In the last 10 years the Water Managers have built what are known as ‘Stormwater Treatment Areas’ (STA’s) which the Managers say are to remove Phosphorous and Nitrogen from the water prior to letting it into the Tributaries / Everglades via use of cattails and other vegetation….some say that it is no more than a glorified retention pond holding a ‘back up’ supply of drinking water for Miami / Ft. Lauderdale residents since the majority of the STA’s are located south of Lake Okeechobee.
Hundreds of Millions, if not Billions have been spent on land acquisitions, reservoir construction and unbelievable pump station construction. They could retrieve this water if they ever needed it but for now I believe they are just sheet flowing it through these expensive ponds and then dumping it.
If you notice, one of the comments made was the water at one of their $250 million dollar reservoirs is too salty / polluted to use….if they were worried only about cleaning the phosphorus and nitrogen out what do they care if it is too salty (they will never get all of the pollutants out) if it is going to eventually reach the Everglades / Tributaries any way?
Now they are proposing to pay the ranchers to allow water to be held back on their properties (I am thinking this is going to be a big thing down towards the Big Cypress Reservation) in areas that are naturally low and hold water most of the year but right now they seem to be targeting North of Lake O.
IF they do it right and do not start doing back door / shady deals I think it is going to be so much cheaper for us as tax payers because they are not going to need these ridiculous multimillion dollar pump stations or ridiculous land acquisitions….maybe they will be made into easements instead where the property can never be developed but the ranches / farms still retain the rights and the property stays on the tax roll.
There are enough canals and ditches that small farm pumps along with risers could be used to move the water in a more natural and slow sheet flow actually giving time to recharge the aquifers and naturally filter the phosphorus / nitrogen’s which should equal much cleaner water by the time it reaches our lake and the Everglades.
Right now, there are 6 of these STA’s in the Everglades area. I do not believe they hold more than 5 ft of water at any given time, most of the time it is much shallower than that but the levee height’s range anywhere from 8 to 10 feet. I have always asked why they didn’t just let it sheet flow over the farm lands and naturally existing muck (they scraped it all up), of course the answer was always it was too rich in phosphorus / nitrogen from the farms. However, I drive down a road every day that is water on both sides, if it rained long enough the road would probably flood. It butts up against a canal with simple locks, culverts and risers; it is a managed marsh that is happy and healthy without 15ft deep canals, 10ft high levees holding back the four foot of water and multi-million dollar pump stations to move it.
I sure hope they can keep their hands clean and make it work because goodness knows IMO it is so much more beneficial and hopefully cheaper in the long run.
And Noah, google ASR wells - they are mind boggling....here is one to start you off with
http://www.evergladesplan.org/pm/projects/proj_32_lake_o_asr_pilot.aspx
