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Solving the Everglades Riddle: Addressing Water Quality and Quantity to Restore a Florida Legacy

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Solving the Everglades Riddle: Addressing Water Quality and Quantity to Restore a Florida Legacy BACKGROUNDER Solving the Everglades Riddle: Addressing Water Quality and Quantity to Restore a Florida Legacy By Dan Peterson Director, Center for Property Rights at The James Madison Institute federal, and local governments have wrangled over funding A Florida Riddle it, and environmental activists have leveraged it. What singular policy issue has lingered in Florida, In 2014, voters approved Amendment 1 dedicating despite having been discussed for decades, hotly debated one-third of doc stamp revenue for the next 20 years for in multiple legislative sessions, and subject to expensive statewide environmental preservation purposes including lobbying efforts? What issue has induced emotional pleas, “to acquire, restore, improve and manage conservation received billions of dollars to spend on planning and lands…including the Everglades.” This action brought new projects, and continues to be a costly and complex effort? visibility to statewide environmental needs as well as further If you answered, “Restoring the Everglades” you win debate to the issue of Everglades restoration. In order to the prize. For decades, one of Florida’s top environmental more fully understand and appreciate the complexities of challenges has been the restoration of the Everglades. restoring the Everglades today, it is imperative to take a Scientists have studied it, legislators have debated it, state, brief look back in time for a helpful perspective. www.jamesmadison.org | 1 A Brief History of northern Everglades and many along the banks of Lake Okeechobee. While dairy farming and cattle ranching the Florida Everglades spread north of the lake, tomatoes, sugar cane, beans, The effort to subdue the Everglades area began as early peas, peppers and potatoes became the dominant as 1850 with the Swamplands Act, which transferred crops to the south. To protect these communities 20 million acres from the federal government to the and agriculture interests, small muck levies were state for the purpose of drainage and reclamation. In constructed. 1881, the state sold 4 million acres of land to developer In the 1920s, devastation hit when two hurricanes Hamilton Disston for $1 million – which according to led to massive flooding and thousands of deaths. One an article in the New York Times during that period of those storms flooded hundreds of acres of farmlands was reportedly the most and killed approximately 2,000 people. land ever purchased by In response to this catastrophe, President Herbert a single person in world Hoover ordered the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers history. He sought to drain (USACE) to assist the communities affected. The result part of the Everglades was a massive government plan to construct a dike in the Kissimmee River around Lake Okeechobee to control future flooding. region by constructing In the effort to prevent too much water from a canal connecting Lake accumulating in the lake, additional plans were laid Okeechobee to Lake for canals to be constructed from the lake west to the Hicpochee at the headwaters Caloosahatchee River and east to the St. Lucie River of the Caloosahatchee River. as vents to relieve excess water. Congress authorized U.S. Geological Survey reconstructed Landsat image So successful was he in construction of the dike and canals. The result: the of the Florida Everglades circa 1850 (left) and actual freeing land for agriculture population in the surrounding towns tripled and Landsat image from 2000 (right) that the value of his land agricultural production soared. More Than 100 soon doubled, bringing an In the 1930s, the USACE began the task. The result of its work became known as the Herbert Hoover Dike Years of Change influx of people migrating to the area. (HHD), a 143-mile earthen dam that surrounds the As a result of many A much broader initiative lake. factors including population began in 1905. Florida In 1947, another major hurricane hit South Florida causing widespread flooding and property loss. As a increases, development Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward began result, in 1948, Congress authorized the creation of growth, ranching and a policy of draining the the Central and Southern Florida Project to provide agricultural industries, as Everglades to “create” better flood control by constructing a series of canals, land for agriculture and levees, and other water control structures. The canals well as the construction of development. This opened connecting Lake Okeechobee to the Atlantic Ocean the Central and Southern the door for population were widened and deepened. Florida Flood Control District, growth in Southeast Florida With greater flood control and conveyance of – from roughly 23,000 in water came population growth along the east coast of today the Everglades area 1900 to nearly 230,000 by Florida. As demand for development to the west grew, is approximately one-half its 1930 – as well as helped the water from the eastern Everglades was drained and original size. early population growth in communities, such as Plantation, Hialeah, Wellington, cities such as Miami and Weston, Boca Raton, Parkland and Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale. It was flourished. also during this time period that another significant As a result of many factors including population transformation of the Everglades took place with the increases, development growth, ranching and construction of the Tamiami Trail connecting Miami agricultural industries, as well as the construction of to Naples (1915-1928). the Central and Southern Florida Project, today the As more people moved to Florida to make a Everglades area is approximately one-half its original 1 life, numerous small towns were established in the size . BACKGROUNDER | Solving the Everglades Riddle A map showing the immensity of the Everglades ecosystem and the areas which it affects. The ecosystem of the Everglades covers and affects more territory than most people think. Thus, its restoration will have widespread impact. The Everglades Problem Defined American inventor and businessman Charles Kettering once said, “a problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.” When it comes to restoring the Everglades, two major challenges stand out. Challenge 1: Controlling Water Quantity It is a perplexing task to find the balance between Today, Florida is home to more than 20 million meeting environmental, agricultural and human residents. The increasing development needs of people needs for water, all while preventing flooding in areas and the accompanying economic growth have made of concern. Several methods have been or are being Florida the third most populous state, and one of the examined to store and convey water. most influential and economically viable in the country. It is important to be aware of the diverse goals for For example, statistics from 2014 show the financial storing water. They include preparing for future water impact of agricultural commodities has grown to more supply, flood control, aquifer recharge, water cleansing, than $13 billion annually. Florida agricultural exports and land restoration. Several methods are used, or can alone were valued at more than $4 billion2 for the third be used, including: year in a row. Such production, along with the millions • Storage Reservoirs: artificially created man- of jobs supported by agriculture, makes Florida a made “lakes” on government owned property. desirable place to work and live for economic mobility. They can cover thousands of acres of land and While the water management efforts of the last be quite deep (10-12 feet). As much as 200,000 century helped to support population and industry acre-feet of excess water can be diverted into growth, there were unintended consequences. It is no these reservoirs. These are costly and usually longer possible to restore the Everglades to its original constructed by the government. size and watershed extent. However, numerous plans, • Flow Equalization Basins: shallow versions of including a multitude of federal and state projects, reservoirs with maximum depths of 3 to 4 feet. have been, and are, at work to address environmental They are used to capture and temporarily store concerns. Billions of dollars have been spent to secure peak stormwater flows. They often flow into a balance of maintaining quality of life for residents Stormwater Treatment Areas or STAs. These are while restoring the remainder of the Everglades. more simple to construct and more economical. Restoring the Everglades, and dealing with its related issues, is certainly not Florida’s only environmental • Water Farms: privately owned properties where problem, but it is one of the most complex and government pays the owner to allow excess important. This Backgrounder from The James water to be “stored.” Sizes vary and the water is Madison Institute outlines many of the reasons. generally 2 to 4 feet in depth. Despite the lack www.jamesmadison.org | 3 of depth, tens of thousands of acre-feet of water As important as controlling the quantity of water can be stored in a single water farm. is the need to clean water in order to reduce the • Aquifer Storage & Recovery: wells are drilled concentration of nutrients, such as phosphorous and to deep into the aquifer in places where the a lesser degree, nitrogen. Methods for this include: geology is appropriate for storage. During wet • Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs): large seasons, water is treated and pumped into these man-made wetlands designed to maximize wells creating a “bubble” of fresh water in the nutrient removal from agricultural runoff. They aquifer. Water can be “stored” here until the dry are built on large tracts of land rivaling, in some season returns and water is needed. It can then cases, the size of cities such as Ft. Lauderdale be pumped back out for whatever purposes are (more than 20,000 acres). Large pumps pull tens needed. of thousands of gallons per minute of storm • Deep Injection Wells: wells drilled deep into water from canals and force it to flow through the “boulder zone” approximately 3,000-4,000 these wetland areas, where the nutrients are feet below the surface.
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