At a rainy press conference in front of the Tamiami Trail in the Everglades on Wednesday, Governor Ron Desantis announced the foundation for the first project to restore Everglades, which the state takes over from the US Army Corps of Engineers.
The project, known as Blue Shany Flow Way, will remove 10 miles Berm along the Tamiami Trail and make massive water quantities to the south to Everglades National Park and finally Florida Bay, said Drew Bartlett, Managing Director of South Florida Water Management District.
The train breaker marks the first project in an agreement between the state of Florida and the US Army Corps of Engineers, which enables the state to take over some of the most important projects in the 26 billion US dollar recovery plan from Everglades, which is also known as CERP.
CERP's goal is to return the water flow of the Everglades in as natural state as possible. Before the 20th century, the Everglades were a 50 miles wide, slowly moving river, which from near Orlando through Lake Okeechobee in the south to Florida Bay and Golf Floss.
Countless channels and streets have emptied and dammed the river, which led to serious ecological deterioration and considerable economic damage.
“The purpose of this (project) is to deliver high amounts of water under the newly built bridges on the Tamiami Trail,” said Desantis on the podium. “Before that, the Tamiami trail was basically a dam. It would block the water from the south to the Everglades. Now you can uncork the water currents.”
Bartlet's Bartlett from SFWMD said: “We will take ten miles out to bring this water to Everglades National Park.” After completion, he said, the project would send 370,000 acres of water to the Shark River Slouth and further to Florida Bay. “That corresponds to 15 million semi-distance full of water.”
The project will prepare the area ready for the ultimate increase in the water flow from another decisive component of CERP, the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir, which is being built south of the Lake Okeechobee.
Many CERP observers, including desantis, refer to the EAA reservoir as a crown jewel on general restoration.
The state's agreement with the Army Corps enables SFWMD to take over the construction of the EAA reservoir in order to accelerate the completion.
“We were able to shorten the time and increase the delivery of the EAA reservoir,” said Desantis. Former Army Corps suggested that the reservoir would be complete by 2034. “Now we can do it until 2029,” said Desantis.
The 10,500 hectare increased reservoir gets water from the Okeechobee Lake and saves it before sending the nutrients from the water by filtration sumps that remove nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen.
Water from the Okeechobesee often contains a high level of nutrients and algae that devastates aquatic ecosystems.
In the wet years, the Army Corps had to protect the municipalities around the lake, this dirty water east and west through channels on coastal mouths near municipalities such as Fort Myers and Stuart, in which algae blossoms violate the economy and volume of the freshly water -decimated sea grass bed for marine and fishing instructions.
In addition, the lack of a clean fresh water that flowed into Florida Bay in the south, extremely high salt content, which triggered algae there and killed by seagras.
“Man has changed the hydrology of what God intended,” said Desantis of the disorder of the Everglades of the 20th century. “Südflorida did not get the water it needed; Florida Bay didn't get the water it needed. If you look now … you see a completely different picture. You see massive amounts of water to the south.”