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The Cleveland Plain Dealer
www.cleveland.com
Revitalizing the Everglades
Thursday,
October 05, 2000
The
Florida Everglades, a national treasure, stand on the brink of ruin. The only
subtropical wilderness in the United States deserves the $7.8 billion - $1.1
billion to start - over 36 years contained in the Water Resources Development
Act. That’s half the cost of the region’s restoration; Florida will pick up the
other half.
The
bill was passed by the Senate 85-1, with an able assist from Ohio Sen. George
Voinovich, who once blocked it because he quite rightly opposed the building of
a commercial airport just 10 miles away from the Everglades, fearing it would
pollute the very spot the bill seeks to save.
The
fate of the proposed airport is in the hands of the Environmental Protection
Agency, and the Water Resources Development Act is now in the House, where it
deserves the same outpouring of support.
The
bill, which promises to send the Everglades 80 percent of the water it
generates, is a necessary compromise among developers, agribusiness, Indian
tribes and environmentalists. As such, it has something to please and irritate
nearly everyone.
Still,
all agree on one thing: If the Everglades is to survive, humans will have to
help.
That
is a radical departure from the past. In 1948, Congress ordered the Army Corps
of Engineers to drain the Everglades to prevent flooding of new man-made
developments.
Unfortunately,
the Corps was quite successful. To contain the water, a series of canals and
levees was built, as was a dike around Lake Okeechobee, which once spread water
over the Everglades’ grass. The water was whisked to the Gulf of Mexico and the
Atlantic Ocean, leaving much of the Everglades’ plant and animal life high and
dry.
The
Everglades, once more than 8 million acres, has shrunk to half that size.
Nearly 70 plant and animal species face extinction.
This
bill is not an attempt to make the Everglades the swamp it once was. That would
be impossible. In 1948, just over a half-million people lived in southern
Florida, now 6 million do. Those people need water, and so do sugar cane
fields, orchards and other businesses.
Yet
by removing some dikes and barriers and building aquifers to catch and retain
water, the Army Corps of Engineers believes it can undo some of the damage and
bring water - and thus life - to the Everglades.
No
one knows for sure whether the effort will succeed. But it is indisputable that
the Everglades will be lost without an ample supply of water.
Perhaps
the Corps of Engineers can give what it took away. The House of Representatives
must give it the chance.
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