The South Florida Everglades Restoration Project
Table of Contents
According to William Blake, “... the universe is reflected in the sides of a
grain of sand.” The region defining the South Florida Everglades is a perfect
example of this statement. Beyond the unique landscape, the plant and
animal species native only to this region, its status as the only wetland of its
kind on the continent, the Everglades is a microcosm of the entire
environmental movement. The recent attempt to restore this region is
typical of the movement from utilitarianism, where natural resources were
exploited for their usefulness to the populace, to an era of conservation,
where the limits of these resources were recognized, and most recently to
attempts at restoration, or the revitalization of the natural environment.
The eyes of the world are watching the Everglades Project, seeing just how
much damage a hundred years of forced controls have inflicted, and just
how far the public will extend itself towards remediation.
Restoration, however, is not just a matter of technical know-how. Cultural
and economic influences play a vital role in the outcome of the project.
Factors such as who is responsible for past damages, who can initiate
restoration plans without compromising the integrity of the ecosystem, and
who will support, both financially and philosophically, future water
management schemes. This project marks the first time a major public
works initiative has been reversed for ecological reasons, which is significant
progress for the environmental movement, but also an important impetus
towards a growing distrust of governmental controls. There is a very vague
line between regulation restricting the environment and regulation restoring
the environment, making public perception crucial for the support of such a
task. Struggles in legislation are a recurring theme in the Everglades
restoration project and, unfortunately, have yet to be completely resolved.
The final accomplishments of this undertaking are still years ahead, so the
result of this struggle, and the impact on other ecosystems worldwide,
remain to be seen.
Region Characteristics
The Everglades region is a subtropical wetland, the only one of its kind in
the U.S. (Boucher) Historically, it covered much of South Florida,
comprising over 4,000 square miles stretching from Lake Okeechobee in the
north to the Florida Bay at the southern end of the peninsula. It is part of
the Kissimmee - Lake Okeechobee - Everglades watershed, a huge drainage
basin extending over an area of approximately 11,000 square miles.
(Gunderson) Lake Okeechobee itself is unique in its large surface area, close
to 730 square miles, and relatively shallow depth, an average of only around
12 feet. The natural land characteristics of this area are highly variable, as
it is a quiltwork of a variety of landscapes, including freshwater marshes,
wetland tree islands, pinelands, mangrove swamps, and coastal marine
waters. The land elevation and slope, however, are fairly uniform, with an
average gradient of only 3 to 6 cm per km. (Finkl)
Ecosystem
Because of the unique land and water characteristics of the Everglades, the
plant and animal life is also extremely specialized to the region. There is a
tremendous amount of biodiversity among the species. Traditionally, the
ecosystem was plagued with low nutrient levels in the water and soil and
fluctuating water patterns, obtaining most of its riches from variable
rainfall. The ecosystem, however, adapted to these characteristics with
species that thrive on little nutrients and only seasonal water supplies.
Many plants and animals are indigenous only to the Everglades wetland
region, so any changes in the ecosystem threaten the survival of the entire
species. Since water management controls have been implemented, 56
Everglades plant and animal species are now considered endangered or
threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. (Boucher) Endangered
species include the Florida panther, the manatee, the American crocodile,
the snail kite, and the Southern bald eagle.
Water Movement
Water flow through the wetlands region is subject to extreme seasonal
variations. The wet season ranges from May to October and accounts for
76% of the total rainfall. An average yearly rainfall to the watershed lies
between 40 and 65 inches, but, again, this is subject to significant variation.
Inflow to the region is dependent almost entirely on this rainfall, accounting
for 89% of the total inflow in direct rainfall and 11% in rainfall-induced
runoff from neighboring regions. Less than 1% of the total water inflow
comes from groundwater. (Finkl) Because of this high level of dependence,
inflows are variable in quantity. A primary channel for water flow into the
watershed is the Kissimmee River at the very northern edge. Water from
precipitation flows down the Kissimmee into Lake Okeechobee. During
periods of high rainfall, water overflows the shallow boundaries defining the
lake on the south end, at times flooding the entire southern shore, and
moves into the Everglades area. From here the water creeps down the
landscape, flowing in sheets up to 50 miles wide and 100 miles long, at a
pace of about 100 feet per day. (Hinrichsen)
Because of the large amount of surface area covered by the flow, and the
relatively small landscape slope, the water flow is subject to a tremendous
amount of evapotranspiration. The majority of water lost from the
watershed is due to this effect, claiming almost 66% of the total outflow.
Another 22% of the surface water flow heads towards the coast and is lost to
tidewaters. (Finkl) The remaining water is claimed by the subsurface. The
primary foundation for the southern end of the Florida peninsula is
composed of highly porous limestone, capable of holding huge volumes of
water. Surface water inundating the landscape during high flood periods is
absorbed into this limestone earth , then gradually released into lakes,
springs, and marshes. This “sponge” effect supplies the region with water
during seasonally dry periods. (Duplaix)
Since the early 1900’s, the Everglades region has been the subject of water
management plans and practices. The result today is one of the most highly
regulated and controlled watersheds in the world, putting to work over 1,400
miles of canals, levees, and dikes. The history leading up to today’s system
can be divided into 4 major eras based on the general trends of the time
period. These periods were taken from an article researching past water
management controls in South Florida by Lance Gunderson (Gunderson). In
the first two eras, construction of water controls are initiated as a result of
major flooding in the region. In the third era, emphasis shifts towards
drought management, while the fourth era, where the Everglades currently
sits, signifies an attempt to fix the past problems created be management.
The listed figures show historical land-use maps for the South Florida
region, illustrating some of the major trends described in the following eras.
Land-Use Distribution in:
1900
1953
1973
The “Cut ‘n Try” Era
A major flood occurred in 1903, destroying the majority of the crops and
farms in the Everglades watershed. It became such an important issue that
the governor’s election of 1905 was perched atop a platform of flood control.
The elected Napoleon Bonaparte Broward won primarily on a promise to
“drain that abominable, pestilence-ridden swamp.” (Hinrichsen) He and his
successors began what was to become a long series of drainage projects to
reclaim land for agriculture. By 1917 four major canals were installed,
routing water from Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean and making the
region dry enough for crops and farms to survive.
A series of hurricanes from 1926 to 1928 brought tremendous flooding to the
area, killing almost 2500 people. This was enough to shift emphasis from
drainage of the land to flood control. In 1930 the Army Corps of Engineers
was brought in to initiate a major flood control project. Its first attempt was
to construct a continuous ridge of levees around the perimeter of Lake
Okeechobee to contain future flood waters. This provided enough security
for agriculture to rebuild, regaining a hold on the region that it has yet to
relinquish. Sugar cane was, and remains, the main agricultural crop in the
Everglades area, and sugar production doubled in the decade between 1931
and 1941. (Gunderson)
The Era of “Turning Green Lines into Red”
Another major group of hurricanes struck South Florida in 1947 and 1948,
drowning 2000 people and over 25,000 cows in its flood waters. Hundreds of
thousands of acres of land, both agricultural and urban, were inundated with
water for almost six months as 108 inches of rain fell on the region. This
major disaster proved the inadequacy of the Corps’ first attempt at
controlling nature’s will, so in 1948 the Corps initiated its Central and
Southern Florida Project for Flood Control and other Purposes (C&SF). This
was a tremendous undertaking, as governmental agencies were busy turning
the green lines on their plans into actual physical structures, shown as red
lines on their maps. The motto of the Corps and its cohorts during this era
can be abbreviated “the four D’s”: “Dike it, dam it, divert it, and drain it!”
(Hinrichsen)
Overall, the C&SF Project resulted in the creation of specific land-use areas,
titled the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), Water Control Areas (WCAs),
and the Everglades National Park (ENP). The locations of these areas are
shown in Figure 4. In the working system, they were divided up by a
mammoth water management infrastructure with an overall ability to
control 3.8 billion liters of water per day. Water regulation schedules for
controlling this capacity were also developed under this project. The
massive construction carried out in this era began a tremendous growth
spurt in the population of South Florida, continuing into the high growth
rate the region still enjoys today. (Gunderson)
The Era of “No Easy Answers”
While South Florida was enjoying this population influx, the 1960’s and
1970’s brought a series of major droughts into contention. As an example, in
the water year from 1970 to 1971 only 30 inches of rain fell at Miami
International Airport, compared to the average of 55 inches (and the 108
inches during the flood of 1947!) The land in the watershed became so dry
that massive fires broke out, consuming over 300 hectares of land.
This major natural disaster brought about the realization that the water
management practices of the past 70 years were causing a tremendous stress
on the natural system, and that a change was definitely needed. However, it
was also recognized that all of the “easy” solutions had been tried, and had
failed. (Gunderson) The problem of how to balance water management
between flood control, drought prevention, and agricultural needs was
brought to the forefront of political issues.
Repairing the Everglades
Another drought, a 200-year event, occurred in 1981, followed shortly by
hurricane-induced floods during 1983. These events served as the breaking
point between considering the problems and initiating solutions. In 1983,
Governor Bob Graham began his “Save Our Everglades” campaign, calling
for the restoration of the previously gutted Kissimmee River, the
reinstallation of natural flows into the ENP, and the protection of a variety
of threatened species native to the region. Questions about the quality of
water in Lake Okeechobee arose in 1986 as a huge algae bloom consumed
the surface of the lake. The new algae growth signified a change in the
nutrient loading in the lake, and made obvious the need for legislation
controlling water quality. (Gunderson) In response, the Surface Water
Improvement Act (SWMM) of 1987 was passed, requiring, among other
things, a mandatory 40% reduction in the phosphorus loading in Lake
Okeechobee by 1992. The most recent piece of legislation supporting
Everglades restoration was Governor Lawton Chiles’ Everglades Forever
Act, which passed in 1994.
Agriculture in the South Florida region plays a dominant role in any water
management decisions involving the Kissimmee - Okeechobee - Everglades
watershed. The original draining of much of this region was the result of a
desire to make the land more suitable for agricultural purposes. Under the
Corps’ C&SF Project, the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) was created
from the upper quarter of the original Everglades wetland. In its entirety, it
covers approximately 750,000 acres. Figure 3 shows the overall distribution
of land-use for agricultural purposes as of 1973. Overall sales from South
Florida dairies and crops total almost $500 million, and the agricultural
industry in the EAA accounts for over $1.2 billion of economic activity every
year. (Bottcher) Along with this tremendous revenue, however, the EAA
also consumes the majority of the region’s surface water supply, making its
existence both vital for the economy and detrimental to the ecology.
Sugar
More than half of the EAA is controlled by the sugar industry, as sugarcane
crops cover 440,000 acres of land in this region. Although the Everglades
land is not the perfect medium for crop development, the sugar industry
survives due to government support. The national government limits
sugarcane imports from foreign countries, in effect limiting the market to
domestic sugar, while also providing subsidized loans to growers. So, while
the land may not be ideal, the profits are, and sugar continues to flourish.
Vegetables and Dairy
The other main industries represented in this region are vegetable growers
and dairy farmers. Dairy farmers, while outside the EAA on the northern
side of Lake Okeechobee, contribute to the effects of agriculture on the area
and are similarly significant to the economy. A variety of vegetable crops
cover the most substantial area of the EAA next to sugar, close to 60,000
acres of land. These vegetable crops are important mainly as a source of
winter vegetables, due to the moderate year-round climate they enjoy. The
EAA is, during certain times of the year, the major source of winter crops for
the entire U.S. market. (Bottcher)
The history of water management in the Everglades region, the series of
canals, levees, and impoundments that have completely restructured the
watershed, have caused major problems to the ecosystem as well as to the
overall water supply. These problems are inextricably linked, as one
problem flows down the water system to cause new and sometimes
unexpected complications.
Modified flow pattern
A computer-based model was developed to describe the natural flow of water
through the park and adjacent regions. This model, when run without the
past 100 years of controls, shows a significant change in the flow patterns
and locations of water than can be seen in the region today. According to the
model, virtually all of South Florida would be wetland without the controls
in place. The region would be uninhabitable except for a small area along
the eastern coast. (Cohn) This implies that, while changes in the current
water management system are necessary, removal of all controls is not a
feasible solution.
However, a change is necessary. Water flow south to the Everglades and the
Florida Bay used to be, if not constant in level, at least smooth and
continuous. The elaborate system of controls now lying upstream, however,
regulates this flow based on scheduled releases determined by water levels,
not the needs of the ecosystem. Flow is sporadic and pulsed where the
natural system is adapted to historical delivery patterns based on natural
rainfall. (Finkl) One of the most notable effects is the dampening of the
hydroperiod of the wetlands, or the average annual period of flooding, which
has decreased from the traditional range of 7 to 10 months. This has
resulted in longer periods of drought as well as a higher frequency of
drought. (Finkl)
Overdrainage
Significant drainage in the agricultural area has lowered the water table
within that region. However, beyond just affecting that specific region,
drainage has forced connecting canals to draw water from the Everglades
Park. This amount has been estimated to be as high as 200,000 acre-feet per
year. The significant water loss has led to the lowering of the water table
within the park, in some places by as much as 2 to 4 feet. (Cohn) Not only
does this threaten the overall availability of groundwater, especially as the
primary source of drinking water for the east coast population, but it
increases the threat of salt water intrusion into the aquifer. Both the quality
and quantity of the groundwater supply over the entire wartershed area has
been effected by past water management controls.
Soil Depletion
The soils covering the South Florida landscape were formed predominantly
under wetland conditions. Submerged in water for a majority of the year,
the organic material in the soil was slow to decompose because less oxygen
was readily available. So, wetland soil contains a high amount of organic
material. After drainage, however, the soil is exposed to air and an
increased availability of oxygen. Decomposition of this organic material
occurs at a much faster rate, and the soil surface elevation drops accordingly.
(Bottcher) The most important impact of this process on the Everglades
region is the loss of soil, especially in the agricultural regions. Current
estimates place this rate of soil loss at approximately 1 inch per year,
meaning nearly 6 feet of soil have oxidized and blown away since drainage
first began in 1900. (Derr) Under these continuing conditions, some predict
that the surface may reach the bedrock level in as little as 25 years. (Derr)
Reduced flow to Florida Bay
Another consequence of the disrupted flow patterns through the watershed
is a decrease in the amount of water reaching the Florida Bay at the very
southern tip of Florida. During attempts at drainage and flood control,
water was rerouted, making a quicker escape to the surrounding ocean
waters of either the Atlantic on the east or the Gulf of Mexico on the west.
This resulted in less water flowing south to the Florida Bay. To make up for
this difference, the bay takes in an increasing amount of marine water each
year, raising the salinity of the natural water. This is extremely damaging
to the fish and wildlife native to the bay, which are accustomed to only
limited levels of saline water. Not only are the effects felt by the ecosystem,
but they are also detrimental to the economy, as fishing in the Florida Bay is
a major source of revenue for the region.
Nutrient Overload
Nutrient overload in Lake Okeechobee and the downstream wetlands is one
of the most visible, and therefore the most publicized, of management
effects. Runoff from the dairy farms and agricultural areas contain high
concentrations of phosphorus and nitrogen, both from fertilizers and from
raw waste. Lake Okeechobee receives 1.5 tons of phosphorus per day from
the upstream dairy farms. These increased minerals accumulate on the
bottom of the lake, accelerating the natural eutrophication process.
(Duplaix) The Water Conservation Areas are also directly affected by
agricultural runoff. The water discharged into the WCA’s from the
agricultural areas just to the north contains anywhere between 10 and 20
times the normal concentration of both phosphorus and nitrogen. When
these high concentrations of nutrients enter the natural water, traditionally
carrying only small amounts of each, the entire ecosystem is disrupted.
Vegetative patterns are altered as species that thrive in high nutrient
concentrations overpower the native species. (Duplaix) These effects
similarly translate downstream into the Everglades Park, since water from
the WCAs is a significant source of water inflow to the region.
Disruption of the ecosystem
All of the above effects have led to significant changes in the natural
environment. Wildlife habitats have been disrupted and in some cases
destroyed by deviations from the traditional water flow patterns. The
introduction of high concentrations of nutrients, previously only found in the
trace amounts characteristic of precipitation, has varied the types of plant
species that can survive in the wetlands. These foreign species, such as the
cattails that now cover the landscape and drown out the traditional
sawgrass, tend to overpower the species native to the area.
Based on these observed effects, there are certain primary concerns that a
comprehensive water management plan needs to focus on. These
fundamental issues are listed below (taken from Finkl):
1) Development of a comprehensive water budget for the region, including
the ENP, the EAA, and the municipal areas.
2) Reduction of inflows into Lake Okeechobee and the WCAs from the
agricultural areas.
3) Impacts of past water management controls.
4) Regulation water flow schedules.
5) Backpumping from urban areas and storm water management.
6) Minimum deliveries to the ENP and the EAA and patterns of delivery.
7) Water levels, both surface water and groundwater, and the associated
frequency of fire.
8) Possible water shortages and their effects on the different areas.
One example of the integration of some of these concepts into a water
management scheme is the limiting of backpumping and the resulting
drought management plan. The traditional flow regime for the canal system
called for flow into Lake Okeechobee and the WCAs from residential and
agricultural areas under flood protection conditions. This process was
known as backpumping, since flow under normal conditions would leave
these water reservoirs and flow through the other areas downstream.
When the problems associated with
nutrient overloading were first observed, the Interim Action Plan was
devised, which, in effect, reversed these flow directions and prevented
backpumping except under severe conditions, either flood protection under
extended rainfall conditions or water supply under prolonged drought. This
plan, in effect, increased the demands placed on Lake Okeechobee as the
primary source of upstream water.
Because of the increased importance of water levels in Lake Okeechobee on
the entire water management system, the Drought Management Plan was
devised to set certain standard actions based on lake stages. This management
plan represents what the South
Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) believes to be a best management
procedure (BMP), or the best allocation of the limited water supply under
drought conditions. This procedure, however, is suspended and
backpumping is stopped if nutrient levels in the water being backpumped
reach certain maximum levels. If inorganic nitrogen reaches 3.5 ppm and
total phosphorus reaches 0.5 ppm, then backpumping is suspended only if
the lake level falls in between the minimum and maximum curves. At any
stage of lake water, backpumping is completely halted if the concentration of
inorganic nitrogen in the canal water exceeds 10 ppm. This exception to the
original plan is seen as a reasonable balance between maintaining the
natural level of nutrients in the lake and providing an adequate water
supply under drought conditions. (Bottcher)
The Everglades restoration project represents what the SFWMD and other
agencies involved hope to be a total integration of BMPs such as this drought
management plan. The accumulation of past effects and a desire to remedy
the problems created by these effects resulted in Governor Chiles’
Everglades Forever Act (1994). This piece of legislation authorized the
initiation of a major project, referred to as the Everglades Construction
Project, to “clean and restore the Everglades Protection Area.” Overall, this
single project developed into 55 subprojects installed by the SFWMD the
Florida Department of Environmental Protection with the help of the Corps
of Engineers. (Hinrichsen) While some of these projects are relatively small
in scale, some require extensive research, years of planning, and a huge
budget before they can be implemented in their entirety. Some of these, and
their predicted costs, are described below.
Everglades Nutrient Removal Project:
This project arose from the problems previously discussed involving
overburdening of the wetland region with nutrients, specifically nitrogen
and phosphorus. The goal of this specific project is to meet the standards
legislated by the government for phosphorus concentrations in the region,
specifically a decrease from an initial concentration of 200 ppb to a final
concentration of 50 ppb, a 75% reduction. The creators of this project hope to
do this by constructing 43,000 acres of artificial wetlands to the south and
east of the EAA, the predominant areas of flow. These artificial wetlands
will act as storm water treatment areas (STAs). Specific plants, chosen for their heavy use of nutrients, will
biologically remove phosphorus from the runoff water before it flows into the
Everglades. (Goforth)
As part of the planning stages of this project, a test STA has been
constructed on approximately 3680 acres. A flow of
100,000 acre-feet per year is diverted into this test STA. Entering water
stays within the region for 15 to 20 days at an average depth of 1.5 to 3 feet.
(Goforth) This water then continues on into the Everglades region. In its
first year of operation, the test STA decreased the phosphorus concentration
in the runoff to between 20 and 40 ppb, an average decrease of 83%. (Young)
This is a very positive outcome for the project, but questions of aging in the
constructed wetlands and diminishing phosphorus removal imply that more
research needs to be done before the project can be implemented on its full
scale. (Young) The total predicted cost to actually do this: $700 million.
Restoration of the Kissimmee River
The Kissimmee River was one of the earliest and most severely damaged
victims of the Corps of Engineers’ C&S Florida Project. What was once a
winding 103-mile-long river that gradually flowed down the landscape to
Lake Okeechobee was converted into C-38, a straight 56-mile-long canal.
This resulted in the destruction of the surrounding wetlands, which could
not survive without the Kissimmee’s flowing water. This restoration project
authorizes the Corps to return to the scene of their crime and make amends.
They plan to recreate 52 miles of the central stretch of the river and restore
29,000 acres of wetlands. (Derr) The total cost of this planned restoration:
$558 million.
Water Preserve Areas
Another segment of the restoration project, perhaps the most ambitious of
all the subprojects, is the creation of what the SFWMD refers to as Water
Preserve Areas (not to be confused with Water Conservation Areas of the
Corps’ early project). These areas are, in essence, constructed wetlands
located east of the Everglades. These areas will serve a number of purposes,
the main one being to provide a “buffer zone” between the developed areas
along the east coast and the wetlands of the Everglades National Park.
(Derr) They would also serve as a replenishing water supply for the
Biscayne Aquifer and allow an increased amount of runoff to reach the
Florida Bay, thus pushing back the intrusion of salt water from the coast.
The preserve areas would also provide a habitat for plants and wildlife
previously pushed out of the region due to development. Despite all of these
benefits from the proposed wetland construction, it remains a heavily
debated proposal and has yet to reach a stage of implementation. (Derr)
The cost of this project, because it is still in the early proposal stages, is
unknown.
Sustainability, or the overall survival of the Everglades and its surrounding
regions, must integrate urban, agricultural, and ecological interests. The
above restoration plans attempt to do this on a technical basis by
replenishing the physical characteristics of the region. However, these plans
are at the whim of a completely separate set of controls, that of political
machinery. In this system, all is not black and white or good and bad. It
becomes a matter of good for whom, and bad for whom, and the question of
who will pay the price in either case. Research done by authors Zubrow,
Schumm, Finn, Panetski, and Van Ness tries to answer some of these
questions as conceived by public perception. They investigated economic,
demographic, social, and political influences on opinions involving the
Everglades restoration project. While some correlation was found in
demographic and social trends among the population, the most notable
influences were economic and political.
Economics
Economically speaking, the contrast in the opinions of the Florida population
is divided along the lines of pro-agriculture and non-pro-agriculture. Those
involved in the agriculture industry, while certainly not against
environmental improvements, believe that Everglades restoration is
impossible. They claim that they are taking care of the land by growing
crops, thereby providing the best use for the natural resources. Though there are
many arguments against such a belief, agriculture controls a huge portion of
the Florida economy and its opinion is extremely important to the politicians
of Florida.
Politics
Political influences are most notable in the differences between various
levels of government. Florida residents are the most likely to see problems
in the current state of the Everglades, and may be active in remedying the
local effects. However, they see the more regional problems, and Everglades
restoration as a whole, as the responsibility of higher political powers. As
the authors state, “Although the populace wishes environmental
sustainability, it is couched in local terms operationally.” (Zubrow) Few
local politicians see restoration as their responsibility or even know the
effects it may have on their contingency, such as higher water prices or
increased taxes. Increased distance away from the problem also decreases
the importance of an issue, and since the majority of the population does not
have direct contact with the Everglades wetlands, this pushes emphasis
away from the central issue, that of the restoration of an ecosystem.
(Zubrow)
Legislative Battles
Both political and economic influences along with environmental concerns
have culminated in years of legislative battles. Beginning in 1988, the
federal government sued the Florida Department of Environmental
Regulation for allowing contamination to reach such high levels in the
Everglades National Park and two other neighboring national refuges. The
DER responded by countersuing, claiming that the Army Corps of Engineers
carried out the initial construction of the water management controls that
caused the contamination. Needless to say, the battle continued until the
state finally surrendered in 1992. The resulting settlement, among other
things, required the agricultural industry to reduce phosphorus
concentrations to an intermediate level set for 1997 and a final limit set for
2002. Growers, most notably “Big Sugar,” called upon their economic clout
to challenge this settlement in court, not wanting to pay for remediation.
This was similarly dragged out in the courts, until a mediator, Interior
Secretary Bruce Babbitt, finally announced an agreement in 1993. The
“Babbitt Plan” allowed growers an extra ten years to meet the standards
previously established and required agriculture to pay only a fraction of the
total costs. (Derr) So far, sugarcane growers have paid only $11 million,
and were reluctant to do that, towards water pollution reduction. (Katel)
Despite the complications caused by these economic and political influences,
tremendous progress has been and continues to be made in terms of
restoration of the South Florida Everglades. With parts of the Everglades
Restoration Project underway and others in the planning stages, there are
substantial steps being taken towards recreating the natural environment
and ensuring that past mistakes in water management are not reinstated.
However, this is a very slow process, especially with powerful economic
influences opposing every stage of the project.
An important factor that is not currently affecting the restoration process is
the demand on the system as a water supply for the population along the
eastern coast. Florida is currently enjoying the fourth highest growth rate
in the nation, and a large portion of it is concentrated along the lower
eastern coast. This tremendous population growth will place a strain on the
existing water supply, the Biscayne Aquifer. More research needs to be done
to determine the exact effects this will have on the system and what can be
done to prevent water shortages.
With or without this population spurt, the Everglades restoration project is
developing into a major national undertaking of international importance,
bringing with this a very steep price tag. The budget planned for 1996 alone shows staggering
costs devoted towards this project.
While the federal government under President
Bill Clinton recently promised federal funding for the project, as well as a
tax on sugar to provide added support, this may not be enough to complete
the proposed restoration. This could only result in a rise in the price of water
or higher taxes for the
residents of Florida, currently enjoying only the 47th highest tax rate in the
nation. This increased revenue for the project
may become crucial, along with unwavering political support which in the
past has been characterized as “like the Everglades - very wide, very
shallow.” (Derr) Overall, this project stands as a critical example of the
current trend towards ecosystem restoration, and the entire world is
watching this “grain of sand” to see the final results.
Cool Links:
South Florida Water Management District Home Page
South Florida Ecosystem Home Page
Everglades National Park Home Page
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