. Reach us through our contact page, and follow developing issues on our real estate and land use blog.