Restoring the Florida Everglades

Chris Minor

Introduction to the Watershed

History

Until late 1800s a large chain of wetland Covered 8.9 million acres 4 million acres “River of Grass” High diversity of flora and fauna Water moved slowly through the system,

extending flows from season to season.

History Cont.

Late 1880s efforts began to drain south Florida

Considered necessary for safety and commerce

Today

1000 miles of canals 720 miles of levees Controlled by 16

pump stations 200 gates/other water

control structures

Today Cont.

½ of Everglades lost to agribusiness and urban development

100 mi. long Kissimmee River has been converted into a 50 mile long canal

Flow to the Everglades reduced by 70%. An average of 1.7 billion gallons of water is discharged to the ocean every day.

The littoral marsh in Lake Okeechobee suffers from high water being backed to meet the high demand.

Today Cont.

1 million acres posted with health advisory due to contamination

Florida Bay suffers from a lack of freshwater causing hypersaline conditions, a sever decline of seagrasses and algal blooms

All estuaries have suffered impacts to their ecological structure

What’s causing the problem?

Water Management Issues

Top threat to the Everglades ecosystem Quality- Primarily agricultural runoff Quantity and Timing- Wet and dry

seasons altered Distribution- Decrease in number of

acreage inundated 2/3 of the area depends on the rain

received by 1/3 of the original watershed

Introduction of Invasive/Exotic Species

Hydrilla

(Hydrilla verticillata) Water Hyacinth

(Echlornia crassipies)

Agriculture

EAA-505,000 acres dedicated to agriculture The most productive area in the state 80% in sugarcane and 20% vegetables, rice and

sod Provides 40% of the nations winter vegetable and

25% of the nations sugar Largest single source of phosphorus to the

everglades providing 47% of the historical load Each year 1.8 million tons of fertilizer applied

costing $250 million for $3 billion worth of crops

So what!

.

High levels of phosphorus causes a shift in algae species

Sawgrass to cattails Decline in wading birds

Human Population Increase

Currently 6 million people in South Florida 7 of 10 fastest growing metropolitan areas

in the country Daily population increase of 900 residents 20-25 years expected to reach 12 million

So what!

For 900 people 200,000 gallons of water are needed

Added square miles of building and paving reduce rainwater penetration into aquifers

Obviously- it alters the land, changes the water flow and creates more runoff

Review

High demands for water from agriculture and human population increase

Economic value of agriculture Scope of exotic species

Now what?

The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP)

Army Corp of Engineers in 1999 Endeavors to restore, protect, and preserve the South Florida

ecosystem Principles that guide the plan include: -Meeting restoration, preservation, and protection requirements

while providing for the region's other water-related needs; -Incorporating best-available science and independent scientific

review; -Openly including and engaging stakeholders; Ensuring full

partnership with federal, tribal, state and local agencies and taking their views into full consideration; and

-Creating a flexible plan that is based on adaptive assessment and recognizing that modifications will be made in the future based on new information.

Land Acquisition

The South Florida Water management District, as the Non-Federal Sponsor of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), is charged with the responsibility of acquiring the real estate needed for the construction, monitoring and operation of the CERP projects. The CERP projects are estimated to cost $7.8 billion of which $2.2 billion is allocated to the acquisition of lands (in October 1999 dollars).

CERP Concept

To capture and store freshwater currently discharged to the ocean and use it during the dry season to replicate natural flow

This goal is to be achieved through the removal of 240 miles of levees and canals, and the building a network of reservoirs, underground storage wells, and pumping stations that capture water for redistribution.

Responsibilities for implementing CERP are shared between the Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District.

CERP

First cost estimate is $7.8 billion.

Annual operation and maintenance cost, including monitoring and management is estimated at $182 million

Implementation continued through 2038, the half way point is 2010

CERP

Realize complete recover is not possible

1. There have been substantial and irreversible reductions in the spatial extent of the wetlands system (including an approximate 50 percent reduction in the Everglades) and in the total water storage, timing, and flow capacities of the systems, as well as well as permanent impacts from rising sea levels, establishment of exotic plants and animals, subsidence, and losses of organic soils.

2. There is a significant lack of pre-drainage quantitative, qualitative, and ecological data available to contrast and compare efforts.

CERP

Overall objective is to create a “new” Everglades, one that will be different from previous systems and will be substantially healthier than the current system.

The restoration effort aims to restore a sustainable ecosystem that preserves the properties of South Florida’s systems and supports agriculture, fishery, tourist-based economics and a Highly quality of urban life.

Goals of CERP

Enhance ecologic values through improving the total spatial extent of natural areas; improving habitat and functional quality; and improving native plant and animal species abundance and diversity.

Enhance economic values and social well being through increasing availability of fresh water (agricultural/municipal and industrial); reducing flood damage (agricultural/urban); providing recreational and navigation opportunities; and protecting cultural and archeological resources and values.

Projects of the CERP

Restoration

A daunting task 18,000 square miles The most ambitious

ecological restoration ever attempted

55 federal, state and county agencies as well as two Native American tribal councils

                                                                         

                                       

Restore Natural Flow

Somewhat unknown after all still need to provide water for agriculture and residents

Perhaps a system of aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) the aquifer storage and recov-ery plan proposes drilling more than 300wells in South Florida that would funnel up to 1.7 billion gallons of a day into underground aquifers to be stored and pumped out as needed.

Will it work?

Restore Natural Flow Cont.

Sawgrass ridges running parallel and open-water sloughs, dotted with higher tree islands were landform the contributed directly to the historical flow.

Degradation of these areas in association with canals, levees and roads seem irreversible

Improving Water Quality

Everglades Forever Act of 1994 significantly changed business in the EAA

The Act ensures $320 million will go from the sugar industry to restoration of lands by 2014

Water flow to the Everglades will be increased by 28% through re-routing of rivers and release of stored water

40,000 acres of EAA lands will be converted into an artificial filtering marsh to help cleans the water before it leaves the area

By 2006 water runoff will be 10 times as pure as rainwater

Improving Water Quality - BMP

Everglade Best Management Program (BMP) Requires the EAA to achieve a 25% reduction in total

phosphorus discharge to the everglades. BMPs include covering crops to reduce wind and water

erosion, spread soil removed from canals to fields, laser level fields, modify pump practices, vegetation along banks, minimize fertilizer application, crop rotation, growing rice during the summer allowing higher water tables, use vegetable drainage water in sugarcane fields and retention of drainage on-farm

BMP Continued

Financial incentives are provided to grower who exceed the 25% minimum.

Improving Water Quality - Storm Water Treatment Areas

Advanced treatment technologies consisting of 47,250 acres of synthetic wetlands built to remove phosphorus

These areas will receive on average 1.4 million acre-feet year of stormwater runoff from the EAA

The natural system was nutrient poor with less than 10ppb concentrations of phosphorus so several strategies have been developed to increase the phosphorus uptake (Direct filter, membrane filters, dissolved air filtration, neutralizing chemicals

Improving Water Quality - Aquifer Storage and Recovery

Will allow for storage of water during the wet season to be used in the dry season which will decrease the loss of flow to the ocean and reducing water loss to the everglades

Restoration Program in the Kissimee River Basin

Revitalize habitat for 320 wildlife species Federal and state government cost

sharing $379,000 million, 15 year project to recharge the river and restore the meandering bend that were channelized in the 1960’s

Restoration Program in the Florida Bay

Nearly $6 million supported over 70 research projects designed to assist restoration efforts

Thorough study will provide knowledge necessary to help restore the estuary

Restoration in the East Everglades

The Everglades Protection and Expansion Act added 107,600 acres of critical habitat in Shark Slough added to Everglades national park.

Directed the ACE to modify water management structures to allow for sheet flow of water.

Then and Now

Achieving Progress

The ultimate success of CERP will be a reflection of its implementation over more than 30 years. Successful implementation will require a well-coordinated strategy that recognizes, first and foremost, that ecosystem restoration is the overarching objective. CERP will begin to reverse, in a relatively short time, the pattern of ecological degradation that has been occurring in the natural system for many decades. Implementation also will be guided by a set of principles:•Utilization of interdisciplinary and interagency teams•Incorporation of outreach and public involvement•Maintenance of regional system focus•Integration with ongoing and future projects•Integrated contingency planning•Consideration of water quality needs•Plan evaluation through adaptive assessment•Addressing of uncertainties•Assurances to water users•Development and refinement of models and tools

Future The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan will revitalize the

ecosystem, while providing future fresh water supplies for the people and farms of the region, too. It is considered the world's largest such project.

But its success is up to all of us: citizens across the nation and state from the public, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Department of Interior, the South Florida Water Management District and other agencies. Both input and support will be required over the coming decades as we construct this ambitious ecological restoration effort.

Twenty years from now, today's children should have the opportunity as adults to visit this majestic and captivating ecosystem and see its expansive sawgrass marshes and towering blue skies. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan will ensure the River of Grass will be a healthier place than it is today, and one which will remain strong and vital in the future. We hope the information presented in this web site will help explain the problems of the Everglades and what we are doing to restore this national treasure.