JUNO BEACH, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference with environmental officials Thursday morning in South Florida to highlight the progress on the Everglades restoration and water quality projects.

Some of the key achievements highlighted at the news conference in Juno Beach included increasing water storage capacity from 57.1 billion gallons to 176.1 billion gallons with the soon-to-be-opened C-43 reservoir, reducing harmful nutrients, and increasing water flow south into the Everglades National Park.

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“This is really how nature intended it to be. This was a result of a lot of human infrastructure and things that have been done,” DeSantis said. “So that’s really, really significant that we were able to get that done, and we’ll continue to push forward on that.”

Press play above to watch the full news conference

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Alexis Lambert, South Florida Water Management District Executive Director Drew Bartlett and Everglades Trust Chief Executive Officer Anna Upton joined the governor.

Lambert said once all of the projects are completed, there is a projected annual reduction of more than 727,000 pounds of nitrogen and 488,000 pounds of phosphorus in water.

“It’s inspiring to reflect on what we’ve done while we recognize there is still much more important work to do,” Lambert said.