The Everglades Recovery is an ongoing effort to repair the damage inflicted on the south Florida environment during the 20th century. It is the most expensive and comprehensive environmental improvement effort in history. The Everglades degradation became a problem in the United States in the early 1970s after a proposal to build an airport in Big Cypress Swamp. Studies show that airports will destroy ecosystems in South Florida and Everglades National Park. After decades of destructive practices, both state and federal agencies are looking for ways to balance the natural environment needs in South Florida with recent and rapidly growing urban and agricultural centers in and near the Everglades.
In response to floods caused by hurricanes in 1947, the Central Florida and South Florida Flood Control Project (C & amp; SF) was established to build flood control devices in the Everglades. C & amp; SF built 1,400 miles (2,300 km) of canals and embankments between 1950 and 1971 throughout South Florida. Their last attempt was the C-38 canal, which straightened the Kissimmee River and caused massive damage to animal habitats, affecting water quality in the area. Channel becomes C & amp; The first SF was returned when the 22-mile (35 km) canal began to be stockpiled, or recharged with materials unearthed from it, in the 1980s.
When high levels of phosphorus and mercury were found in waterways in 1986, water quality became the focus of the water management agency. Expensive and lengthy court battles are waged between various government entities to determine who is responsible for monitoring and enforcing water quality standards. Governor Lawton Chiles proposed a bill determining which agency would be responsible, and set a deadline for pollutant levels to lower water. Initially the bill was criticized by conservation groups for being not strict enough on polluters, but the Everglades Forever Act was passed in 1994. Since then, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) and the US Army Engineer Corps have exceeded expectations for achieving lower phosphorus levels.
A commission appointed by Governor Chiles published a report in 1995 stating that South Florida was unable to sustain its growth, and environmental damage negatively affected everyday life for people in South Florida. The environmental decline is predicted to harm tourism and commercial interests if no action is taken to stop the current trend. Results from an eight-year study evaluating C & amp; SF was submitted to the United States Congress in 1999. The report warned that if no action was taken, the region would quickly deteriorate. A strategy called the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) is in place to restore parts of the Everglades, Lake Okeechobee, Caloosahatchee River, and Florida Bay to repair damage over the past 50 years. It takes 30 years and costs $ 7.8 billion to complete. Although the plan was passed into law in 2000, it has been compromised by political and funding issues.
Video Restoration of the Everglades
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The Everglades are part of a huge watershed that starts around Orlando. The Okeechobee River flows into Lake Okeechobee, a 730 square mile (1,900 km 2 ) lake with an average depth of 9 feet (2.7 m). During the rainy season when the lake exceeds its capacity, the water leaves the lake in a very wide and shallow river, about 100 miles long (160 km) long and 60 miles wide (97 km) wide. This broad and shallow flow is known as sheetflow . The land gradually tilts toward Florida Bay, the historical destination of most of the water leaving the Everglades. Before the drainage effort, the Everglades consisted of 4,000 square miles (10,000 km 2 ), taking a third of the Florida peninsula.
Since the beginning of the 19th century, the Everglades has been an interesting subject for agricultural development. The first attempt to drain the Everglades occurred in 1882 when a Pennsylvania land developer named Hamilton Disston built the first canal. Although these efforts were largely unsuccessful, the purchase of Disston land spurred tourism and real estate development of the country. The political motivations of the Napoleon Governor Bonaparte Broward resulted in more successful efforts on the construction of canals between 1906 and 1920. Recent reclaimed wetlands were used to cultivate sugar cane and vegetables, while urban development began in the Everglades.
The Miami Storm of 1926 and Hurricane Okeechobee in 1928 caused widespread damage and floods that drove the Army Technical Corps to build embankments around Lake Okeechobee. The four-story wall cuts water from the Everglades. Floods from the typhoon in 1947 motivated the US Congress to establish the Central Flood and Southern Florida Flood Control Project (C & amp; SF), responsible for building 1,400 miles (2,300 km) of canals and embankments, hundreds of pumping stations and other water control devices. C & amp; SF established the Water Conservation Area (WCAs) at 37% of the original Everglades, which acts as a reservoir that provides excess water to the South Florida metropolitan area, or water it into the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. C & amp; SF also established the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA), which grows the majority of sugarcane crops in the United States. When EAA was first established, it covers about 27% of the original Everglades.
In the 1960s, urban development and agricultural use had significantly reduced the size of the Everglades. The remaining 25% of Everglades in their home country are protected in Everglades National Park, but the park was established before C & amp; SF, and that depends on C & amp; SF to release water. When Miami and other metropolitan areas began to plague the Everglades in the 1960s, a political battle ensued between park management and C & SF when insufficient water in the park throws the ecosystem into chaos. The fertilizers used in EAA are beginning to change soil and hydrology in Everglades National Park, leading to the proliferation of exotic plant species. However, a proposition for building a massive jetport at Big Cypress Swamp in 1969 focused on the degraded nature system in the Everglades. For the first time, the Everglades are the subject of environmental preservation.
Maps Restoration of the Everglades
Everglades as a priority
Environmental protection became a national priority in the 1970s. The Time Magazine declared it as the Year Edition in January 1971, reported that it was rated as the most serious problem for Americans facing their community - far above crime, drugs and poor schools. When South Florida suffered severe droughts from 1970 to 1975, with Miami receiving only 33 inches (840 mm) of rain in 1971-1947 inches (560 mm) less than average - media attention focused on the Everglades. With the help of assistant governor Nathaniel Reed and US Fish and Fish Service biologist Arthur R. Marshall, politicians began taking action. The Governor of Reubin Askew implemented the Land Conservation Act in 1972, allowing the state to use a $ 240 million voter-approved bond to purchase land that is considered unique and irreplaceable to the environment. Since then, Florida has bought more land for public use than any other country. In 1972 President Richard Nixon declared Big Cypress Swamp - the destination for Miami jetport in 1969 - for federal protection. Big Cypress National Preserve was founded in 1974, and the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve was created in the same year.
In 1976, the Everglades National Park was declared an International Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, which also registered this park as a World Heritage Site in 1979. The Ramsar Convention established the Everglades as an International Wetlands Interest in 1987. Only three sites on earth have appeared on third list: Everglades National Park, Ichkeul Lake in Tunisia, and Lake Srebarna in Bulgaria.
Kissimmee River
In 1960, C & amp; SF is under increasing scrutiny from government watchdogs and conservation groups. Critics retain their size in proportion to the Tennessee Valley Authority dam development project during the Great Depression, and that its construction has reached billions of dollars without a clear resolution or plan. C & amps projects SF has been characterized as part of a cycle of "crises and responses" that "ignore the consequences for a full system, assume future certainty, and succeed in resolving a momentary crisis, but set in motion conditions that exaggerate future crises". The final project, to build a canal to straighten the meandering floodplains of the Kissimmee River that historically supplied Lake Okeechobee which in turn fed the Everglades, began in 1962. Marjory Stoneman Douglas later wrote that C & SF is "interrelated folly", crowned by the C-38 channel. Designed to replace a 90-mile (140 km) winding river with a 52-mile (84 km) channel, the canal was completed in 1971 and cost $ 29 million. It replaces about 45,000 acres (180Ã, km 2 ) swamps with retention ponds, dams, and vegetation. The loss of habitat has caused the region to experience a drastic drop from waterfowl, swamp birds and hunted fish. Reclaimed floodplains were taken over by agriculture, carrying fertilizers and insecticides carried to Lake Okeechobee. Even before the canal is over, conservation organizations and fishing groups and sports hunts call for the restoration of the Kissimmee River.
Arthur R. Marshall leads efforts to repair the damage. According to Douglas, Marshall manages to depict the Everglades from the Lake Chain of Kissimmee to Florida Bay - including the atmosphere, climate, and limestone - as a single organism. Instead of maintaining conservation organization conservation, the cause of restoring the Everglades is a priority for politicians. Douglas observes, "Marshall achieved a marvelous miracle to take the Everglades from the bleeding-heart category forever". At the urging urges of Marshall, the newly elected Governor Bob Graham announced the creation of the "Save Our Everglades" campaign in 1983, and in 1985 Graham lifted the first shovel for some of the C-38 canals. Within a year, the area was covered with water back to its original state. Graham stated that in 2000, the Everglades would be similar to the predictions of as many as possible. The Kissimmee River Restoration Project was approved by Congress in the 1992 Water Resources Development Act. The project is estimated to cost $ 578 million to convert only 22 miles (35 km) from the canal; costs are designed to be shared between the state of Florida and the US government, with the country responsible for purchasing the land to be recovered. A project manager for the Army Corps of Engineers explained in 2002, "What we do on this scale will be brought to a larger scale when we are doing the Everglades recovery". The entire project is expected to be completed in 2011.
Water quality
Attention to water quality was centered in South Florida in 1986 when algae spread widely in a fifth of Lake Okeechobee. Blooms were found as a result of fertilizer from the Everglades Farm Area. Although the law stated in 1979 that the chemicals used in the EAA should not be deposited into the lake, they were channeled to the canals that supply the Everglades Water Conservation Area, and eventually pumped into the lake. Microbiologists have found that, although phosphorus helps plant growth, it destroys periphyton, one of the marl's basic building blocks in the Everglades. Marl is one of two types of land Everglades, along with peat; it is found in which parts of the Everglades are flooded for shorter periods of time as the dry periphyton layer. Most of the phosphorus compounds also cleanse peat from dissolved oxygen and promote algal growth, causing native invertebrates to die, and sawn grasses replaced with invasive cattails that grow too high and thick for birds and nesting crocodiles. The tested water shows 500 parts per billion (ppb) of phosphorus near the sugar cane field. The state law of 1987 required a reduction of 40% of phosphorus in 1992.
Efforts to improve phosphorus levels in the Everglades met with resistance. The sugarcane industry, which is dominated by two companies called US Sugar and Flo-Sun, is responsible for more than half of the yield on the EAA. They are well represented in the state and federal government by enthusiastic lobbyists protecting their interests. According to the Audubon Society, the sugar industry, nicknamed "Big Sugar", donates more money to political parties and candidates than General Motors. The sugar industry is trying to block government-funded research on contaminated water, and when a federal prosecutor in Miami blames the sugar industry in legal action to protect Everglades National Park, Big Sugar tries to get a lawsuit withdrawn and prosecutors are fired. Expensive legal battles occurred from 1988 to 1992 between the State of Florida, the US government, and the sugar industry to resolve who was responsible for water quality standards, the maintenance of Everglades National Park and the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge.
Different concerns about water quality emerged when mercury was found in fish during the 1980s. Because mercury damages humans, warnings are posted to fishermen who warn against eating fish captured in South Florida, and scientists become worried when Florida panthers are found dead near the Shark River Slough with mercury levels high enough to be fatal to humans. When mercury is digested, it affects the central nervous system, and can cause brain damage and birth defects. Mercury level studies found that bioaccumulation through the food chain: lower animals in the chain had a decreasing amount, but because larger animals ate it, the number of mercury doubled. The dead panther diet consists of small animals, including raccoons and young crocodiles. Mercury sources are found as waste incinerators and fossil-fueled power plants that expel elements in the atmosphere, triggered by rain, or in the dry season, dust. The naturally occurring bacteria in the Everglades that serve to reduce sulfur also change the mercury precipitate to methylmercury. This process is more dramatic in areas where flooding is not so prevalent. Due to requirements that reduce power generation and combustion emissions, the level of mercury found in larger animals also decreases: about 60% reduction in fish and 70% decrease in birds, although some levels still remain a health concern for humans. Everglades Forever Act Everglades Forever Act
In an effort to resolve the political issue of water quality, Governor Lawton Chiles introduced the bill in 1994 to clean water in the EAA being released to the lower Everglades. The bill states that "the Everglades ecosystem must be restored in terms of water quality and water quantity and must be conserved and protected in a long-term and comprehensive manner". This ensures the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) will be responsible for researching water quality, upholding improved water supplies, controlling exotic species, and collecting taxes, with the aim of lowering phosphorus levels in the region. It is possible to purchase land where pollutants will be sent to "treat and improve water quality derived from EAA".
Critics of the bill state that the deadline to meet the standards should not be postponed until 2006 - a period of 12 years - to enforce better water quality. They also argue that it does not force the cane farmers, who are the main polluters, pay a fair amount of money, and increase the threshold of the amount of phosphorus in water from 10 ppb to 50 ppb. Governor Chiles originally named it Marjory Stoneman Douglas Act, but Douglas was so unimpressed with the actions taken against the polluter he wrote to Chiles and demanded his name be attacked from him. Despite criticism, the Florida legislature passed the Act in 1994. SFWMD stated that its actions had exceeded expectations earlier than anticipated, by creating a Storm Water Treatment Area (STA) in EAA containing calcium-based substances such as limestone layered between peat , and filled with calcareous periphyton. Initial tests by the Army Corps of Engineers revealed this method reduced the phosphor level from 80 ppb to 10 ppb. STA is intended to treat water until the phosphor level is low enough to be released into Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge or other WCA.
Wildlife awareness
The intrusion of urban areas into the wilderness has a major impact on wildlife, and some species of animals are considered endangered in the Everglades region. One animal benefiting from the protection of endangered species is the Alligator Mississippiensis (Alligator mississippiensis ), whose hole provides protection to other animals, often allowing many species to survive during periods of drought. After abundant in the Everglades, crocodiles were listed as endangered species in 1967, but joint efforts by federal and state organizations and the prohibition of crocodile hunting allowed him to rebound; it was pronounced fully recovered in 1987 and is no longer an endangered species. Nevertheless, the crocodile and average body mass are found to be generally smaller than in the past, and as the population has decreased, their role during the drought has been limited.
The American Crocodile (Crocodylus acutus ) is also native to the area and has been designated as endangered since 1975. Unlike their crocodile siblings, crocodiles tend to thrive in brackish or saltwater habitats such as estuaries or seas. Their most significant threat is disturbance by people. Too many contacts with humans causes the females to leave their nests, and males in particular are often the victims of car crashes while wandering the vast area and trying to cross the U.S. 1 and Card Sound Road in Florida Keys. There are about 500 to 1,000 crocodiles in southern Florida.
The most endangered of any animal in the Everglades region is the Florida panther (Puma concolor coryi ), a species that once lived throughout the southeastern United States: only 25-30 in the wild in 1995 Most Panther threatened by urban encroachment, as males need about 200 square miles (520 km 2 ) for breeding areas. A male and two to five females can live within that range. When habitats are lost, panthers will fight over territory. After a vehicle collision, the second most common cause of death for panthers is intra-species aggression. In the 1990s, urban expansion packed the panther from southwest Florida such as Naples and Ft. Myers began to expand to the West Everglades and Big Cypress Swamp. Agents such as the Army Corps of Engineers and the US Fish and Wildlife Service are responsible for keeping the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, but still agreeing 99% of all permits to build on wetlands and panther areas. Limited genetic pools are also a hazard. Biologists introduced eight Texas Texas cougars (1995) in 1995 to diversify genes, and between 80 and 120 panthers in the wild in 2008.
Perhaps the most dramatic loss of any animal group is to wade through birds. Their number was estimated by eyewitnesses to be around 2.5 million by the end of the 19th century. However, the snowy egret ( Egretta thula ), the rose spoonbill ( Platalea ajaja ), and the reddish heron ( Egretta rufescens ) are hunted down the brink of extinction for feathers colorful ones used on women's hats. After about 1920 when the fashion passed, their numbers returned in the 1930s, but over the next 50 years of action by C & SF is increasingly disturbing the population. When the canal is built, natural water flow is limited from mangroves near the Gulf of Florida coast. From one rainy season to the next rainy season, the fish can not reach the traditional location to be replenished when the water is kept secret by C & amp; SF. Birds are forced to fly farther from their nests to search for food. In the 1970s, the number of birds has been reduced by 90%. Many birds migrate to smaller colonies in the WCA to get closer to food sources, making them more difficult to quantify. But their number remained much less than before the canal was built.
Invasive Species
About 6 million people moved to South Florida between 1940 and 1965. With a thousand people moving to Miami each week, urban development increased fourfold. As the human population grows rapidly, the problem of exotic plant and animal species is also growing. Many plant species are brought to South Florida from Asia, Central America, or Australia as a decorative landscape. Exotic animals imported by pet trade have either escaped or been released. Biological controls that keep invasive species smaller in size and less in number in their birthland are often absent in the Everglades, and they compete with native species that are contested for food and space. Imported plant species, melaleuca trees ( Melaleuca quinquenervia ) have caused many problems. Melaleucas grow on average 100 feet (30 m) in the Everglades, compared to 25 to 60 feet (7.6 to 18.3 m) in their native Australia. They were taken to southern Florida as windbreaks and deliberately seeded in swampy areas as they absorbed a lot of water. In areas that are regularly formed by fire, melaleukas refractory and its seeds are more efficiently propagated by fire. They are too dense to wade birds with large wings to stack, and they strangle the native vegetation. The cost of controlling melaleuk reached $ 2 million in 1998 for the Everglades National Park. At the Big Cypress National Preserve, melaleucas covered 186 square miles (480 km 2 ) in the most pervasive in the 1990s.
Brazilian pepper ( Schinus terebinthifolius ) was brought to South Florida as an ornamental shrub and was dissolved by bird droppings and other animals that ate their red berries. It thrives on abandoned farmland grown in too dense forests to wade birds for nesting, similar to melaleucas. It grows rapidly especially after the hurricane and has invaded pineland forest. After Hurricane Andrew, scientists and volunteers clean the damaged Brazilian pine pine so that the original trees will be able to return to their natural state.
The species that caused the greatest obstacle to recovery were the Old World tree stump ( Lygodium microphyllum ), which was introduced in 1965. Ferns grew rapidly and thickly on the ground, making pathways for terrestrial animals such as black. bears and fleas are problematic. Ferns also grow as vines to the higher part of the tree, and fire up the fern on the "fire ladder" to burn some trees that are not resistant to fire naturally.
Several animal species have been introduced to the Everglades waterways. Many tropical fish are removed, the most destructive is the blue tilapia (Oreochromis aureus ), which builds large nests in shallow water. Tilapia also consume plants that would normally be used by young native fish for protection and protection.
Reptiles have a special affinity for the South Florida ecosystem. Almost all the lizards that appeared in the Everglades have been introduced, such as anole chocolate ( Anolis sagrei ) and tropical home gecko ( Hemidactylus mabouia ). Herbivorous green Iguanas ( Iguana iguana ) can multiply rapidly in the wilderness habitat. However, reptiles that have gained media attention because of the size and potential to harm domestic children and pets are the Burmese python ( Python bivittatus ), which has spread rapidly throughout the area. Python can grow up to 20 feet (6.1 m) long and compete with crocodiles for the top of the food chain.
Although exotic birds such as parrots and parakeets are also found in the Everglades, the impact is negligible. Conversely, perhaps the animals that cause the greatest damage to native wildlife are domestic or wild cats. In the US, cats are responsible for about a billion deaths of birds each year. They are estimated at 640 per square mile; cats living in the suburbs have a very bad effect on migratory birds and marsh rabbits.
Homestead Air Base
Hurricane Andrew struck Miami in 1992, with catastrophic damage to Homestead Air Force Base at Homestead. A plan to rejuvenate property in 1993 and turn it into a commercial airport was greeted with enthusiasm from local city and commercial entities hoping to recoup $ 480 million and 11,000 lost jobs in the local community with the destruction and closure of its subsequent base. As of March 31, 1994, the base was designated as a reserve base, functioning only part-time. A cursory environmental study conducted by the Air Force was deemed inadequate by local conservation groups, which threatened to demand to stop the acquisition when an estimated 650 flights per day were projected. Previous groups had been feared in 1990 by the inclusion of the Homestead Air Force Base on the list of most polluted US Government properties. Their concerns also include noise, and inevitable collisions with birds that use mangrove forests as rookeries. The Air Force Base is located between the Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park, potentially pose a danger to both. In 2000, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and the director of the US Environmental Protection Agency declared their opposition to the project, although another Clinton Administration agency had previously worked to ensure the base would be handed over to local agents quickly and smoothly as "a model of basic disposal". Although efforts were made to make the base more environmentally friendly, in 2001 local commercial interests promoting the airport lost federal support.
Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Package
Sustainable South Florida
Despite the success of the Everglades Forever Act and declining mercury levels, the focus increased on the Everglades in the 1990s as the quality of life in the South Florida metropolitan area was reduced. It is clear that urban residents consume more and more unsustainable natural resources. A report entitled "The Governor's Commission for South Florida Sustainable", submitted to Lawton Chiles in 1995, identified the problems faced by state and municipal governments. The report says that the natural quality degradation of the Everglades, Florida Bay and other water bodies in South Florida will lead to significant reductions in tourism (12,000 jobs and $ 200 million per year) and income from compromised commercial fishing (3,300 Ã, jobs and $ 52 million per year). The report notes that past abuses and environmental omissions have brought the region to a "steep point" where South Florida residents face health hazards in the air and contaminated water; Furthermore, the crowded and unsafe urban conditions hurt the country's reputation. He noted that although the population has increased 90% over the previous two decades, registered vehicles have increased by 166%. On the quality and availability of water, the report states, "The scarcity of water that often occurs... creates the irony of a natural system that is dying of thirst in a subtropical environment with more than 53 inches of rain per year".
The Everglades Recovery, however, briefly became the cause of bipartisanism in national politics. A controversial tax of one cent per pound (2 cents/kg) in sugar is proposed to fund some of the necessary changes to help lower phosphorus and make other improvements to water. Country voters are required to support taxes, and environmental activists are paid $ 15 million to encourage this issue. The sugar lobbyist replied with $ 24 million in advertising to prevent it and succeed; it became the most expensive polling issue in state history. How the restoration might be funded into a political battlefield and seems to have stalled without resolution. However, in the 1996 election year, Republican senator Bob Dole proposed that Congress give the State of Florida $ 200 million to acquire land for the Everglades. Democratic Vice-President Al Gore promised the federal government to buy 100,000 acres (400 km 2 ) of land in EAA to hand it over to the restoration. Politicking reduces the amount of up to 50,000 acres (200 km 2 ), but the Dole and Gore movements are approved by Congress.
Central and South Florida Project Restudy
As part of the 1992 Water Resources Development Act, Congress passed the evaluation of the effectiveness of Florida's Southern and Southern Flood Control Project. A report known as "Restudy," written by the US Army Engineer Corps and the South Florida Water Management District, was submitted to Congress in 1999. It mentions system hazard indicators: 50% reduction in the original Everglades, reduced water storage, time dangerous water release, 85 to 90% decline in swamp populations over the last 50 years, and decreased output from commercial fisheries. The waters include Lake Okeechobee, Caloosahatchee River, Estuary St. Lucie, Lake Worth Lagoon, Biscayne Bay, Florida Bay, and the Everglades reflect drastic changes in water levels, hypersalinitas, and dramatic changes in marine and freshwater ecosystems. The Restudy notes a decline in overall water quality over the last 50 years due to the loss of wetlands acting as filters for contaminated water. It is estimated that without intervention, the entire South Florida ecosystem will deteriorate. The canal takes approximately 170 billion gallons of US (640 G) of water into the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico every day, so there is no chance for water storage, but flooding is still a problem. Without changes to the current system, Restudy predicts water restrictions will be required each year, and annually in some locations. He also warned that revising some parts of the project without dedicating efforts to the overall comprehensive plan would be insufficient and possibly detrimental.
After evaluating ten plans, The Restudy recommends a comprehensive strategy that will cost $ 7.8 billion over 20 years. A plan is recommended to take the following actions:
- Create a surface water storage reservoir to capture 1,500,000 acres feet (water, 1,9Ã, km 3 ) in several locations with an area of ​​181,300 acres (734 km <> 2 ).
- Create a water conservation area between Miami-Dade and Palm Beach and eastern Everglades to treat running water.
- Manage Lake Okeechobee as an ecological resource to avoid drastic increases and falling water levels in lakes that are harmful to the life of aquatic plants and animals and disrupt lake sediments.
- Increase water delivery to the estuary to reduce the rapid discharge of excess water into the Caloosahatchee estuary and St. Lucie who upsets the balance of nutrients and causes fish lesions. Stormwater discharge will be sent instead of reservoir.
- Increase underground water storage to accommodate 16 billion US gallons (61a, Gl) per day in wells, or reservoirs in Aquifer Floridan, for later use in dry periods, in a method called Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR).
- Build wetland treatment as Storm Water Treatment Area along 35,600 hectares (144 km km), which will reduce the amount of pollutants in the environment.
- Increase water delivery to the Everglades by increasing it at a rate of about 26% to the Shark River Slough.
- Eliminate barriers to sheetflows by destroying or removing 240 miles (390 km) of canals and embankments, specifically removing the Miami Canal and reconstructing the Tamiami Trail from the highway to the culverts and bridges to allow flow to back to a more natural water flow rate to Everglades National Park.
- Save water in the mine and reuse waste water using existing quarries to supply South Florida metropolitan areas as well as Florida Bay and the Everglades. Build two wastewater treatment plants capable of removing 22 billion gallons (83 liters) of water a day to recharge Biscayne Aquifer.
The implementation of all suggested measures, according to the report, will "result in a healthy and sustainable recovery of ecosystems throughout southern Florida". The report recognizes that it does not have all the answers, although there are no plans. However, it is predicted that it will restore "important determinants of pre-drainage wetlands over most of the remaining systems", that the population of all animals will increase, and the patterns of animal distribution will return to their natural state. Critics expressed concern over some of the technologies that were not being used; scientists are not sure whether mining will hold as much water as suggested, and whether water will contain harmful bacteria from the mine. Overtaxing aquifers is another concern - it's not a technique that has been previously tried.
Despite that optimism, The Restudy noted,
It is important to understand that the 'restored' Everglades in the future will be different from any Everglades version ever. Although it would certainly be far superior to the current ecosystem, it would not be fully in line with the pre-drainage system. This is not possible, given the irreversible physical changes that have been made ( sic ) to the ecosystem. It will be the smaller and somewhat differently regulated Everglades than the historic ecosystem. But it will be successfully restored to the Everglades, as it will restore the hydrological and biological patterns that define the original Everglades, and make it unique among the world's wetland systems. It will be a place that ignites the wildness and wealth of the Everglades before.
The report is the result of many collaborating agencies that often have conflicting goals. The initial draft was submitted to the management of the Everglades National Park that confirmed insufficient water would be released into the park quite quickly - the priority was to deliver water to urban areas. When they threatened to refuse to support him, the plan was rewritten to provide more water to the park. However, Indian Miccosukee has a reservation between parks and water control devices, and they threaten to sue their tribal lands and the $ 50 million casino will not be flooded. Other special interests are also concerned that businesses and residents will take second priority after nature. The Everglades, however, proved to be a bipartisan cause. The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) was adopted by the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton on 11 December 2000. It approved the immediate use of $ 1.3 billion for implementation to be shared by the federal government and other sources.
Implementation
The State of Florida has reportedly spent more than $ 2 billion on projects since the CERP was signed. More than 36,000 acres (150 km 2 ) from Stormwater Treatment Areas (STA) have been built to filter 2,500 short tons (2,300) of phosphorus from Everglades waters. The STA, which includes 17,000 acres (69Ã, km 2 ) was built in 2004, making it the largest man-made wetland in the world. Fifty-five percent of the land needed for restoration, as many as 210,167 acres (850.5 km 2 ), has been purchased by the State of Florida. A plan called "Acceler8", to accelerate project development and financing, came into effect, spurring the start of six of eight construction projects, including three large reservoirs.
Despite the bipartisan goodwill and the declaration of the importance of the Everglades, the region is still in danger. The political maneuver continued to inhibit CERP: sugar lobbyists promoted the bill in the Florida legislature in 2003 that increased the amount of phosphorus received in the Everglades waterway from 10 ppb to 15 ppb and extended the deadline for a 20-year mandate reduction. Compromise 2016 finally reached. Environmental organizations expressed concern that efforts to accelerate some development through Acceler8 are politically motivated; six Acceler8 projects focus on not providing more water to the natural areas that are in dire need of it, but rather for projects in densely populated areas bordering the Everglades, suggesting that water is diverted to make room for more people in already overworked environments. Although Congress promised half the funds for the recovery, after the War in Iraq began and the two main supporters of the CERP in Congress retired, the federal role in the CERs was not met. According to a story in The New York Times, state officials say the restoration is lost in the labyrinth of "federal bureaucracy, victims of 'paralysis analysis'". In 2007, the release of $ 2 billion for the Everglades restoration approved by Congress, ruling out President George W. Bush's veto of the entire Water Development Project, the money is part of it. Veto Bush is rare against the wishes of Florida Republicans, including his brother, Governor Jeb Bush. Lack of further action by Congress prompted Governor Charlie Crist to travel to Washington D.C. in February 2008 and inquired about the promised funds. As of June 2008, the federal government has spent only $ 400 million of the $ 7.8 billion it authorized. Carl Hiaasen characterized George W. Bush's attitude to the environment as a "long indifference" in June 2008, exemplified when Bush stated he would not intervene to change the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) policy that allows the release of contaminated water with fertilizers and phosphorus. into the Everglades.
CERP review
Florida still receives a thousand new residents every day and the land that is scheduled for recovery and restoration of wetlands is often bought and sold before the country has a chance to bid on them. The competitive price of real estate also pushed it beyond the purchasing power of the state. Because the State of Florida assists with land purchase and funding development, some programs under the CERP are vulnerable to budget cuts. In June 2008, Governor Crist announced that the State of Florida would buy US $ 1.7 billion of Sugar. The idea came as sugar lobbyists tried to persuade Crist to loosen restrictions on US Sugar Sugar practices that pump water containing phosphorus into the Everglades. According to one lobbyist who characterized it as a "dumb moment", Crist said, "If sugar pollutes the Everglades, and we pay to clean the Everglades, why do not we get rid of sugar?" The largest sugarcane producer in the US will continue to operate for six years, and when the transfer of ownership to Florida, 187,000 acres (760 km 2 ) from Everglades will remain undeveloped to enable it to be returned to its pre-drainage state.
In September 2008, the National Research Council (NRC), a nonprofit that provided policy science and advice to the federal government, submitted a report on the progress of CERP. The report noted "less progress" in the recovery because of problems in budgeting, planning, and bureaucracy. The NRC report calls the Everglades "one of the world's valuable ecosystems" increasingly threatened by a lack of progress: "Continuous delay in the Everglades restoration not only delayed improvements - it has allowed ecological degradation to continue". This cites the shrunken islands of trees, and the growth of negative populations of threatened Rostrhamus sociabilis or the Everglades kite litter, and Ammodramus maritimus mirabilis , the Cape Sable kite. The lack of water reaching the Everglades National Park is characterized as "one of the most disappointing stories" in the implementation of the plan. The NRC recommends state and federal planning improvements, evaluates each CERP project annually, and further land acquisition for restoration. The Everglades Restoration has allocated $ 96 million in federal funds as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 with the aim of providing civil works and construction while simultaneously implementing regulatory improvement projects.
In January 2010, work began on the C-111 channel, built in the 1960s to dry irrigated agricultural land, to reconstruct it so as not to divert water from the Everglades National Park. Two other projects focused on the restoration are also scheduled to begin in 2010. Governor Crist announced the same month that $ 50 million would be allocated to the Everglades restoration. In April of the same year, a federal district court judge sharply criticized state and federal failures to meet deadlines, describing cleansing efforts slowed by "glacial delays" and government neglect of "incomprehensible" environmental law enforcement.
See also
- Drain and develop the Everglades
- Everglades National Park
- Geography and ecology of the Everglades
- History of Miami, Florida
- Original people from the Everglades region
Notes and references
Bibliography
- Barnett, Cynthia (2007). Mirage: Florida and Vanishing Water in the Eastern US. , University of Michigan Press. ISBNÃ, 0-472-11563-4
- Douglas, Marjory; Rothchild, John (1987). Marjory Stoneman Douglas: Sound of the River . Press Pineapple. ISBN: 0-910923-94-9
- Grunwald, Michael (2006). The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and Heavenly Politics , Simon & amp; Schuster. ISBNÃ, 0-7432-5107-5
- Lodge, Thomas E. (1994). The Everglades Handbook: Understanding the Ecosystem . Press CRC. ISBNÃ, 1-56670-614-9
- US. Army Corps of Engineers and South Florida Water Management District (April 1999). "Summary", Study of Comprehensive Studies of Central and Southern Florida Projects .
Further reading
- Alderson, Doug. 2009. The New Dawn for the Kissimmee River . Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-3395-2
- The Everglades in exhibition time Marjorie Stoneman Douglas Photos created by Florida State Archives
External links
- CERP: Visual Explanation of Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Project (SFWMD)
- C-44 Waste Reservoir Water Management Project Project (SFWMD/CERP)
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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