Construction of a reservoir meant to preserve the Everglades will be halted by a lawsuit from environmental groups that say the state needs to legally commit itself to use the water primarily for preservation.

The South Florida Water Management District , whose board voted yesterday to halt work, has already spent $250 million on the construction of the 25-square-mile reservoir -- the largest of its kind in the world. The delay to the $800 million project could cost nearly $14 million and threaten the intended completion time in 2010.

The state claims at least 80 percent of the water will be for environmental purposes, but the National Resources Defense Council lawsuit wants to make that target legally binding.

Construction will halt June 1, but contractors will be paid $1.9 million for each month of delay. "It will be much more expensive if we got into the middle of this contract and then all of a sudden it gets shut down," district spokesman Randy Smith said. "The board's decision was made solely on prudent financial responsibility to the taxpayers."

The Everglades were previously fed by watersheds reaching as far north as Orlando, but much of that water is now diverted into the ocean to prevent flooding, leaving the thirsty wetlands near ecological collapse. The reservoir will divert water normally released into the ocean to the park (Brian Skoloff, AP/San Francisco Chronicle, May 15). -- PR