Re-Engineering Water Storage in the Everglades Risks and Opportunities (2005) / Chapter Skim
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1 Executive Summary The Everglades of south Florida once encompassed about 4,600 mi2 (three million acres) of slow-moving water and associated biota that stretched from the Lake Okeechobee drainage basin in the north to Florida Bay in the south (Figure ES-1)
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2 Re-Engineering Water Storage in the Everglades: Risks and Opportunities FIGURE ES-1. The Greater Everglades Ecosystem.
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Executive Summary 3 Early modifications to the landscape drained many areas and increased peak flows in others. Overall, they reduced the amount of water stored within the Everglades Ecosystem and thus increased the risk of desiccation of wetlands in the southern part of the system during droughts.
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4 Re-Engineering Water Storage in the Everglades: Risks and Opportunities Lake Okeechobee Lake Okeechobee historically was the key hydrologic link between the mainly upland ecosystems to the north and the wetlands ecosystems to the south. The lake receives an annual average of 1.6 million acre-feet of water through the Kissimmee River and discharges 416,000 acre-feet to the sea through the Caloosahatchee River and the St.
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Executive Summary 5 mulative capacity of more than 4 million acre-feet. Even with 30 percent loss of water during injection (as assumed in simulations by the SFWMD)
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6 Re-Engineering Water Storage in the Everglades: Risks and Opportunities when compared on the basis of the maximum storage they can provide in a single year. Other factors, such as reliability, environmental consequences, and social and political acceptability also are important.
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Executive Summary 7 scapes. Communities of marl prairies and periphyton mats continue to diminish in areal coverage, and nutrient loading continues to be above historic levels.
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8 Re-Engineering Water Storage in the Everglades: Risks and Opportunities SUSTAINABILITY OF THE RESTORATION PLAN The Restoration Plan relies very heavily on engineered solutions such as ASR and the Lake Belt storage system. Although there is a clear need for additional storage to implement the Restoration Plan, experience suggests that natural restoration processes usually produce more satisfactory restoration outcomes than engineered ones.
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Executive Summary 9 including governments. As new information becomes available and as the effectiveness and feasibility of various restoration components become clearer, some of the earlier adaptation and compromises probably will need to be revisited if the restoration is to meet its goals.
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10 Re-Engineering Water Storage in the Everglades: Risks and Opportunities Several options available for increasing the storage capacity of the lake have been considered in the development of the Restoration Plan; they would have extreme effects on lake levels and would diminish the lake's ecological value and its value for fishing. Other more moderate options or combinations might have a better array of costs and benefits.
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Executive Summary 11 acquisition, it seems certain that some land not soon acquired will be developed or become significantly more expensive before the two-decade-long acquisition program can be completed. Protecting the potential for restoration, i.e., protecting the land, is essential for successful restoration.
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12 Re-Engineering Water Storage in the Everglades: Risks and Opportunities should be undertaken using adaptive management, and it has the potential to bring ecological benefits earlier. (Chapter 4.)
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