Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades The First Biennial Review, 2006 (2007) / Chapter Skim
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5 Progress Toward Natural System Restoration
5 Progress Toward Natural System Restoration
Pages 130-162
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From page 130... ...
This chapter assesses the general accomplishments in the Everglades restoration with respect to implementing the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) and other major non-CERP projects since 1999 when the CERP was authorized.
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Water storage components in the CERP include existing facilities (Lake Okeechobee and the Water Conservation Areas [WCAs]
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. In contrast, the Yellow Book plan included 330 wells as part of the CERP ASR installations over broad areas of the South Florida ecosys tem (Figure 2-4)
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Thus, the delays are to some extent a consequence of adaptive management. CERP Response to ASR Issues Because of the important role that ASR plays in providing adequate water storage for the CERP and because of the technological challenges
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From page 134... ...
The combination of pilot studies, a regional feasibility study, and contingency planning is an excellent active adaptive management approach to an unproven technol ogy such as ASR in the initial stage of CERP implementation. As mentioned above, ASR pilot studies have been delayed by as much as 8 years, but when completed will offer adaptive management options for modifications to the ASR strategy, if needed, including a contingency plan for surface storage in lieu of some portion of ASR storage.
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From page 135... ...
Pilot projects have not revealed any fatal flaws in the original CERP ASR plan (USACE, 2004) , but, based on the results of the pilot projects and the ASR Regional Study, the committee anticipates that details of the CERP will have to be modified through the adaptive management process to ensure adequate performance.
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From page 136... ...
Acceler8 is intended to yield the following benefits for Ever glades restoration: completion of project components 11 years ahead of the previously planned schedule, thereby saving large sums of money; provi sion of about 50 percent of the planned surface-water storage components; earlier improvement of water deliveries to estuaries; earlier improvement of Lake Okeechobee habitats; earlier improvement to water quality; and ear lier improvements in water flow and timing patterns. The following discus sion examines some of these benefits in greater detail.
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SOURCE: http://www.evergladesnow.org. Projected Water Quality Benefits Acceler8's major contributions to water quality are provided by the new STAs that have been proposed as components of three of the projects.
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From page 138... ...
to water quality improvement in the Everglades ecosystem by reducing concentrations of contaminants in waters that might be released from the EAA to the WCAs. The C-44 STA is designed to improve water quality in the St.
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From page 139... ...
The Indian River Lagoon PIR notes that current water quality concerns in Lake Okeechobee will prevent the use of the C-44 reservoir to return water to the lake for restoration purposes or to supply increased flows to the Everglades ecosystem (USACE and SFWMD, 2004)
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From page 140... ...
The result is uncer tainty in the future delivery of benefits to the South Florida ecosystem. Benefits to the Timing and Distribution of Water Deliveries Several Acceler8 projects address the timing and distribution of water in the South Florida ecosystem.
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Production of natural system restoration within the Everglades ecosystem (i.e., the WCAs and Everglades National Park) appears to be falling behind production of natural system restoration in other portions of the South Florida ecosystem.
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142 Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades FIGURE 5-4 Elements of the Decomp project. SOURCE: http://sofia.usgs.gov/publications/reports/doi-science-plan/images/24mapx.gif.
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From page 143... ...
Decomp is an important part of "getting the water right," and the project has the potential to deliver substantial ecological benefits to the WCAs and Everglades National Park -- those areas that most represent the Everglades ecosystem in the public's eye. Therefore, stakeholders whose primary concern is restoration of the natural system are likely to become increasingly frustrated with the CERP if the scheduled implementation of Decomp continues to be pushed into the future.
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. Project managers have recently taken positive steps toward implement ing an active adaptive management strategy for Decomp to help resolve some of the uncertainties that are constraining the project planning process.
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Under this approach, incremental implementation of the major elements of Decomp would create additional opportunities for learning that could improve project design while accelerating production of restoration benefits. Complex and contentious restoration projects such as Decomp can benefit from an active adaptive management approach to reduce uncertainty and resolve stakeholder conflicts over project alternatives.
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From page 146... ...
The project also included the reduction of spoil banks left from the original project and the dredging of the meandering original channel so that it could be reintegrated into the active river system. The Kissimmee River Restoration Project will restore only portions of the highly engineered flood channel (C-38)
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From page 147... ...
Mod Waters and C-111 The Modified Water Deliveries to Everglades National Park (Mod Waters) and C-111 projects provide a foundation for Decomp and also provide some initial ecological benefits: C-111 for Taylor Slough and Mod Waters for Northeast Shark River Slough (see also Box 2-2; Figure 2-7)
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148 Image A Image B Image C FIGURE 5-5 General landscape effects of the Kissimmee River Restoration Project are evident in these comparison images of a short reach of the river near S-65B. Image A: 1995 color infrared; image B: April 2003 color digital aerial imagery; image C: June 2003 color infrared.
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From page 149... ...
The trade-off between preservation of tree islands and restoration of ridge-and-slough topography is a critical uncertainty for Mod Waters. Water quality is also an issue, specifically concerning the use of water from the EAA to increase sheet flow in the relatively pristine environment of WCA 3B.
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SOURCE: B Gamble, National Park Service, personal communication, 2006.
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From page 151... ...
Mod Waters also represents a first major step toward restoration of the WCAs and Everglades National Park, and it provides an important opportunity to learn about the response of the natural system to the restoration of sheet flow that may inform future CERP planning. Everglades Water Quality and the Everglades Construction Project Increased input of phosphorus and the consequent increase in phosphorus concentrations in many parts of the Everglades watershed is one of the more important perturbations to the Everglades.
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STAs are the most significant component of the 1994-2007 Everglades Construction Project at a cost of about $700 million (see also Box 2-2) , and they play an integral part in fulfilling CERP water quality goals.
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, the goal for TP concentrations in waters flowing within the Everglades Protection Area was reduced to 10 ppb as an outcome of Florida's year 2000 amendments to the 1994 Everglades Forever Act (see also Chapter 2)
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154 Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades TABLE 5-2 STAs in the EAA and Total Phosphorus Removal Performance Average Annual Surface Inflow Estimated Estimated Effluent Area (acre-feet/ Years P load P Removal P Range STA (acres) year)
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From page 155... ...
In theory, STAs can be constructed to provide adequate capacity for many decades of inputs if sufficient acreage is provided. At some point, however, water quality and the composition of the plant com munities (which is related to chemical water quality)
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PROTECTING LAND FOR THE RESTORATION Land acquisition and other forms of land protection within the South Florida ecosystem are crucial to the restoration's success because a suffi cient land base is required to increase water quantity, improve water qual ity, and enhance ecological functioning. There are two perspectives on the land-related issues for the restoration based on geographic area.
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From page 157... ...
The committee endorses accelerated land acquisitions within the limited project area of the CERP, but it is also important to protect currently undeveloped parts of the South Florida ecosystem that could help achieve the broad restoration goals. Once such land is developed, it is very hard physically, economically, and politically to return it to a condition that would support restoration objectives.
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From page 158... ...
Such conversions would also reduce the water storage capacity of the system, render it more difficult to achieve water quality standards, and limit opportunities to re store sheet flows over larger areas. The committee recommends that the state closely monitor and regularly report land conversion patterns within the South Florida ecosystem.
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Third, ASR pilot projects and the Decomp Physical Model demonstrate that active adaptive management can be employed to provide knowledge to resolve critical uncertainties at the scale of the CERP. The same active adaptive management principles can help facilitate the implementation of other major restoration components.
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From page 160... ...
The project planning, authori zation, and funding process is creating significant delays in implementation, and the greatest delays are affecting projects that would provide benefits to the WCAs and Everglades National Park -- those areas that most represent the Everglades ecosystem in the public's eye. It is too early to evaluate the response of the ecosystem to the current restoration program, because no CERP projects have been constructed.
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should prove infeasible. Production of natural system restoration benefits within the Water Conservation Areas and Everglades National Park are lagging behind production of natural system restoration benefits in other portions of the South Florida ecosystem.
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From page 162... ...
Progress could be enhanced further if these experiments pave the way for additional experiments, some at even larger scales, that could be incorporated into an incremental approach to restoration. The active land acquisition efforts should be continued, accompanied by monitoring and regular reporting on land conversion patterns in the South Florida ecosystem.
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