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Federal and state officials announced today before the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force major revisions to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). Consisting of almost 70 individual restoration projects, CERP is moving forward through projects scattered throughout South Florida, but major ecological decline of the Everglades ecosystem continues. Audubon has long called for faster progress toward restoring the historic River of Grass, through such means as bundling projects together for more comprehensive planning and speedier implementation. See Audubon’s 2008 Tipping Point Fact Sheet.
The new plan, to be developed over 18 months, calls for such action in order to get projects moving forward at a faster pace. A decade worth of projects will be evaluated for achieving on-the-ground results quicker than the original CERP plan could deliver. The new plan was prompted by recent National Academy of Sciences reports detailing the decline of the Everglades ecosystem and the urgent need to expedite restoration progress before the ecosystem degraded to a point from which it was unlikely to recover.
Audubon applauds this initiative to hasten the recovery of the Everglades ecosystem, which suffers from decades of decline caused by over-drainage, water pollution, and water diversion which inundates some areas with too much freshwater, while Everglades National Park and other areas receive far too little.
Progress continues...
WASHINGTON — A new fast-track planning effort could shave years off the next phase of Everglades restoration, putting more fresh and clean water into the central and southern portions of Florida’s "River of Grass" more quickly.
A restoration task force that met Thursday in West Palm Beach, Fla., announced a rapid planning effort that, if approved by Congress, could transform how large public-works projects across the country are built. It’s also expected to cut the planning process for the next major restoration project in the central Everglades from six years to 18 months.
“The reality is the ecosystem has continued to degrade,” said Dawn Shirreffs, the Everglades restoration program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association. “We’re running out of time. We don’t have the time to spend six years on a project anymore.”
Thursday’s announcement came out of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ effort to streamline large projects nationwide. The Army corps decided to use the planning process for the next major restoration project, which will provide more a natural flow and deeper clean new water through the central Everglades and Everglades National Park, as a pilot.
Previous plans were overly detailed, expensive and time-consuming, the Army Corps of Engineers found. The time — as well as data — being invested in studies wasn’t leading to a better product, officials said in materials that were prepared for Thursday’s task force meeting.
Also, projects in the Everglades had a tendency to be addressed one by one rather than simultaneously, Shirreffs said. But there are three components of Everglades cleanup, all intertwined, and all best addressed together, she said. Water can’t be moved unless it’s clean, it can’t be cleaned unless it’s stored and it can’t be stored unless it gets to the places designated for storage.
Cleaning up the pollution that's flowing into the Everglades requires reducing the phosphorus in the water to 10 parts per billion. Amounts any higher won’t stop changes in plant and animal life in the Everglades, a delicate ecosystem of marshlands and forests that's home to a variety of threatened species.
Because of high levels of phosphorus, cattails have been taking over the saw grass in the Everglades for decades. The pollutant has flowed from fertilizers on sugar and vegetable farms and the sprawling suburbs of South Florida.
The state was supposed to get to its phosphorus-reduction goal by 2012, but the Florida Legislature pushed back the deadline to 2016. Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Rick Scott met in Washington with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and offered some alternative plans for resolving some of the legal disputes over water quality in the Everglades, but he also said that Florida would need another six years.
The state's plans call for downsizing some construction projects and relying more on water storage on public and private lands. The plan, Scott said, puts to use land that's already in public ownership so that projects can be authorized and built promptly "at a reasonable cost to the taxpayers."
Specifically, the state will be looking for opportunities to use publicly owned land to store and treat water in the Everglades Agricultural Area — where farmlands exist amid the Everglades' water system — and move the water south to water conservation areas and Everglades National Park.
That’s expected to achieve more natural water circulation and tie together the state’s work north of the conservation areas and the Interior Department’s Tamiami Trail bridging project, along the highway that runs from Tampa to Miami, passing through the Everglades.
Last week, Salazar visited the Tamiami Trial project in Miami-Dade County. It’s one of the first bridges in a series of planned spans that would raise parts of the highway above the wetlands and eventually could restore the historic freshwater flow of the River of Grass to levels not seen in 80 years.
The federal government eventually would like to see 5.5 miles of bridges on Tamiami Trail, at an estimated cost of $324 million and to be built over four years. So far, it’s unclear whether money for the bridges will be budgeted, however.
Friday, officials will break ground on a separate project: a 12,000-acre reservoir in western Martin County, Fla., designed to improve the quality of the water in the St. Lucie Estuary and the southern portion of the Indian River Lagoon.
A congressional subcommittee will look next week at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s plans to acquire more land in the Everglades for conservation, how it would be paid for and what effect it would have on public access and recreation within the refuge and conservation area.
MORE FROM MCCLATCHY
Everglades restoration imperiled by monitoring program cuts, experts say
via mcclatchydc.com
By Erika Bolstad | Miami Herald
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Project benefit
Up to 19 metric tons of phosphorus will be removed annually from runoff flows moving through the STA and into Lake Okeechobee. This will contribute toward the goal of achieving the Lake Okeechobee Total Maximum Daily Load phosphorus target.
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The Corps is responsible for the design and construction of the Stormwater Treatment Areas. The South Florida Water Management District is responsible for operations and maintenance of the facilities and will conduct monitoring to measure the performance and phosphorus reduction at these sites. The Project Cooperation Agreement anticipated costs for this project to reach $16.4 million dollars in year 2000. These costs will be split 50/50 by the SFWMD and the Department of the Army.
The Lake Okeechobee Critical Projects were implemented through a partnership between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the South Florida Water Management District. The implementation process involves the following phases: planning, engineering and design, construction, operations and maintenance, and monitoring and assessment of project performance.
Everglades National Park (Pic by Rodney Cammauf, National Park Service; via army.mil) The governing board of the South Florida Water Management District yesterday voted unanimously to move forward with eight public/private partnership projects to store water in the Northern Everglades. The projects, which are known as dispersed water management, involve enlisting private landowners in solutions to help restore the Everglades and its tributaries. The district describes (.pdf) it simply as “shallow water distributed across parcel landscapes using relatively simple structures.” Several state conservation groups have been vocal advocates of the projects, which they say could provide benefits to both water storage and water quality. Audubon of Florida proposed asimilar project (.pdf) in 2010, saying that retrofitting canals and ditches with relatively small water control structures would allow for increased water retention for miles upstream. The structures are also more cost effective than stormwater treatment areas or reservoirs, which can take over a decade to build and can cost as much as $76 million. Dispersed water management projects, on the other hand, can be completed in a couple years for less than half the cost. One of the ancillary benefits of the projects is phosphorus reduction in Lake Okeechobee, which flows into the larger Caloosahatchee River. Nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen often lead to large-scale algal blooms that choke off oxygen to other marine species, causing fish and mammal kills and doing a number on local economies. Water storage on Florida ranches may be beneficial to both state ranchers and the environment, but it hasn’t been without controversy. Last month, water management board member Joe Collins got caught in the crosshairs of a decision to store 34,000 acre-feet of water on Lykes Brothers ranch in Glades County. (Collins is vice president of Lykes’ ranching division.) Though Collins did not vote on the deal, which would span 10 years, many alleged a conflict of interest. The district later announced it would stick with the deal, and Collins himself said he would not resign because of it. “These projects are cost efficient, can be implemented quickly, and build relationships with landowners,” said Audubon Everglades Policy Associate Jane Graham in response to the vote. “This is a bold step toward progress in the northern Everglades.” |
Some environmental groups on Friday said Gov. Rick Scott's new Everglades restoration strategy attempts to push back restoration seven years or more.
The governor met Thursday with top Obama administration officials to outline a restoration strategy that calls for meeting a 10 parts per billion phosphorus limit by 2025 by creating new and expanded filter marshes.
Environmental groups said Friday the strategy would delay a 2016 deadline in state law for Everglades restoration.
"What Florida needs is Everglades restoration, not sugar industry profitability restoration; that's what this is," said David Guest, managing partner with the Earthjustice law firm in Tallahassee.
But a DEP spokeswoman said the plan is consistent with state law and court-imposed deadlines.
Other groups offered at least some praise for the governor and the federal agencies.
Audubon of Florida said in a statement that Florida and the federal agencies are working together on a strategy that can achieve restoration.
Everglades Foundation CEO Kirk Fordham said Scott appears to be focusing more on Everglades restoration. But he said shifting the cost burden from sugar farms to taxpayers is a nonstarter.
Fordham also said the initial presentation on the strategy is lacking data or details. And he expressed concerns that the plan would delay restoration beyond which the group believes is necessary.
"We're realistic enough know it is unlikely we will meet the 2016 deadline," Fordham said. "That is not to say these timelines need to be stretched out in a fashion that is unnecessary if the governor is willing to commit resources" towards restoration.
DEP Press Secretary Jennifer Diaz said the Everglades Forever Act set a 2016 deadline for initial implementation, consistent with the 10-year implementation strategy proposed by Florida consistent with court deadlines.
"All have the same goals of achieving water quality standards in the Everglades," Diaz said. She also said the cost and details of the plan still are being worked out.
Fordham also said environmental groups had concerns early about Scott but he is now paying close personal attention to the Everglades issue.
"I think it is still early enough in his term," Fordham said, "that this governor has the ability to build a legacy on Everglades issues that might surprise folks."
By Christine StapletonPalm Beach Post Staff Writer
Updated: 8:00 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7, 2011
Posted: 7:56 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7, 2011
Gov. Rick Scott took Everglades restoration into his own hands this week, traveling to Washington and unveiling plans to build reservoirs, unblock flow ways, control seepage and expand man-made wetlands by 2022.
Scott made his plan public after meeting Thursday with Ken Salazar, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Lisa Jackson, administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and top officials with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The proposal calls for:
- Building two reservoirs to store water 32 billion gallons of water for maintaining healthy water levels in stormwater treatment areas - the man-made wetlands that use plants to clean nutrient laden water.
- Preventing clean water from seeping out of Everglades National Park through layers of porous underground rock and water conservation areas.
- Restoring the natural flow of water by removing dams and structures that restrict the natural flow of water.
"A strong Florida partnership will help usher in the next generation of projects that will improve water quality in South Florida, while still protecting jobs and the state's economy," Scott said in a prepared statement Thursday night.
The plan -- partly a response to an EPA demand for fast action -- would, however, require extending the deadline for restoration to 2022 -- two years beyond the EPA's most recent deadline. The original deadline, under a federal court settlement in 1992, called for restoration to be complete by 2006.
But the executive director of the South Florida Water Management District said the governor has been pushing hard to advance the plan. "I have been amazed the last couple of months at the work that has been done," said Executive Director Melissa Meeker, whose agency is responsible for the cleanup.
Meeker said she recently met with the governor and laid out an overall plan and what she thought it might cost over the next 10 years. She told him between $45 million and $50 million a year.
"He looked at me and said, 'That's not a problem,'" Meeker said.
Meeker, who accompanied Scott to Washington, said Salazar and Jackson seemed pleased after the 90 minute meeting, which Scott led.
Environmentalists spent Friday trying to decipher the motive, timing and science behind Scott's plan.
"Until we see details, we can't embrace the plan," said Kirk Fordham, CEO of the Everglades Foundation. "If the governor wants to expend some political capital on this issue and move this thing forward, we're willing to make him an Everglades champion, but we're only in the first year of his term."
Noticeably absent are any immediate plans for nearly 27,000 acres the water management district bought from U.S. Sugar for $197 million. At the time, in 2010, water managers assured taxpayers that the land was necessary for the clean-up.
Also missing from the plan are tougher rules on the use of phosphorus-laden fertilizers by farmers.
"I'm concerned that this entire effort is on treatment rather than on trying to get phosphorus out of the water before it leaves the land," said Eric Draper, executive director of Audubon of Florida.
Audubon and other environmental groups have argued that taxpayers get stuck with the tab for cleaning phosphorus from water polluted by growers. "If you put the entire focus on treatment, you put the entire burden on the public pocketbook, rather than the landowners' pocketbook."
However, water managers say they intend to revamp rules on fertilizer use and management practices. As for the land purchased from U.S. Sugar, it will be used for restoration, said Ernie Barnett, the district's Everglades Policy Director. Barnett stressed that the governor's plan is "conceptual" and does not contain every project.
"This is the first time I've ever thought we would achieve water quality standards in the Everglades," said Barnett, who has worked on restoration for more than 20 years.
Another veteran of the restoration process was not impressed.
"This looks more like a plan to increase the profitability of the sugar industry than a plan to restore the Everglades," said David Guest, managing attorney for the Tallahassee office of Earthjustice, a public interest law firm that has been involved in Everglades litigation several decades. Guest said he is concerned that the reservoirs called for in the governor's plan will wind up being used by growers, to irrigate their fields. "This takes public money and provides them with water storage."
Still unknown is how much Scott will involve environmental groups in restoration plans. Draper said it wasn't until Wednesday that he received a call from Herschel Vinyard, secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection, informing him about Scott's trip to Washington. Fordham said he also received a call the day before, and after the meeting.
it's a start let's see the details!