Judge's order creates twists, turns - and opportunities
Since a recent judicial order in Florida's efforts to restore the Everglades hit the news, many people are asking: What does it mean?
The short answer is that it creates both risks and opportunities.
The twists and turns of this case are pretty complex, so let me explain what Federal Judge Mareno's order does. The judge granted a motion to force the South Florida Water Management District to spend $700 million to build a reservoir in the southern Everglades Agricultural Area.
This reservoir was once an important part of Everglades restoration, but it was mothballed —and rightly so—when Florida negotiated a deal to buy 73,000 acres of U.S. Sugar Company's land for $536 million. The reservoir was part of extensive waterworks project to engineer around the vast Everglades holdings of U.S. Sugar. The overall idea is to clean water as it flows southward down the Florida peninsula into Everglades National Park and finally into marine-rich Florida Bay.
Once the state struck a deal to buy U.S. Sugar's land, the state switched gears and quit working on the reservoir project. If the land deal goes through, there's no need to engineer around U.S. Sugar's land, since it will be publicly owned and water managers will be able to create a flow-way right through it.
The South Florida Water Management District has proposed to build water-treatment facilities on the U.S. Sugar land, closer to Lake Okeechobee, and turn the unfinished reservoir into a treatment area that would filter pollutants.
U.S. Sugar's primary competitor, Florida Crystals, along with the Miccosukee Tribe, filed the motion to keep the reservoir project alive. The Tribe and Florida Crystals have waged a fierce legal and lobbying war to derail the U.S. Sugar deal. Florida Crystals wants the reservoir to store water to irrigate its cane fields, and the Miccosukee Tribe is seeking to keep the original restoration plan in place—including the mothballed reservoir project.
So where does this leave us? The judge left open windows to completing the U.S. Sugar purchase. What may happen now is that we may amend our 22-year-old consent decree—the original settlement that forced Florida to halt the flow of pollution into the Everglades—to deal with the issue of the reservoir. The judge did not order an immediate restart of the reservoir, but instead ordered hearings to set construction deadlines before a Special Master.
We'll be negotiating for changes to the original consent decree to accommodate Florida's new approach, and we will hopefully end up with a better restoration plan in the long run.
Progress in this case flows slowly, but we are committed to the long haul, keeping Everglades restoration on track.
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omegle
Let the water flow unimpeded through Hetch Hetchy and collect it at San Pedro if you must. Yes, some power generation would be lost, but regaining Hetch Hetchy would be worth every kilowatt.house removals
David, Concur with your remarks although $700 million may be an underestimate for the completion of the Reservoir, NFG, given long-term O&M costs, and negative externalities.
Sent a LTE to PB Post, but it may be to techy; LTE follows:
Letter to Editor, Palm Beach Post: To restore the Everglades, no more septic tanks, please!
Why has a Judge ordered the building of the planet’s second largest septic tank in the Everglades, when the planet’s largest septic tank is the biggest impediment to Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) implementation?
This is in reference to the order to build a reservoir right smack dab in what was the historic Everglades, and the fact that even the agricultural folks are in consensus that the high level of pollution in Lake Okeechobee must be addressed to save the Everglades.
The plan for the Everglades Agricultural Area reservoir includes being a holding tank for excess Lake O water that is already polluted, such that the CERP implementers have declared it will take decades to clean up Lake O. The reservoir plan will also include “back-pumping” polluted ag water, to relieve the already polluted Lake O, of that pollution source. Expect algal blooms and possibly unusable water.
The powers that be are looking at alternatives for storage and treatment. Unfortunately a reservoir affords minimal treatment, only storage; the bottom ooze must be pumped out occasionally. The latter is a sometime consideration for Lake O, most often dismissed because of costs.
The planet’s second largest septic tank would result in a number of catch-22 dilemmas:
• The reservoir is antithetical to meeting the consent decree water quality standards
• The reservoir will require more treatment area if reservoir water is to be released to the Everglades. (What to do in extreme wet events?)
• The area of the reservoir displaces needed treatment areas
• The reservoir has the potential of blocking the restoration of natural flow, the ultimate cost-effective means of water treatment, when there is wide consensus that restoring natural flow is the only way to restore the Everglades
• The reservoir is likely to hold less than ½ foot of polluted Lake O water at a time; Over time the pollution will become concentrated.
• With a really heavy rain event (tropical storm or worse) when both the Lake and the reservoir are filling up, what to do with the polluted water? Reservoir water will overwhelm the storm-water treatment areas, just like Lake O does now.
• Installing the world’s second largest septic tank is inconsistent with the ecological goals of CERP, especially the first goal/objective – to increase the spatial extent of natural area.
• Finally, owing to meet dam standards the cost over run will approach 3 times the proposed cost of about $420 million. Same as Lake O there will always be the risk of a breach, and the reservoir becoming an expensive septic tank that provides negative benefits to society.
All this begs the question of why the EAA reservoir has been judged a remedy to the water quality problem? Clearly another septic tank is not the answer. Go figure!
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