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Central Everglades Plan Headed To President Obama

A bill that’s a major step toward restoring the Everglades’ natural water flow is on its way to President Obama.

 

Late Friday night, the Senate approved a nearly $2 billion dollar plan called the Central Everglades Planning Project, more commonly known as the Central Everglades Plan. The plan was initially approved by Congress in September, but language discrepancies between the House and Senate versions had to be ironed out before it could go to the president.

 

"Right now if you think of the Everglades, you have three or four compartments. And some of the compartments have too much water. Some of the compartments don’t have enough," said Eric Eikenberg is CEO of the Everglades Foundation. "Too much water leads to flooding; too little water can result in fires and plant die-off.

 

"The Central Everglades Plan is going to remove all of these man-made barriers, these levees, these dams, and allow water to flow across the central part of the system," Eikenberg said.

 

Removing man-made obstacles will help allow water to flow south from Lake Okeechobee, so it doesn’t have to be released to the east and west. Those east-west releases were a main cause of the smelly, guacamole-like algae that polluted waterways along Florida’s coasts this summer.

 

Eikenberg says a reservoir plan proposed by incoming Florida House President Joe Negron would help reduce pollution in the water, before that water gets sent south. Negron's plan is expected to be taken up by Florida legislators when the Legislature goes into session in March. 

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Peat, a boggy soil incredibly efficient at trapping carbon, has begun drying out in Everglades National Park because of a lack of freshwater. When it collapses, the peat releases carbon back into the air.
Ben Wilson, FIU / Via Miami Herald
/
Via Miami Herald
Peat, a boggy soil incredibly efficient at trapping carbon, has begun drying out in Everglades National Park because of a lack of freshwater. When it collapses, the peat releases carbon back into the air.

Kate Stein can't quite explain what attracts her to South Florida. It's more than just the warm weather (although this Wisconsin native and Northwestern University graduate definitely appreciates the South Florida sunshine). It has a lot to do with being able to travel from the Everglades to Little Havana to Brickell without turning off 8th Street. It's also related to Stein's fantastic coworkers, whom she first got to know during a winter 2016 internship.Officially, Stein is WLRN's environment, data and transportation journalist. Privately, she uses her job as an excuse to rove around South Florida searching for stories à la Carl Hiaasen and Edna Buchanan. Regardless, Stein speaks Spanish and is always thrilled to run, explore and read.
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