Groundbreaking of New Water Seepage Barrier Wall Project – Courtesy of The Everglades Foundation
Key Restoration Project Supports Florida’s Enhanced Efforts to Restore America’s Everglades and Mitigate Flooding in Nearby Communities
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – On December 12, 2022, The Everglades Foundation joined the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, other federal, state, and local officials as well as stakeholders to break ground on the Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) New Water Seepage Barrier Wall Project, which extends the successful underground wall that was built as part of the 8.5 Square Mile Area Seepage Wall Project.
The project supports ongoing restoration efforts to move water south through the Everglades and into Florida Bay while mitigating potential flooding impacts in communities outside of Everglades National Park.
“The Everglades Foundation commends Governor Ron DeSantis and the South Florida Water Management District for continuing to advance important Everglades projects,” said Eric Eikenberg, CEO of The Everglades Foundation. “This seepage wall is essential to keeping water in Everglades National Park while protecting adjacent neighborhoods. This feature will also allow us to send water south to Florida Bay where it belongs.”
The CEPP New Water Seepage Barrier Wall Project adds five miles of underground seepage wall along the L-357 Levee. SFWMD completed the 2.3-mile first phase of the wall earlier this year and the project is already demonstrating success. During heavy rain events, water that typically would flood communities remained inside Everglades National Park to support the park’s historic hydrology. READ MORE…
Everglades Restoration Underway
Article Courtesy of: Florida Realtors
The restoration effort in the Everglades is the largest hydrological restoration project ever undertaken in the U.S and aims to improve the water supply and increase flood protection.
MIAMI – When Steve Davis jumped out of the airboat and into the water in the middle of the Everglades, it rose to just below his waist, higher than last year when it pooled around his knees.
“I’m standing in Miami-Dade’s water supply right now,” he said.
Davis, the chief science officer for the Everglades Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to restoring the ecosystem, joined Meenakshi Chabba, the foundation’s ecosystem and resilience scientist on Friday morning for the annual Everglades airboat tour. The tour comes amid growing progress on the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir and an allocation in the state’s 2024-25 budget of more than $740 million dedicated to Everglades restoration.
The EAA Reservoir and allotment of federal and state funds are both critical pieces to the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), which Congress authorized in 2000. According to the National Park Service, the plan is supposed to “restore, preserve, and protect the south Florida ecosystem while providing for other water-related needs of the region, including water supply and flood protection.” It’s the largest hydrologic restoration project ever undertaken in the United States.
The natural flow of the Everglades has been degraded by farming, road projects and land development, resulting in the flooding of some areas, drying out of others, and hypersalinity in Florida Bay, which has killed off crucial seagrass areas in Everglades National Park.
This year, the impacts of El Niño created a wetter winter and warmer ocean temperatures, and though South Florida was spared from any direct-hit from tropical storms or hurricanes this past season, water levels in the Everglades are higher than normal — “about four inches above schedule,” Davis said.
High water levels may harm native wildlife and prompt the Army Corps of Engineers to lower Lake Okeechobee by sending polluted water to vulnerable estuaries on the east and west coast.
Thus the importance of the impending EAA Reservoir only grows, with Davis referring to the $4 billion-dollar project as a “bypass surgery” for the glades.
