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Florida Attempts the Largest Hydraulic Restoration Project In the World To Save the Everglades (vice.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the undraining-the-swamp dept.

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."

17 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. As someone who lives in Florida by I'm+New+Around+Here · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.
    1. Re:As someone who lives in Florida by BeauHD+(mod) · · Score: 2, Informative

      Exactly this. If you like the environment, vote for things like this. Take down things like dikes and dames and allow Nature to return to itself. Humans can be redisplaced from rural places where they are tearing up the enivronment and moved back into cities where they belong and can be managed. Earth gets to heal Herself and people become less of a plague on Earth. In the long run concentrations of populations is a good thing for efficiency of people, management of people (no one is X miles away from an administrative body), and biodiversity can regain its roots (no pun intended) throughout the rest of the lands and waters.

      -=Beau=-

    2. Re:As someone who lives in Florida by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Informative

      Exactly this. If you like the environment, vote for things like this.

      Also, if you believe in sensible government, you should support this. There are few things stupider than corn subsidies, but sugar subsidies are one of them. These sugar farms are totally uneconomical, and would immediately go out of business without government support ... and that doesn't even count the billions we spend to destroy the Everglades on their behalf.

    3. Re:As someone who lives in Florida by geekmux · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly this. If you like the environment, vote for things like this. Take down things like dikes and dames and allow Nature to return to itself.

      I would agree with this to some extent.

      Humans can be redisplaced from rural places where they are tearing up the enivronment and moved back into cities where they belong and can be managed.

      Uh, OK, this is where you lost me. Move them back where they belong? As if a city is some kind of natural formation of concrete and greed. And we're talking about (rural) farmers here. You also going to vote for higher taxes to subsidize the growth in welfare to sustain farmers when you remove them from the job they know? And please don't attempt to throw a steaming political pile of STEM in my face as the solution here. Natural limitations often define the kind of job people do in life, and not every brain is cut out for a STEM job.

      Earth gets to heal Herself and people become less of a plague on Earth. In the long run concentrations of populations is a good thing for efficiency of people, management of people (no one is X miles away from an administrative body), and biodiversity can regain its roots (no pun intended) throughout the rest of the lands and waters.

      Ah, so efficiency of people is the goal here? Well, fuck it, let's not stop with all those "greedy" rural land owners. You spoiled bastards in your houses with your half-acre yards need to go too. I say we cram every human into apartment buildings like sardines; you know, for efficiency's sake. That way no one has grass-filled yards to waste water on, tends of thousands of separate air conditioners can be removed from the environment in favor of massive 100-story high-rise living, where everyone gets a standard-issue 750SF of administratively controlled living space. And of course, let's not forget in 10 years when cities are 10-million strong in population, the efforts we'll go through to re-route streams and rivers, once again cutting off natural habitats in order to provide enough water to feed the concrete jungle we insisted on shoving every human into.

      I agree there needs to be a balance here, but cities are not where every human belongs. Part of the point of keeping our planet beautiful is to enjoy it, which often means populating areas that are not a fucking cancerous cesspool of concrete wasteland.

    4. Re:As someone who lives in Florida by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You also going to vote for higher taxes to subsidize the growth in welfare to sustain farmers when you remove them from the job they know?

      Americans pay more than $3.5B per year to support only about 100 sugar farmers. So unless welfare recipients receive more than $35M each, no tax increases will be needed.

    5. Re:As someone who lives in Florida by dreamchaser · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Exactly this. I am moving from Western PA to the Finger Lakes region of New York. I bought a few acres and all of the land that didn't have trees or the frog pond on it was just mowed. Next Spring I'm going to till about an acre at least and plant crops for my wife and I to eat. Add a couple of chickens and beehives, plant some fruit trees.

      Lawns are a waste of otherwise arable space for the most part. Sure we'll have some lawn area for recreation, but when I see a huge yard that is just mowed it irks me a bit.

      I'm even going to plant clover and wildflowers over the septic leech field. Food for the bees.

    6. Re:As someone who lives in Florida by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Americans pay more than $3.5B per year to support only about 100 sugar farmers. So unless welfare recipients receive more than $35M each, no tax increases will be needed.

      This is absolutely not true. This is baseless BS from a group that was fighting sugar industry subsidies, which are less than $100M. It doesn't hold up to any common sense test. Surprised even you would be so blind. But, hey, anything you read that suits your need....................

    7. Re:As someone who lives in Florida by Applehu+Akbar · · Score: 2

      Exactly this. If you like the environment, vote for things like this. Take down things like dikes and dames and allow Nature to return to itself.

      All genders bear equal responsibility for this problem.

    8. Re:As someone who lives in Florida by nospam007 · · Score: 2

      " It calls for the human population to be warehoused in gigantic megacities and the rural areas to be depopulated. "

      It's a swamp, not a 'rural area'.

    9. Re:As someone who lives in Florida by jonsmirl · · Score: 3, Informative

      The number is actually much higher. Those government subsidies for the 'select few' sugar farmers are used to raise the price every American pays for sugar. This article estimates that it is costing US consumers $47B.

      http://dailysignal.com/2017/07... [dailysignal.com]

      If you will look Google maps you can see a gigantic sugar operation right south of Lake Okeechobee. In the middle of it is a plant that converts sugar cane into another subsidized product, ethanol, for a gasoline additive. This operation is so large it cuts off all of the natural flow between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades forcing it into canals.

      Simply get the sugar farmer's hands out of the government money and all of this would collapse since the entire operation is uneconomical without government support.

    10. Re:As someone who lives in Florida by Baron_Yam · · Score: 2

      >Earth gets to heal Herself and people become less of a plague on Earth

      The attitude of 'humans are the pinnacle of Creation and Nature should be bent to their will' was admittedly extremely ignorant... however, so is the hippy bullshit you're spouting.

      The reason we need biodiversity now is we recognize our ignorance and technological limitations prevent us from intelligently managing a sustainable biosphere that is human-friendly, not because Gaia's sad if we destroy the wetlands.

      Life on Earth is in its geriatric phase; it's been here over 4 billion years and has less than a billion left before it's gone. And that's just if things chug along as they always have - there's no guarantee that some tipping point won't hit and turn Earth into a lifeless hell hole long before that. Nature is not intelligent, and thus not intelligently managing the environment.

      If we learn how to manage a global biosphere (including some difficult things like moving the planet's orbit), we might extend this planet's habitability until the point as which the Sun no longer provides enough energy to drive an energy gradient.

    11. Re:As someone who lives in Florida by ChrisMaple · · Score: 2

      Even that understates the problem. Sugar tariffs have driven the change to fructose and HFCS, with accompanying damage to general health.

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    12. Re:As someone who lives in Florida by johnstrass1 · · Score: 2

      FL voters already voted to pay for this clean up. The republicans (absolute majority fo both the state senate and reps and the governor) are instead (surprise, surprise) using the money for anything but. http://www.miamiherald.com/new... "Two years after Florida voters overwhelmingly endorsed a trust fund expected to raise $10 billion over two decades to save the state’s stalled conservation efforts, lawmakers are again proposing spending a big chunk of it on more mundane matters like risk management insurance. In twin bills that lawmakers will hammer out this week in Tallahassee, only a fraction of the $880 million allocated under the Amendment 1 constitutional measure is slotted for conserving new land. Instead, lawmakers divvied up the money to cover salaries —including paychecks for the entire staff of the state’s forestry service — and shifted much of the costs covered by the state’s general fund to the trust. In addition to human resources and expenses, lawmakers also propose using $20 million to treat sewage sludge in central Florida and $25 million for a wastewater treatment plant in the Keys.

  2. In the long run it doesn't matter by riverat1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:In the long run it doesn't matter by drinkypoo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yes. It is totally and completely insane to spend any money trying to do anything with Florida except buy people out of their homes, which is cheaper than any other option. And those who deliberately moved to that glorified sand bar deserve nothing.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:In the long run it doesn't matter by gtall · · Score: 2

      The Dutch are not surrounded by water on 3 sides, nor are they subjected to hurricanes, at least not of the sort is Florida. They are also not afflicted by brainless politicians who cannot think further that their kickbacks.

  3. Screw it by AndyKron · · Score: 3, Funny

    Taxpayers paid to drain the swamp so land developers could get rich, and now taxpayers have to pay to clean it up.