Florida to Buy Out Sugar Land for Everglades Restoration

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The Everglades once covered almost 11,000 square miles of southFlorida. A century ago, water flowed down the Kissimmee River intoLake Okeechobee, then south through the Everglades to the FloridaBay. But the marshland has been drained for agriculture,development and flood control, and the Everglades today is half thesize it was 100 years ago.
Converting more land in the Everglades Agricultural Area torestoration will build upon and enhance the 30-year state-federalComprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan and the state ofFlorida's Northern Everglades program to restore and protect LakeOkeechobee, the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee rivers and theirestuaries, say water managers.
The land acquisition would allow for huge increases in theavailability of water storage, reducing the potential for harmfuldischarges from Lake Okeechobee to Florida's coastal rivers andestuaries when lake levels are high.
It would enable delivery of cleaner water to the Everglades duringdry times and greater water storage to protect the natural systemduring wet years.
The land acquisition would prevent thousands of tons of thenutrient phosphorus from entering the Everglades every year. Usedas a fertilizer for sugar production, phosphorus runoff pollutesthe water to 20 times the tolerable level, endangering nativewildlife.
Phosphorus changes the chemistry of the water and destroys themicrobial populations, an essential source of food for many aquaticorganisms, which then do not flourish. As one result, 90 percent ofthe wading birds in the Everglades have disappeared and 68 speciesof plants and animals are either endangered or threatened.
The land acquisition would eliminate the need for "back-pumping"water into Lake Okeechobee from the Everglades Agricultural Area toaugment the water supply needs. The district's Governing Board thisyear voted not to back-pump into the lake during the ongoing watershortage to protect water quality.
It would create additional water storage alternatives, relievingsome pressures on the Herbert Hoover Dike while the federalgovernment undertakes repairs.
Governor Crist stood as official witness as South Florida WaterManagement District Governing Board Vice Chair Shannon Estenozsigned a "Statement of Principles" with Buker, providing theframework for acquisition of the property.
"The significance of this moment will forever be recorded inFlorida's environmental history," said Estenoz. "Today, we offerthe Everglades restoration opportunities once thought impossible;environmental progress once considered unachievable; andprotections just a decade ago believed unattainable. History willmark today as a watershed event for restoring our beloved nationaltreasure - the Everglades." Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.
Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2008. All rights reserved.