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Florida Attempts the Largest Hydraulic Restoration Project In the World To Save the Everglades (vice.com)
New submitter ar2286 shares a report from Motherboard: Florida is defined by its water -- the water flowing around it, through it, increasingly over it. But throughout the twentieth century, its major arteries of fresh water, which flowed from the Kissimmee River south of Orlando to Lake Okeechobee and down to the swampy Everglades, were permanently rerouted by the federal government and landowners to stop flooding, and make room for agriculture and housing in the southern part of the state. Now the state is working with the Army Corps of Engineers -- the government agency partly responsible for rerouting and draining water to begin with -- and the South Florida Water Management District to attempt the largest hydraulic restoration project in the world. And while some say the effort has turned Florida into a battleground, pitting sugar farmers against legislators and environmentalists, others are hoping this will finally right certain man-made wrongs and restore some balance to the state. If the government is able to fully fund the plan, and should dozens of contractors and state forces successfully carry it out, it could permanently change Florida. And set a precedent for inevitable restoration projects around the world, which are becoming increasingly crucial as climate change manifests in stronger storms and sea level rise. The state is embarking on such a massive restoration project because the aging levees and control gates surrounding Lake Okeechobee are at risk of failing during large storms and/or heavy rainfall. "The more rainwater that increases in Lake Okeechobee, the more pressure is on the lake, and that pressure can continue to build up and build up and build up and one day the levee can go," said Tammy Jackson-Moore, a Belle Glade resident who co-founded Guardians of the Glades, a nonprofit focused on community advocacy. "And we're talking about wiping out entire communities here." The rerouting has allowed for bursts of economic growth, but it does have its consequences. "The Everglades, the largest swath of subtropical wilderness in the country, is now half of its size circa 1920, and the ecosystem has deteriorated, losing wildlife and native flora," reports Motherboard. "Without a natural place to flow, stagnant water pushes toxic algae blooms into the rivers, and turns pristine ocean into sludgy waste."
All I can say is "Good!"
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
The future WOULD if they could.
Then kill all the damn pythons and imported crapfish, then refill in a controlled manner.
God would not have commanded it so. Leave it alone!
As sea level continues to rise the Everglades (and most of Florida) will disappear under the ocean sometime between 100 and 300 years from now.
Taxpayers paid to drain the swamp so land developers could get rich, and now taxpayers have to pay to clean it up.
It's "hydrologic", not hydraulic.
Use the money to fix another state that's not a lost cause. Tell them you'll throw in Puerto Rico as well. They're pretty stupid.
And do a little goddamn research. I am ready for you to tell me when climate change is going to manifest stronger storms and sea level rise beyond the 1-3mm a year we see now. Wake up, you fucking lemmings.
You can't fight mother nature.
Florida may eventually be wiped off the map, without humans being at fault.
You're a fascist and a psycho.
I am not moving to Mega City One so assholes like you can "manage me".
I am sad that no one else pointed out you said that.
That's not how technology works. When you let corporations have free rein, they don't produce more tech, they produce more pollution. It's when you place limitations upon them that they come up with novel solutions.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
All I can say is "stop wasting money on that soon-to-be-submerged spit of sand and swamp, and spend it on a state that will still be here in a hundred years".
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Aquifers are the current best source of cheap, good water... but they're not the ONLY source. Dade, Broward, & Palm Beach counties ALL get quite a bit of water from Lake Okeechobee. They PREFER aquifer water because it needs less processing (i.e, it's cheaper), but all 3 counties could get all their water from the lake if necessary (though it might require expansion of their water-treatment capacity if they had to use lake water for everything).
If sea levels rose 100 feet, Florida would raise the lake the same way as everything else... by raising the levee around it, and dumping limestone fill into the lake to raise its bottom if necessary (though I think the weight of the lake water alone would probably be enough to keep the saltwater out... I'm pretty sure osmotic pressure isn't a major concern).
The key point is, none of this will (or needs to) happen overnight. We're talking about *centuries* here. There's plenty of time to raise Florida's terrain 5-10 feet at a time as part of the natural cycle of building redevelopment. Florida has plenty of usable limestone & annual rainfall to satisfy both needs over the long term.
The surface elevation of Lake Okeechobee is less than 20 feet above sea level. Do you seriously think people are going to willing to spend the trillions of dollars it would take to raise it and all of the streams that feed into it plus raising all the other terrain the cities and farms are built on. How much are your taxes going to go up to pay for it all? It ain't going to happen.
All at once? Of course not. Over the span of several hundred years? Yes.
Over time, "Lake Okeechobee" would become MULTIPLE lakes... Okeechobee, defined by its current dike... a new freshwater lake comprising what's now the "everglades" portion of Broward & Palm Beach counties (let's tentatively call it "Lake Seminole") connected to the original lake via canals, a new brackish-water lake between Tamiami Trail and I-75 (let's tentatively call it "Lake Miccosukee"), Florida's new Caribbean Coast (so named to disambiguate it from the Atlantic and Gulf coasts) occupying western Dade, eastern Collier, and basically all of mainland Monroe county, and another new freshwater lake north of Lake Okeechobee (let's call it, "Lake Kissimmee", because it would occupy most of what's now the agricultural part of the Kissimmee Valley... and point out to non-Floridians that it's a "valley" only in the sense that Floridians call an area where the terrain is 10 feet higher than the surrounding area "a hill").
The four lakes would get most of their water from direct rainfall. None would be particularly deep, but they'd get plenty of water because they'd span a geographically HUGE area that gets massive amounts of rain. They'd just dump less of that rain into the Gulf & Atlantic than they do now.
Plus, rising sea levels will happen slowly enough that most urban areas will get raised by redevelopment long before it becomes an existential threat to the area.
I'd argue that higher water costs will perversely drive INCREASED development in Florida... as water becomes more expensive, agricultural users will start selling off their land to developers, who'll build new condos, neighborhoods, office parks, golf courses, and discount retail outlets... the new development will drive up land prices, and induce even more agribusiness owners to sell out to developers. To a residential customer, a $10/month difference in the water bill is gripe-worthy, but not the end of the world. To someone like ConAgra, a $20,000/month difference in the water bill could mean the difference between oranges and office parks.
It really CAN'T be any other way. Florida's biggest single industry is its own growth. It might not be "sustainable" in any way that respects the natural environment, but that doesn't mean it won't continue for centuries until the entire state of Florida consists of 3-6 megalopoli sitting on terrain that's about as "natural" as lower Manhattan (there's actually a swampy island buried underneath the concrete, though post-9/11 was just about the only time we actually got to SEE evidence of its existence).