Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act Report 242 •
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241 i• KISSIMMEE RIVER HEADWATERS REVITALIZATION PROJECT ANNEXD FISH AND WILDLIFE COORDINATION ACT REPORT 242 • " : , i , , • : , I I , I , , , , . I : .. 243 United States Department of the Interior FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE P.O. BOX 2676 VERO BEACH, FLORIDA 32961·2676 June 30. 1994 Colonel Terrence C. Salt District Engineer U.S. Army Corps of Engineers P.O. Box 4970 Jacksonville. FL 32232-0019 Attn: Planning Division Re: Kissimmee Headwater Lakes Revitalization Project Dear Colonel Salt: Pursuant to a Scope of Work. the Chief of your Planning Division requested the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) provide a Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (FWCA) Report on the Kissimmee Headwater Lakes Revitalization Project. This project is integral with the plan to restore the Kissimmee River (Canal 38). Both components of this study were authorized by Section 1135 of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986. This FWCA Report is submitted pursuant to our Fiscal Year 1993 Transfer Funding agreement and in accordance with the provisions of the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (48 Stat. 401. as amended; 16 U.S.C. 661 et seq.). and the Endangered Species Act of 1973. as amended (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). The Kissimmee Headwater Lakes Revitalization provides the necessary storage and discharge characteristics to restore flow to the Kissimmee River. while also providing partial restoration of ecosystems in the Headwater Lakes. To achieve the full potential for restoration of wetlands in the Headwater Lakes Revitalization Project. the Service recommends that the three major levees along the shores of Lakes Kissimmee. Hatchineha and Cypress be breached. The local sponsor. the South Florida Water Management District. will need to acquire all lands behind these three levees that lie below the 54-foot topographic contour in addition to the lands already targeted for acquisition. Although the selected water regulation schedule is the best we can identify after a series of iterative evaluation of model outputs. it should not be considered as immutable. After several years of operation. the cooperating agencies should re-evaluate the operational rules. particularly to determine if longer periods of inundation between the 52.5 and 54-foot topographic contours can be realized without increasing risk of flood damages. Corps hydrologists have recently suggested lowering the upper controlling elevation of the selected 400C150RR schedule from 52.5 feet to 52 feet. Our analysis indicates that any further reduction of high water levels from the currently selected plan would virtually eliminate all currently projected benefits to wetlands and wetland;lependent wildlife in the upper basin. We stroo&ly uree the Corps not to reduce the duration of water levels above 52.5 feet below those modelled for the 400C150RR alternative. 244 i I I As a possible ture refinement of the project, w~ also recommend that we s dy the feasibility of constructing a '.ater co"trol structure/lock at the borthern end of Canal 36 (s uth of Lake Cypress). Thi structull~ would allow separate ~ter regulation of Lake Cyp ~ ,which presently has water level severelr below historic conditio". The Service al reca ends that the Federal go~ernment take action to res re the Kissimmee River by bac lling C 38 to the fullest exte"; possible to ac::hieve restora on of the river's original functiqns and ~ ues. This will mitiga~ damages caused by the ch nelization of the river. We alsq continu to strongly recommend ~at the Paradise Run refJ ing and other flow- through measqes in P I A be incorponted in ~e Final Feasibility Report project design features to m imize system restoration, as dilScribed in our 1991 FWCA Report for the Kissimmee Ri er. I The draft FW A repo was circulated for reviet!f and comment by the parti 'pating agencies. The Florida G e and resh Water Fish Commibion generally concurred w th our draft and provided addit onal r mmendations. The encl~sed Final FWCA Report r resents the Secretary of Interior's r rt to ongress as required by _tion 2(b) of the FWCA. is report should accompany th Final F ibility Report and Envltonmental Impact Statement when it is submitted to Congress. I Thank you forJthe op~rtunity to participate in ttiis important ecosystem res ration effort. The Service views e impl,mentation of this project as a step towards fulfilling e restoration goals of the South orida Efsystem Task Force. e· Robert T. Pace Acting Field Supervisor cc: FG&FWFC. +allahass • FL FG&FWFC. era Bea ,FL FG&FWFC. issimm ,FL DEP. Tallah see, FL SFWMD, W t Palm each, FL FWS, Jackso ville, F FWS, Atlanta GA I II 245 United States Department of the Interior FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE P.O. BOX 2676 VERO BEACH, FLORIDA 32961·2676 February 1, 1994 Mr. A.J. Salem Chief, Planning Division u.S. Army Corps of Engineers Jacksonville District P.O. Box 4970 Jacksonville, Florida 32232-0019 Dear Mr. Salem: On January 24, 1994, Mr. Robert Pace of my staff attended an WIn-Process Review Conference w for the Kissimmee Headwater Lakes Revitalization 1135 project. He presented the results of the Service's community-level evaluation of the latest two alternatives in the iterative testing of proposed lake regulation schedules. We have been quite plsased to date with the approach of the HEP team members (led by Lou Toth of the SFWKD) in guiding design of this environmental project. We stated on January 24th that in our opinion the agencies had enough data to select a preferred alternative, based on the general behavior of the water routing models. We believe it is now time to move ahead with the species models on the preferred alternative so the Corps will be able to meet its planning deadlines. '. On the basis of Mr. Pace's presentation, Richard Bonner proposed that the agencies concur on selection of the 400C150RR as the preferred alternative. There were no objections to this motion, but the agencies agreed to meet in Vero Beach in February to ensure that all parties agreed on the • justification for this selection. Enclosed are draft copies of what will be sections of our Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act report. The first section describes the approach taken to evaluate the water regulation schedules. The second section will be inserted in the WFuture with ProjectWsection of our FWCA report, summarizing the results of the general evaluation methodology. An as yet unnumbered table also 8ummarize. these re8ult•• please forward copies of these materials to Cerald Atmar and Mike Smith, who are expected to meet with us in February on this matter. Your continued cooperation on this important restoration project is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions, please call Mr. Pace at (407) 562 3909. Sincerely, ~rvif{~~ Field Supervisor cc: (w/encl) Ed Moyers, FGFWGC, Kissimmee Larry Parent, FGFWFC, Tallahassee Lou Toth, SFWHD, West Palm Beach Patricia Sculley, SFWHD, West Palm Beach Bill Helferich, SFWMD, West Palm Beach 246 I :1 I I .iw-.. I ACKNOWLtuGEMENTS I I ~e a~thors tf this J1tPOrt are Robert T. Paeb and Joseph D. Carroll, Isenior Field BIOlogISts. I We greatly]areciat the instruction and gUi.dance of Arnold Banner,f·Who introduced Mr. Pace to he con pts and practice of GI$ analysis. He also provo ed assistance directly rela to co pletion of this project~ We appreciaL the e uragement of oa;:.tenen. our Field s~r. who has strongly suptkmed d velopment of GIS . ilities in the Ecological fervices program of the Fish and&IWildli~ Service. Fred Schae r, of 0 Vero Beach Field ofpce, provided invaluable ~upport in keeping our compute hardw running and .techniaU advice. The member of an nteragency review pan~l provided gUidance and nformation throughout e anal 's: Ed Moyer and I...attY Perrin, Florida Game d Fresh Water Fish Commi ion; Q raid Atmar and Mike I$mith, Corps of Enginee ' ; Lou Toth and Patricia Scul ey, So Florida Water Man.ement District. Paul Holt ( orps of gineers) and Carl Hqrton (formerly with the uth Florida Water Managemen Distri ) assisted in developmcpt of the topographiclba .ymetric data. The GIS data p vided b personnel at the Flo~ Game and Fresh Wate' Fish Commission, Tallahassee, were extensively in this aI)la1ysis. I Finally, we ~ust ac owledge the patience ~d assistance of the s .es experts we consulted in develop ng the species models. i Those from the Florida ame and Fresh Water Fish ommi ion include: Ed Moyer~ Jim Rodgers, Steve Ne itt, Paul Gray, and Diane Egge an. B' Toland, now an emPloyee of the U.S. Fish d Wildlife Service, also worked for the I arne Commission wh~ this evaluation started. Rob Bennetts of the University 0 Floridf.'s Cooperative Fish an~ Wildlife Research Unit James Layne of the Archbold Bi logical IStation, and Herb Kale,lof the Florida Audubon ociety also provided information d adv~ce. I I I 247 EXECU1TVES~ARY The K.issimm~ Lakes Revitalization Project provides the water storage_and discharge characteristics to restore the Kissimmee River, while also providing a wider range of water fluctuation in the Kissimmee Chain of Lakes. We strongly recommend that the Corps implement design features as described below to maximize the environmental benefits achievable from this proposal. The presently recommended revised lake schedule will provide seasonal flooding of greater duration for elevations between about 51 feet and 52.5 feet. Restoration of short hydroperiod wetlands is expected between elevations of 52 feet and 52.5 feet. We have predicted restoration of about 5939 acres of additional marsh relative to the present for the basic project without breaching of levees.