Johnkominoski, Florida International University, the conversation
Do you know where your drinking water comes from?
In Südflorida, drinking water comes from the Everglades, a huge landscape of wetlands, on which the water has long been based on millions of people.
However, when the Everglades shrunk in the past century, the water supply and water quality of the region are increasingly threatened, also by harmful algae flowers that are driven by the drainage of agriculture. Now the water supply faces another increasing challenge: salt water.
The protection of the water in South Florida attaches the restoration of the Everglades. That is why the federal government and the universities 25 years ago initiated the largest restoration efforts in the world in the world that have ever been tried.
I am involved in this work as an ecosystem ecologist. The risks I see indicate that it is more important today to restore the Everglades.
What happened to the Everglades?
The Florida Everglades are a wide mosaic of fresh water, sawmill, cypress smells and tree islands, mangrove forests and sea grass meadows, all of which are connected by water.
But it is half of its original size. In the early 1900s, the US Army Corps of Engineers, channels and dikes began to install the floods in the Everglades, which enabled people to build farms and communities at the edges. The Tamiami Trail was the first street over the Everglades in 1928. It connected Tampa to Miami, but the street and channels cut or steered part of the natural water flow in South Florida.
Since then, Florida's economy, agriculture and the population have exploded – and with them a problem of nutrient pollution has come across Everglades.
The big harvest, sugar cane, is grown in a region south of Lake Okeechobee with 1,100 square kilometers known as Everglades Agricultural Area. Almost 80 tons of phosphord fertilizers from Federally subsidized farm fields run to Everglades every year. And that has become a concern of water quality. Drinking water with increased nitrogen is associated with human health problems, and increased phosphorus and associated algae flowers can cause microbes to accumulate toxins such as mercury.
Healthy wetlands can filter out these nutrients and other pollutants and clean the water.
The rain that falls into the Everglades feels through the Porous limestone and loads the Biscayne groundwater conductor, which delivers 1 of 3 Floridians drinking water.
But wetlands need time and space to work properly, and the damage caused by the pollution of the agricultural country have affected the natural filter system.
In the nineties, Everglades reached wetlands and the wild animals that support them, a critical stress level from increased phosphorus concentrations, a nutrient in fertilizer that washes the fields of farm and the growth of poisonous algae flowers and invasive species that can get domestic plant populations out.
The changes led to sea grass dying and a widespread invasion of soul bumper lumps through pipe pistons and harmful algae flowers. Crop areas can become sources of contamination that can contaminate the surface water and groundwater quality by reducing the oxygen in the water, which can damage life in the water and release chemicals and nutrients during decay.
A large restoration campaign
In 2000, the congress approved the comprehensive residualization plan of Everglades to support the reduction in phosphorus concentrations by reproducing large wetlands in order to remove excess nutrients and restore more from the natural water depth in order to strengthen the local population groups.
These restoration efforts make progress in the re -connection of wetlands with natural water flows by rehydrating large areas that have been cut off. The phosphorus levels are lower in many wetlands, which now remain hydrated for longer, and in these wetlands fresh water loads the groundwater conductor, which contributes to maintaining the drinking water supply.
However, delays in critically important components of this work have left some wetlands longer than expected under degraded conditions, especially in regions near and downstream of the Everglades Agricultural Area, in which the phosphorus concentrations remain stubbornly high.
Südflorida continues to experience harmful algae flowers made of phosphorus, the rivers and the coast, which leads to fish killings and the death of sea kebabs. Red Tide can close fishing and keep beach tourists away and damage the local economies. It is estimated that this pollution cost the economy in Florida in 2018 of $ 2.7 billion.
The unexpected risk: salt water
An unforeseen threat has also crept into the Everglades: salt water.
With increasing sea levels, salt water continues to reach in the interior, both in rivers and underground through the porous limestone under South Florida. The penetration of salt water also occurs when fountains pull off in the water to provide water for drinking or irrigation. This salt water causes parts of the Everglades swamps, which are often referred to as the river of the grass, collapse in open water.
The loss of these fresh water sumps reduces the capacity of the Everglades to remove phosphorus from the water. And this means that more nutrients flowing fluently downstream flowing, contaminating groundwater conductors and leading to harmful algae flowers form in coastal waters.
Scientists have learned that swamp plants need fresh water impulses during the rainy season from April to November to avoid the penetration of salt water.
For example, between 2009 and 2019, Salzwasser pressed about a mile in the interior of Fort Lauderdale. More fresh water is needed to push the salt water back into the sea.
However, the restoration efforts should never combat the penetration of the salt water.
Reasons for optimism
Despite the ongoing challenges, I am optimistic because scientists, political decision -makers and communities work together to protect the Everglades and drinking water.
I lead part of this restoration work through the long -term ecological research program in Florida Coastal Everglades. The efforts began on May 1, 2000 at Florida International University, in the same year in which the Everglades restoration plan was approved by the Congress.
Our research has been used to set the nutrients that can continue to protect the region's water supply, and we have been working for 25 years to reduce the penetration of the salt water and phosphorus pollution to ensure that drinking water for Südflorida remains both fresh and clean. We constantly use our research to inform water managers and political decision -makers about the best practices in order to reduce the penetration and contamination of pollution of the salt water.
Since the intrusion of the salt water continues to threaten the freshwater groundwater conductor in South Florida, the restoration and protection of Everglades will be increasingly important.
Everyone in the region can help.
Due to the rehabilitation of degraded wetlands, so that more fresh water flow in the Everglades ecosystems, the use of freshwater on lawns and harvests and reduces urban water for the needs outdoors, Südflorida can protect its drinking water for generations of future residents and visitors. Anyone can contribute to this.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Miamis of renowned conservationists, who said the Everglades National Park when the Everglades National Park was founded: “The Everglades are a test. If we pass it, we can keep the planet.”
This article will be released from the conversation, a non -profit, independent news organization that brings you facts and trustworthy analyzes to help you understand our complex world. It was written by: John Kominoski, Florida International University
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Johnkominoski works for Florida International University. It receives funds from federal authorities such as the National Park Service and the National Science Foundation. 