The CERP and What it Does 01 — EATING THE EVERGLADES

        Those Gentle Readers who keep up with what is happening in south Florida legal circles may be aware that in 2000 the Federal and State passed legislation that officially created the CERP[1] was trumpeted by members of the Clinton and several Bush administrations (President of the U.S. and Governor of Florida) and various Federal and State politicians as the rescue mission that finally would save the Everglades. However, attached to that rescue mission was an initial cost of $8 billion. And counting, until in summer 2011 the number stands at about $13.5 billion, and that’s far from what the total will actually be.

        To date (summer 2011), the Federal government has appropriated $755 million through Fiscal Year 2011 for CERP since the WRDA-2000 was passed compared with over $2.1 billion appropriated by the State. So, the State is doing it’s share while the feds lag far behind.

        Based on specific recommendations made by the Corps of Engineers, Congress proclaimed with magisterial gravitas: “The basic problem of this area is, therefore, to restore the natural balance between soil and water in this area in so far as possible by establishing protective works, controls, and procedures for conservation and use of water and land” (key words have been highlighted by the author). It should be painfully obvious to anyone with a functioning brain that the Everglades had been royally screwed since before the 1920s by the uninformed, heavy-handed meddling of the Corps of Engineers. Therefore, for Congress, the very best solution was to turn the restoration assignment over to the Corps for more uninformed, heavy-handed meddling. Which then, by some magical osmosis, would restore the natural environmental balance. Hey, it makes perfect sense to me. From people who were unable to spell ecosystem, much less bother to understand the inherent complexities of natural bio-systems, would spring forth a newly restored Everglades. Pardon my cynicism but I’m still not certain which group is characterized by more meretricious double-talkers and double-dealers, Congress or the Corps.

        Regardless of whether today’s crypto-green Corps is intentionally lying through its teeth in an effort to salvage its shaky reputation by re-writing history or is merely trying to lay down a thick smoke screen to cover its past guilt and present incompetence, the reality no one can deny is that the wetlands of south Florida have either been destroyed or savagely altered by flood control and water management practices put in place by the Corps since the 1900s. It is also true that those pre-drainage wetlands can never be fully restored. Let me state that again. The wetlands of south Florida can never be fully restored. Never, never, never, never never. And that also is a nearly universal scientific judgment. One of the next posts presents more details on that topic.

        The very best that can happen is that parts of the Everglades will be allowed to recover certain aspects of their former healthy, pre-drainage state. In the Corps’s CERP scenario, the result will be an environment that is totally human-dependent (meaning non-natural and subject to direct human control and management) and will only “resemble” the pre-drainage Everglades.[2] So, what we will have is an artificial, cultural landscape that would look in part like the real thing but could never function naturally again. It will be a pseudo-natural, Disneyesque Everglades that only mimics the real thing. Thanks to the thoughtless demands of millions of people over the last nine decades to exploit a beautiful but fragile environment through living and working in south Florida. And getting fat at the expense of the Everglades without giving a damn about the inevitable consequences of their indifference.

        Like everything else that has affected the south Florida environment, the problems facing the 2000 WRDA legislation and the goal of restoring the Everglades were myriad and hellaciously complex. Michael Grunwald quotes Stuart Applebaum, the Army Corps of Engineers official in charge of the CERP project, as saying, “CERP isn’t brain surgery; it’s more complicated.”[3]

        Wait, wait, wait. Stop right there. What’s wrong with that picture? More complicated than brain surgery? We can’t let that statement pass without some reflection. What on Earth could make restoring the Everglades to a condition that is only partially natural harder than life and death neurosurgery?

First, who is that guy, Stuart Applebaum? When I first looked him up on the internet out jumped his official Corps resume. When he made that statement he was, in the best Corps terminology possible: "Chief, Ecosystem Restoration Section, Plan Formulation Branch, Planning Division." And the "Chief of the Ecosystem Restoration Section for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District." In a phrase, good old Stu was responsible for leading the Central and Southern Florida Project Comprehensive Review Study. He was the main man.

        Okay, but what about his technical expertise? Mr. Applebaum appears to be well-trained, with a BS in Civil Engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of New York and an MS in Water Resources Engineering from George Washington University. He belongs to all the right professional organizations. American Society of Civil Engineers. American Water Resources Association. And the Society of American Military Engineers. Stuart is a well-trained engineer through and through, wouldn't we all agree? And he's heading what been trumpeted nationally as the nation's largest and most prominent environmental restoration plan. Is anyone out there pondering those obvious contradictions? Like, what does a civil engineer know about environmental restoration?

        Back to Stuart's infelicitous brain surgery analogy. As I asked above, why is restoring the Everglades all that complicated? A better question is, in that quote, is Applebaum talking about bio-systems? Surely they’re not all that complex [actually they are but I’m trying to make a point here so let's not get bogged down in the middle of the complexity theory debate so beloved by biologists]. Or perhaps he was referring to water management controls? No way. The Corps has had those nailed down for four decades or more. So, maybe he meant something else entirely.

        Without ever speaking to the guy, my take is Stu was talking about the money and the politics. Not the Federal CERP budget but the money that's being made every day, year in and year out from the merciless exploitation of the south Florida environment. Oh, yeah, that money. From growing sugarcane. From raising cattle. From mining limestone. From growing subdivisions. From building one strip mall or office park after another. From developing the Miami Lakes wetlands, like that good old boy, Senator Bob the Hypocrite Graham, intrepid supporter of the Everglades that he claims to be while he and his family get fat by eating the Everglades. And of course we can't forget those profits are used to buy access to the politicians' inner circles through substantial campaign contributions. That money, that politics, that grease. You get the picture?

        Author's Note: In 1962 the Graham family began converting its extensive dairy farm holdings, about five and a half square miles of pastureland, into a planned community known as the Town of Miami Lakes. Many family members, including the Bobster himself, continue to have residences there. Meticulously maintained and highly regulated, the community’s mixed-use design has earned praise from certain urban planners and condemnation from environmentalists, since the farm is located in the historical Everglades. Those real estate dealings have proven tremendously beneficial for the Grahams, since their land, which in 1948 was valued at $50 per acre, now sells for more than $400,000 per acre. Ka-ching, ka-ching. Although the Graham Companies is privately held and detailed financial information is not available to the public, some analysts estimate the company’s revenues at well in excess of $75 million annually. Who says eating wetlands doesn't pay? Not that good old boy, Senator Bob. Squeeze them wetlands and out flows cold, hard cash, right into the Graham pockets. Which means the Grahams have been getting fat by eating the Everglades for a long time.

        Back to Stuart Applebaum. If he meant that money and that politics, maybe old Stu wasn't far off the mark with his brain surgery analogy. Maybe he was trying to tell us something critical and had to use code to get the message across. Sort of like Senator Trent Lott using code about racial politics just before he bit the big political bullet. Well, maybe not. After all, Stu works for the Corps and that military-based agency has never had a reputation for developing professional staff with a penchant for subtlety. It’s all "Yes, sir." "No, sir." "May I please kiss your ass, sir?"

        But if he were trying to tell us the CERP is all about the brutal shadow-world of insider politics, he was absolutely correct. How else could agricultural corporations, cattle ranchers, developers, and mining firms be allowed to destroy a unique, world-class natural resource like the Everglades? The only example of its kind on Earth. Wait a minute. Aren't we talking about resources as rare as sugarcane, pastureland, sub-dividable property, and limestone used for road and highway construction?

        Sugarcane can be and is grown much cheaper throughout the tropics than it is anywhere in the U.S. Large-scale properties devoted to cattle grazing are common in every state of the union except Alaska. And limestone is found throughout the country and is imported more cheaply from numerous off-shore sources than it can be produced in south Florida. After the Everglades have disappeared from the Earth and the local limestone deposits have played out, the mining firms will pack up their operations and move elsewhere. And start ripping up that new environment to get the rock they covet. So what happens to the Everglades when they leave? Can it go back to the way it was? NFW. The south Florida wetlands as a natural environment will be long gone. Dead. Non-restorable. Altered beyond recognition. Stay tuned for more information on lime rock mining in the Everglades in a devious, Machiavellian subterfuge known as the Lake Belt Plan, of all things.

        What kind of sense does the above make in light of Appelbaum’s comment? Money, profits, and political influence. Better start thinking grease, baby, grease. That’s what sense it makes. That’s why restoring the Everglades is so complex. By purchasing access to politicians, companies have bought the right to destroy an environment that is irreplaceable. Enchantingly beautiful. Haunting. But those ecosystem cards are easily trumped by money, profits, and especially by access to good old boy Florida politicians. Don’t lose sight of the fundamental, critical significance of those three elements to the survival of the Everglades. Money, profits, and political influence. Trump, trump, trump. No wonder wetlands are being eaten in huge gulps of hundreds of acres at a time.

        Here's a fundamentally dumb but heart-felt question and I'd be grateful if you told me the answer if you know it because I really don't have a clue.

WHERE'S THE JUSTICE OF IT ALL?

        Allow me to get back on track and focus on material that is slightly more technical for a few pages. The intent of the CERP is to capture much of the 1.7 billion gallons of freshwater it loses each day (most of which is now pumped out to sea) and pump it into surface and underground storage areas. That water would then be retrieved when needed. For urban and agricultural uses.[4] Oh, almost forgot, and also to supply the natural system. Yeah, right. To accomplish that goal, the CERP is comprised of 68 major components grouped into over 40 on-the-ground projects.[5] It would create approximately 217,000 acres of new reservoirs and wetland-based water treatment areas, wastewater reuse plants, seepage management, and would remove a few levees and canals in natural areas. However, of the CERP’s 50 construction components, only 17 offer some environmental benefits. One of those components would remove levees, canals, and water control structures in Water Conservation Areas 3A and 3B to reestablish some sheetflow to the Everglades and Big Cypress National Preserve. Which sounds good. But the other 32 components call for construction of more dikes, levees, and pump stations for above-ground reservoirs and water treatment areas, known as Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs) and mega-wells to pump freshwater into aquifers. Which is not so good if you're stupid enough to be thinking environmental restoration.

        Truth time. Does any of the above read like an environmentally-based restoration plan? Or does it sound like your typical Corps of Engineers flood control-water management project? You think maybe that's why civil engineers are in charge of making the Plan happen? Duh? So, why don't they just drop the scam and call a spade a spade? The reason? Because the CERP was sold to the ever gullible public as a project that would "restore" America's Everglades. And no one wants to admit what a shameless fraud Congress and the powerbrokers have been pulling over the public's eyes from the get-go.

        The CERP also proposes to employ 300 deep wells, known as aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) wells, with pumps capable of injecting 1.7 billion gallons per day into underground storage zones. Originally the Corps planners had intended to store water in large reservoirs but they hit the wall of $40,000-an-acre plus land prices in the Miami area and the sugar industry’s reluctance to sell land in the north. Not to mention the high evaporation rates everywhere in south Florida and lawsuits brought by environmental organizations. So, about one-fifth of the Plan's cost will be spent on wells, to the staggering tune of $1.7 billion. The intention is to store 20 times as much water as is now contained in the world’s largest aquifer storage site in Las Vegas.[6] And that’s despite the fear of professional geologists that the proliferation of wells and the enormous quantities of water being pumped could fracture the aquifer formations and contaminate south Florida’s drinking water supply.

        Say, ever wonder about the drilling firms in south Florida that will get fat sinking all those wells? No? Well, take an educated guess about how much money those firms have been pouring into political campaign coffers lately. Beaux coups bucks. To make certain the ASR idea doesn't dry up. Interestingly, those deep injection wells are new, never tried technology. No one, not even the Corps's own experts, knows if the technique will work. Or if any of that injected water can be recovered. No exaggeration.

        Hey, you’ve got to realize that optimism is a way of life when the Corps's talking about technological fixes to environmental problems. Remember, it’s the Corps of Engineers and those boys do love high-tech. By the way, biologists as a species are always less than upbeat about the efficacy of technological fixes for environmental problems. Which is why they are never in charge of projects like the CERP. And why should they be anyway? After all, we’re talking about environmental restoration, a topic of considerable bio-complexity. So that’s why engineers are the head honchos. Right. Doesn’t that make perfect sense to everyone? It should if you look behind the curtain and see the Big Three powerbrokers hard at work manipulating their puppet-head, bend-over politicians.

        However, what is certain [as of summer 2011] is that the Plan will cost a minimum $13.5 billion to implement and an estimated $185 million plus for annual operations and maintenance. When that bouncing ball hits the multi-billion dollar category we’re talking real money. Construction costs will be split evenly between Federal and State funding sources, which is very interesting since the Federal government typically picks up 80 percent of the costs on similar projects. So, why the unusual funding split? My guess is that both the powerbrokers and their butt-boy politicians knew that the U.S. Congress would balk at coughing up 80 percent of the original $8 billion tab so made the deal much more palatable by dropping the Federal share to 50 percent. The State, in the form of the SFWMD, will be responsible for all annual operations and maintenance costs. And how is it we’ll get environmental restoration through flood control and by moving water more efficiently? By osmosis? Well, no. Using one flood control and water supply technique after another will only get us more water management, not environmental restoration. And for their next trick, the Corps will pull a giant swamp rabbit from its magic hat.

        What about the dreams of all the environmental groups for genuine restoration, for the freshwater infusions that the Everglades National Park desperately needs? But remember, those specific components of the Plan have been shoved five or more years into the future. But, don’t hold your collective breath. Even Richard Punnett, the Corps’s chief Everglades hydrologist, doesn’t expect significant water flow changes by the magic 2015 date. Tommy Strowd, the Water District’s operations director, agrees, “It could be a lot longer than that.”[7] Robert Johnson, Everglades National Park's chief scientist, doesn't expect the CERP to help the Park until 2020, if at all. "I hate to be rude," Johnson said, "but isn't this supposed to be a restoration plan?"[8] How many of us can appreciate that environmental scientist's enormous sense of frustration with the Corps's charade and with the Congress that arranged the deal?

        The very real fear of many internationally prominent bio-scientists[9] is that construction of "improvements" contained in the CERP may actually damage the fragile eco-systems of Everglades National Park and Biscayne National Park. But you have to remember that those guys are merely biologists and ecologists. Which is the reason the Corps engineers can ignore them. After all, what could biologists possibly know about environmental restoration that civil engineers don't?

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[1] U.S. Congress, Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2000; Public Law No. 106-541.

[2] And that is the Corps’s description: USACE, Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, Final Feasibility Report and PEIS; p. 2-1, April 1999.

[3] Michael Grunwald, “A Rescue Plan, Bold and Uncertain,” Washington Post, Sunday, June 23, 2002.

[4] Farmers and urban utilities have been assured that the replumbing proposed in the CERP would not reduce their water supplies. Source: Susan Jewell, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, The Recommended Plan: The Everglades Restudy, available on the internet at: http://sofia.usgs.gov/sfrsf/plw/restudy.html

[5] Project Status Reports are available online at: http://www.evergladesplan.org/pm/program_docs/proj_status_reports.cfm

[6] Although “considerable knowledge on ASR technology has been gained over the last five decades, the proposed implementation scale for ASR to meet the objectives of the CERP has never been applied. The largest operational ASR site to date is at Las Vegas, Nevada, with about 30 wells and a total recovery capacity of 100 million gallons per day. A considerable number of significant uncertainties remain.” [Emphases by the author.] Source: USACE; Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan — Aquifer Storage and Recovery Program; available on the internet at: http://www.evergladesplan.org/docs/asr_whitepaper.pdf

[7] Quoted by Michael Grunwald, “A Rescue Plan, Bold and Uncertain; Scientists, Federal Officials Question Project’s Benefits for Ailing Ecosystem,” Washington Post, Sunday, June 23, 2002.

[8] Michael Grunwald, “Everglades: Between Rock and a Hard Place,” Washington Post, June 24, 2002.

[9] Letter signed by several of the U.S.’s most famous and well-respected biologists: Stuart L. Pimm, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee; Paul R. Ehrlich, Stanford University; Gary K. Meffe, Editor, Conservation Biology; Gordon Orians, University of Washington; Peter Raven, Executive Director, Missouri Botanical Garden; and Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University.