Want to know what has happened in south Florida Everglades , only much worse and far more desperate than ever because it really is the 50th minute of the eleventh hour. And the stakes are enormous.
Today in south Florida Everglades National Park publicly maintain that the newly authorized Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (from this point on the initials, CERP, will be used) created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will not provide the claimed environmental benefits to the Everglades , what's a regular person to believe?[1]
Although my intention is to present the materials in this blog in a straightforward manner, that goal is complicated by intensely held opinions and subjective judgments. That's because we'll be looking at a serious, highly complex problem that has many facets, not all of which are open or above board. Many of those elements are characterized by technical problems of exasperating difficulty and by experts who disagree among themselves on the facts as well as on the range of potential adverse effects, mitigation measures, and policy implications. Whoever claimed that science was objective has never studied the south Florida
Sad to say, an easy way to simplify the proposed restoration effort and still do justice to all the issues has not yet been discovered. At least not by me. Having said that, I'm committed to providing as balanced an overview as I can of what has happened in south Florida, why, and what it all means for today, tomorrow and into the future.
If you've had the stamina to make it through the first hundred pages and more of this multi-part blog post on the Everglades, you know where my heart is. On the side of the environment. I desperately want my grandchildren and their grandchildren to be able to breathe fresh air, swim in clean streams, and marvel as a majestic Everglades kite soars past in search of a juicy freshwater apple snail. Despite that mindset, I promise to make an attempt to be as objective as possible in this presentation. Cynical and sarcastic soul though I am. At least my point of view has been revealed for all to see. Which is to ensure that the Everglades will survive into the future as much restored to its former natural state as is possible, even while suspecting that full restoration will prove impossible and that this incredible environment may be doomed as much as by our collective indifference as by the rapacity and greed of powerbrokers. And of course by that of their pet politicians.
As you will see, these next few posts are difficult for a couple reasons. First, the subject is God-awful complicated, if only by the nature of its convoluted and highly controversial history. Second, if you’re a relative neophyte to the subject, you really don’t know who or what to believe. And that's a critical problem. Third, the efforts being proposed to restore the Everglades are both extraordinarily technical and as political as they get. In truth, this topic cries out for a more intensive, investigative approach as a full volume on its own, not just a couple lousy posts in a blog intent on exploring many other closely related but not identical topics. But, that's not in the cards. So we just have to make do. And for me, that's an opportunity to provide as accurate an explanation as I am able within a relatively few pages. While keeping things as interesting and as objective as possible.
To acquire a basic understanding of south Florida 's cornucopia of environmental tribulations, interested Readers should begin by reading Michael Grunwald's wonderful series on Everglades restoration that was published in the Washington Post in June 2002; and if you can't find that series, jump to his book, The Swamp, and you'll find more interesting details.[2] Grunwald hit all the bases and, despite his professed vocation as a reporter for what critics label a notoriously liberal newspaper, he merits the status of a critical but objective observer. That doesn't mean he’s without a viewpoint. But he doesn't beat you over the head with it. So don't be surprised to see materials from Grunwald's newspaper series and his book referred to several times in the analysis below, though my point of view is a good deal more radicalized and polemic than his.
You can also get the CERP and related documents straight from the horse’s mouth by going to the Corps's web site.[3] If you have a fast modem or a high-speed connection you can download the entire document. Don’t forget the stupendously large Annexes, especially the one written by what had to be a cast of two or three dozen U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists. The introduction and summary to their report maintain with a straight face that the Service is 100 percent behind the CERP. They're team players all right. But if you actually read their Annex, instead of yielding to temptation and using it as an emergency wheel chock to prevent your car from rolling downhill, and understand anything about natural systems you’ll get a distinctly different impression. The majority of the Fish & Wildlife scientists seem to be opposed to what the Corps is doing in the CERP. But their bosses, who like their jobs and prefer to stay employed, bent over and assumed the position of abject submission before the dominant Corps and their Congressional masters.
By universal judgment, for 46 long years the "water management improvements" designed by the Corps of Engineers for southFlorida directly caused widespread, large-scale environmental destruction across the entire Everglades and associated ecosystems. And that included the densely settled coastal areas from Homestead north to Port St. Lucie. Today, surprisingly, even the Corps agrees with that assessment. Though they now claim that those problems were unanticipated or inadvertent.[4] While holding up their still bloodied hands to proclaim their righteous innocence.
By universal judgment, for 46 long years the "water management improvements" designed by the Corps of Engineers for south
Finally, even the calloused Florida politicians could no longer close their eyes to the devastation of the Everglades and pretend they were living in Oz. Hey, saltwater intrusion that pollutes the aquifers providing cities with drinking water is a problem that will not go away on its own. And neither will the collapse of coastal ecosystems that support sport and commercial fishermen. Or a myriad other environmental disasters created by the Corps’s idiotic and reprehensible refusal to consider the inevitable adverse effects on biological systems that resulted from their engineering "improvements."
CERP’s most direct ancestor is of course the 1948 C&SF Project, which as a physical reality was fully in place and functional by the early 1970s. From the seventies through the early eighties, when widespread and pernicious environmental problems popped up and refused to go away, the Corps and the State desperately tried to restructure the Project so its many problems could be handled by their partner, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD). That effort to deal with the internal problems, which were caused by the division of the historical Everglades into what the Project’s engineers claimed were separate and unrelated pieces, failed spectacularly. Author’s Note: That's an error scientists identify as compartmentalism.
Environmental groups and many scientists studying south Florida wetlands interpreted what was happening in the Everglades as its death spiral. From the mid-1980s to the present, the Corps, the SFWMD, and the State attempted, on a piecemeal basis, to restore at least some small portion of the natural values of the Everglades . But they were unsuccessful.
In 1992, recognizing that the condition of the Everglades was increasingly desperate, Congress authorized the Corps, through the omnibus Water Resources Development Act,[5] to determine whether modifications to the C&SF Project were necessary owing to changing physical and socioeconomic conditions. But CERP's most closely related antecedent was a trial balloon released in early 1996 by Governor Lawton Chiles's Commission on a Sustainable South Florida. The Commission, established in 1994 (operating until June 1999), was a carefully chosen set of serious players in the political arena. State, regional, and local government representatives. State agency managers. Agricultural and cattle interests. Home builders. Attorneys. Business leaders. Seminole tribe representatives. Oh, yes, and environmentalists of a certain sort (for additional sordid details see the 11-3-11 post: Inside Game/Outside Game).
The Commission Chairman, Richard Pettigrew, a former speaker of the Florida House, realized the chance of the Legislature passing an Everglades restoration plan that was opposed by developers, mining firms, or agribusinesses was a big fat zero. With that unassailable reality hanging over his head like the sword of Damocles, he applied his years of political legerdemain to the task and pulled off a unanimous vote. As was expected, all the major compromises in the final document favored south Florida
However, after decades of being promised that genuine help for the Everglades was just around the corner, the environmentalists on the Commission had reluctantly arrived at the conclusion that a little something was substantially better than tons of empty promises. Which was what the Everglades had been getting for many decades from the Corps and the SFWMD. The short, dirty end of the stick. So with heavy hearts and many second thoughts they climbed in bed with the business and agricultural interests and hoped for the best while preparing for the worst.
It was obvious that the State had neither the money nor the technical expertise to go it alone. So, hat in hand, and with the strong support of the Florida Congressional delegation, they trotted their dog and pony show to Pork Barrel Heaven: Washington , D.C. Florida South Florida ecosystem, while providing for other water-related needs such as urban and agricultural water supply and flood protection in those areas served by the project."[6]
If you read that above quote carefully you may have noticed the problem. The fallacious and environmentally onerous goals of the original C&SF Project were never called into question. No Federal, State, or local politician wanted the original Project’s purpose reexamined. That approach would have been too radical and far too politically explosive. After all, the Big Sugar lords who controlled their EAA lands like medieval fiefdoms had been among the most active players calling for the Restudy, especially since they had the most to lose if the Everglades actually died as an ecosystem. Since those key owners/executives were great pals of Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and both Bushes, their fingerprints were all over the reasons the restoration project was structured the way it was. They had too much to lose to let it become a genuine environmental restoration project. Which is why they were pleased as punch that the Corps, Congress's highly controllable butt-boy who ALWAYS did as they were told, was assigned to do the Restudy.
Congress held the Corps's balls so tightly in their clenched fist there would never be any question as to what they would finally recommend. The Corps generals and engineers would never bite the hand that fed them so well or could punish them so severely if necessity arose. Therefore, their unquestioning loyalty and slavish obedience was a foregone conclusion.
Naturally, after the intense political manipulation and Congress's specific directions, the Restudy came up with the same old so familiar Corps ingredients: structural solutions to flood protection, drainage canals, levees, pumping stations, and water supply for agriculture and urban uses. What a tremendous surprise. Oh, don't forget: and just barely enough environmental restoration thrown in to keep the tree-huggers, like their new best buddy, Audubon of Florida, from jumping ship. More later on those slick-willy collaborators.
Naturally, after the intense political manipulation and Congress's specific directions, the Restudy came up with the same old so familiar Corps ingredients: structural solutions to flood protection, drainage canals, levees, pumping stations, and water supply for agriculture and urban uses. What a tremendous surprise. Oh, don't forget: and just barely enough environmental restoration thrown in to keep the tree-huggers, like their new best buddy, Audubon of Florida, from jumping ship. More later on those slick-willy collaborators.
The Corps’s final report was submitted to Congress in July 1999. Naturally, considering the authors, there were no surprises. The Corps trumpeted that the "Comprehensive [Everglades Restoration] Plan contained in this report will, when implemented, restore, protect, and preserve a natural resource treasure—the South Florida ecosystem." Another intentional misrepresentation from the people who had consistently lied about the environment for well more than ten decades.
In the earliest stages after its creation by the Corps, the CERP enjoyed nearly universal support. Certain environmental organizations (especially the so eager to collaborate Audubon of Florida) agreed to support the CERP only if major environmental improvements were in place by 2010, which was supposed to be the project’s half-way mark in terms of spending. Suddenly, that was a done deal and strange new relationships blossomed. Lobbyists from Audubon of Florida and the sugar industry, who under normal conditions were on the opposite side of whatever issue was under discussion, wound up walking arm-in-arm through the halls of Congress promoting the CERP. As if they actually had something in common.
The environmentalists had been seduced and then mesmerized by the promise that 79 billion gallons of freshwater would be supplied annually to the Everglades National Park Everglades . But as months passed and the lobbying and political pressure mounted, the promise of those 79 billion gallons gradually morphed from a guarandamnteed certainty to a "future" study that would determine the Park’s real freshwater needs. Suspicions confirmed. Things were slowly reverting to normal for the Everglades : come-on promises galore in the here and now but no future delivery.
The environmental strategy of south Florida Everglades to pump up public interest, and then, after everyone is on the bandwagon, drop the Park's needs like a hot potato and get on with the real agenda. Which is making sure the power brokers get fatter. Oh, and don't forget more campaign contributions for those always agreeable Florida
After the downgrading of the 79 billion gallon promise of freshwater came yet another hammer blow. The environmental organizations' other main concerns, how to allocate the project’s water to guarantee ecological progress by 2010 and a crucial set of future regulations that would “ensure the protection of the natural system,” were removed from primary consideration and shuffled off to the sidelines. With fresh promises that they would become the basis of a future federal-state agreement, now known as the Agreement between the Bushes, which was signed on January 9, 2002.
As an aside, after the signing of the Agreement, the White House released a fact sheet that stated that the restoration, while serving the Everglades first, would still benefit those who live around them. "When fully implemented, it [the CERP] will provide the region with an additional 1.7 billion gallons of fresh water per day, ensuring an expanded water supply to meet the growing needs of South Florida communities and farms," the White House stated. Two points should be made about these statements and what they reveal. First, nowhere in the CERP or the Agreement does it state that the needs of the Everglades will be served first, second, or what. Nowhere. The key word used in the CERP to describe the environmental goals is overarching,[7] which can be pressed into service in many disparate ways, as lobbyists and politicians know well. And second, the White House statement allows us to see Bush’s critical mindset. That the 1.7 billion gallons of freshwater will meet the growing needs of south Florida
Although Everglades restoration was sold to environmentalists and the public as the Plan’s overriding purpose, in the end the CERP was only legally committed to meeting the "water-related needs" of South Florida . It was business as usual, or to put it another way, water management as usual. At this point all you Gentle Readers should be thinking canals, pumping stations, agriculture, and urban development. Not more wood storks or Everglades kites, that's for damned sure.
Problem was, those agriculture and development needs had never played a key role in any important discussion during the national lobbying campaign to generate support for the Plan. The focus was always on a slogan Senator Bob Graham coined to de-parochialize what was from the get-go a south Florida Everglades . Keep your mouth shut about everything else. Don’t worry, your water needs will be taken care." It proved to be a very successful strategy. Cynical and dirty-dog double-dealing as hell but most effective.
The CERP started life as the centerpiece of Bill Clinton’s and Jeb Bush’s environmental legacies. Next, President George W. Bush referred to CERP as the best example of his "new environmentalism for the 21st Century." You buy that stinking piece of shit and I want to talk to you about this telecommunications satellite I have for sale.
You might think that most people living in south Florida
[1] It may be of some interest to Readers that even scientists at the South Florida Water Management District believe that the computer models that formed the basis of the CERP suffered from a distinct lack of biological input; for more information see: Fred H. Sklar, H. Carl Fitz, Yegang Wu, Randall VanZee, and Christopher McVoy. 2001. “South Florida: The Reality of Change and the Prospects for Sustainability: The Design of Ecological Landscape Models for Everglades Restoration,” Ecological Economics, vol. 37, no. 3, pp. 379-401.
[2] For a good introduction to the subject of Florida , the Everglades and politics, see Michael Grunwald, The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida , and the Politics of Paradise . New York
[3] Anyone with a well-developed sense of irony should get a kick out of the motto that used to float over the main page of the web site: "Rescuing an endangered eco-system—The journey to restore America ’s Everglades ." That motto has been replaced with this shortened version: "The Journey to Restore America’s Everglades." As if someone other than the Corps had done the evil deed and Corps engineers are the good guys riding to the rescue on white horses. Ironical or not, nonsense like that is hard to take for people who love the Everglades and hate what has been done to it. By Congress and their bend-over boys, the Corps. Online: http://www.evergladesplan.org/.
[4] For a detailed and refreshing treatment of this intriguing topic, see: Edward Tenner. 1996. Why Things Bite Back: Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences, New York : Knopf Publishing.
[5] U.S. Public Law 102-580.
[6] USACE, Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, Final Feasibility Report and Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement; p. 1-7, April 1999.
[7] CERP Vision Statement, A Vision Statement for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District, 31 March 2003; online at: http://www.evergladesplan.org/pm/program_docs/cerp_vision_statement.cfm
