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Reservoir A-1 Sugar Land Deal EPA-Florida Water Rules Rock Mining Off-shore Oil
    LOOK ! Controversial
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Reservoir A-1 : RECENT January 16, 2014: Work resumes on stalled Everglades reservoir

>> Oct. 13, 2013: Work to resume on reservoir A1 redesigned as Flow Equalization Basin
>> March 2, 2013: SFWMD is designing a different version of reservoir A-1:
Reviving stalled Everglades reservoir raises homes and cost questions     » EARLIER:

>> March 23, 2011, Federal Judge Moreno's decision allows for abandoning Reservoir-A1 construction - the site can be used for "other alternatives" (STA) to clean the Everglades:
>> Ruling gets state off hook for Glades reservoir (Miami Herald)                     » MORE

     
   
 
What's Cooking
EPA Water Quality Standards
Big Sugar & Land
Land swapping
Lake Okeechobee
Rock mining
Tamiami Trail Bridging
Nuclear plant
Offshore Oil

» Read more

LOOK AT MAP

Cick below for special
EvergladesHUB website on -
EPA Water Quality Standards
EPA and FDEP finally agree:
l FL water rules tread water (09/12/2012)
l Back on path to protect a treasure (06/16/2012)
l Everglades clean-up approved (06/15/2012)
l EPA OKs $880M Everglades clean-up (06/14/2012)

Polluters' propaganda is wrong
News-Press.com: Dec. 14, 2010 (abbreviated):
Re: "New EPA water standards are costly and based on bad science," Barney Bishop, Dec. 2. Billions of dollars may well be lost if Mr. Barney Bishop (CEO of Associated Industries of Florida) and his vocal, influential minority are successful in their fear-mongering strategy to prevent implementation of the plans to improve the water quality of Florida's waterways. Industry sacrifices waters' future to short-term profits. Those who profit the most from the current, old-fashioned system of short-term economic growth must adjust. In a recent poll, over 80 percent of Floridians indicated they wanted improvements to water quality. The silent majority seems to realize that the sustainable economies for Florida (agriculture, fishing and tourism) require clean and healthy water systems. Mr. Bishop's remark about algae blooms being natural is superficial and absurd. Nutrient input from humans has been demonstrated to faul our waters. Since industry influences the political appointments by elected leaders, the agencies have bowed to these pressures. It would be more appropriate to shift the responsibility of cleanup costs for improving water quality back to the polluters instead of the tax-payers. The natural waters of Florida should not continue to serve as the cesspools for industry. I hope the residents of Florida are not gullible enough to allow it. Our ability to thrive and prosper on the planet requires implementation of more sustainable practices. I hope other leaders of industry are willing to step up and do what is right.
l Playing politics - Florida's water -Dec.9/10
l Earthjustice blasts lawsuit against EPA -1208
l Florida sues EPA over water rules -1207
l New EPA standards - bad science ? -1202
l EPA and SFWMD head-to-head -1130
l EPA rules for FL long overdue -1121
l The Cost Of Cleanup
l EPA delaying new rules
l EPA-FL water war


Tamiami Trail Bridge
to be expanded - new $$:
Everglades Summit 2010

In MAY'10, the government is recommending another 5.5 miles be elevated to improve the flow of surface water. Money for the $330 million dollar project has yet to be authorized by Congress, but Secretary Salazar already committed $360 million in economic stimulus money and promised another $278 million in 2010.
In December 2009, with an infusion of federal funding, the project to elevate a mile of the roadway finally broke ground.
BRIDGE START in 12/09
:


BRIDGE APPROVED 9/09
:
Everglades to get water relief from $81 mln bridge

Reuters: Sep. 29, 2009
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awarded an $81 million contract to Kiewit Southern Company of Sunrise, FL. They are to remove 1 mile of the Tamiami Trail road that crosses the park and blocks natural water flows to the northeastern Everglades - and replace it with the bridge. "Tamiami Trail currently acts as a dam that starves the Park of its lifeblood -- water," said Dan Kimball, superintendent of Everglades NP
.
» Read more - -


Lake Okeechobee Pollution Levels Spike Out of Control
CommonDreams.org: Sep.23, 2009

Current phosphorus pollutant levels are "approximately 4 times" the legal maximum level according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency figures jointly released today.. "There is a 300 square mile ‘muck zone' on the bottom of Lake Okeechobee containing 30,000 tons of phosphorus for which there is no clean-up plan".

» Read more - -
» Also in the BLOG with Bo-


Federal stimulus money - -
July 7, 2009
- - is paying for more than roads and bridges during this economic downturn. Ecological projects are part of the mix -- and that bodes well for Florida. Using stimulus dollars to conserve resources that generate millions of tourist dollars also contributes to our food and water supplies and generates jobs. ....
» Read more
arrow Read up on projects

 
Reservoir A-1 :

A-1 moonscape








Abandoned Reservoir A-1 project. More than $270-million "moonscape".
It is supposed to get used in the future - redesigned as a FEB (Flow Equalization Basin)
The future is in 2013 ?
  A-1 Reservoir Construction to Begin - to Improve Everglades Water Quality (SFWMD Press Release, October 10, 2013)
abandoned digging
  Reviving stalled Everglades reservoir raises homes and cost questions (Sun Sentinel, March 2, 2013)
abandoned digging




LOOK !
Controversial

- 1 mile finished
- Expansion considered
Tamiami Trail Bridging :
Tamiami Trail NOW
Tamiami Trail as it has been for decades (above) - and below is as it may look like in
a few years. The new 1-mile long bridging
has opened for traffic in March 2013.
US-DOI even offered a preferred extended version - 6.5 miles bridging - but backed off. Now it is quite uncertain just how long a bridge there will eventually be.

A bridge for waters




LOOK !
Controversial

- Some land bought
- Which to swap ?
Land Swap :
agriculture
Agricultural land has been bought off, mainly South of Lake Okeechobee in the Everglades Agricultural Area. However, the land parcels are discontinuous. When consolidated, the land is eventually to be replaced by water-cleansing wetlands :
cleansing wetlands



LOOK !
Controversial

- Critically polluted !
- Dike & South floway ?
Lake Okeechobee :
Polluted Okeechobee







Lake Okeechobee is just loaded with polluting Phosphorus ! The adjacent Everglades Agricultural Area keeps running off more of it - in all directions. Part of it is the subject of the recent controversial land purchase deal (from US Sugar Co.).
Brady Ranch land at Lake Okeechobee (below) for the STA wetland construction :
Land needed








LOOK !
Controversial

- Pits as reservoirs ?
- Expansions debated
Rock Mining :
Mining
Rock and sand is needed for construction. The mines disturb the shallow aquifers and promote water quality deterioration, dangerous in the vicinity of fresh-water wells and of the Everglades.
Big area mining


click VIDEO
Click for VIDEO:
"Rock Mining"


 
LOOK !

Look at where your $$ go :
Look at the A-1 HISTORY -
Can you make sense of these 2 articles ?

This is how the original controversy developed - at a huge expense !

Reservoir A1
So far, $ 272
million for a
moonscape ?

Delays, price hikes make a muck of $800 million Everglades project
Palm Beach Post - July 10, 2009 (PAUL QUINLAN, Staff Writer) - abbreviated article (click HERE for FULL TEXT)
Deep in the cane fields south of Lake Okeechobee, a massive construction site sits abandoned along U.S. 27, its dreams for the Everglades unfulfilled. Bulldozers and earthmovers reduced a vast swath of these 25 square miles to a gray moonscape of pooled water and piled rock. This was supposed to have become the world’s largest free-standing reservoir.
Officially called the A1 Reservoir, this environmental Stonehenge carried an $800 million price tag and big-name endorsements from the likes of Al Gore and Jeb Bush.
The plan was to build an above-ground lake of colossal dimensions to feed water into the parched Everglades.
It would be nearly the size of Boca Raton and hold more water than 100,000 Olympic-size swimming pools. Its 22-mile perimeter wall would stand three stories tall. Construction was slated to end next year (2010).
Instead, the project has become one of the most expensive false starts in the largely fruitless effort to restore the Everglades, in which the A1 Reservoir was a crucial element.
Two years and $272 million into construction, the South Florida Water Management District suddenly ordered work on the reservoir halted in May 2008. Six months later, water managers canceled construction altogether, incurring fees and penalties that could add up to another $40 million.
The land may still be used to repair the Everglades, but much of the money spent can never be recaptured - for example, $113 million to build a rock-crushing plant that contractors later dismantled.
The shutdown coincided with Gov. Charlie Crist’s announcement of an even bolder and costlier Everglades restoration initiative: a $1.75 billion state buyout of U.S. Sugar Corp. and its 180,000-acre farming empire, land perfectly situated to recreate the historic flows of the Everglades.

Water managers say Crist’s U.S. Sugar deal, made public in June 2008, did not influence their decision one month earlier to halt work on the A1 Reservoir.
But today, officials concede they cannot afford to pay for both at once, even though Crist has trimmed the U.S. Sugar deal to $536 million for 73,000 acres.
The land deal will require scrapping the reservoir plan, as the larger Everglades restoration blueprint is overhauled to incorporate the new acreage. It’s worth it, say the governor and his environmental allies, who view the U.S. Sugar deal as a historic opportunity.
“I think the benefits of doing better in the long run far exceed the costs,” said district board member Shannon Estenoz.
But others question whether the change of course was worth the extraordinary expense - not to mention the delay in rescuing an ecosystem on the verge of collapse.
“What the district has done was to walk away from the original Everglades restoration plan,” said Mike Collins, a district board member and critic of the U.S. Sugar deal. “We were ready to go, and now we’re in limbo.”
The A1 Reservoir project grew out of its own celebrated land purchase.
In December 1997, then-Vice President Gore announced that the state and federal governments would buy out the Talisman Sugar Corp. The 63,000 acres acquired in the $152 million deal would be used to store and cleanse billions of gallons of water to help hydrate the Everglades.
Completed in 1999, it was at the time the largest single land deal aimed at Everglades restoration. Years later, the water district carved out a 16,700-acre portion and called it the A1 Reservoir.
The reservoir was to be a keystone of a 68-piece, $10.9 billion Everglades restoration plan that Congress passed in 2000. The deal called for the state and feds to split the costs 50-50, but bickering between the parties and a lack of money from Congress ground the restoration to a crawl.
Meanwhile, the jobs that the state had repeatedly boasted of disappeared.

Money still well spent
Palm Beach Post - Editorial, July 21, 2009
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2009/07/21/a6a_talisman_edit_0722.html
Other similar writings by Eric Buermann, Board Chair of the SFWMD :
"Once-in-a-lifetime chance to restore Everglades" - http://www.evergladeshub.com/news/arch/augTXT.htm#090816
"Investment in Everglades restoration not wasted" - http://www.evergladeshub.com/news/arch/sepTXT.htm#0909253

It’s hard to throw away as much as $40 million in public money and call it a cost savings. But that’s essentially what the South Florida Water Management District is saying about its decision to halt construction in western Palm Beach County of the world’s largest above-ground reservoir.
As The Post reported on July 12, the district stopped construction of the A1 Reservoir last year at a pivotal point. The district had spent $272 million preparing the site, particularly by carving out a 22-mile perimeter. The next stage, at a cost of $330 million, called for building 12-foot-high walls along the perimeter to turn the former sugar cane field into a humongous bathtub.
After a lawsuit challenged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit the district obtained for the project, district officials stopped work before erecting the walls. If the permit had been ruled invalid, the district would have had to dismantle the walls. So, on behalf of the public, the district swallowed $2 million a month - the total could be as much as $40 million - in fees to suspend the contract.
One month later, Gov. Crist announced plans for the water management district to buy U.S. Sugar in a "show-stopper" deal. It changed everything about how the A1 Reservoir, on the former Talisman cane fields, would fit into the new picture of Everglades restoration. Since then, the district has stopped the contract on the A1 Reservoir and shelved the project.
But the completed work is not worthless. It could prove invaluable.
To preserve the Everglades, the district needs to store and clean water. With the U.S. Sugar purchase, the district no longer would need to store water on the Talisman land because it would be more practical to store water farther north, next to Lake Okeechobee. Instead of a reservoir with 12-foot walls, the Talisman lands would be converted more productively into a marsh that would cleanse polluted water before it is released into the Everglades. The construction that has been done could prove useful in creating the marsh.
Palm Beach County wasted millions by ignoring lawsuits and starting to build a Scripps Florida campus at Mecca Farms. The water district came dangerously close to a similar mistake with the A1 Reservoir, but pulled back before reaching the point of no return. There may be reason for the public to be a little frustrated, but there is no reason for the public to be angry.

FLORIDA EVERGLADES - MAJOR CURRENT PROJECTS
and the most Controversial Projects
(click for locating photos)

Hot Projects

Click here for a Larger Interactive Google SATELLITE Map
ZOOM IN for a "helicopter view"
 BIG SUGAR, its AGRICULTURE and LAND     CLICK HERE for special page       A $ 650 million business       TOP of page
l Initiated in 2009 - Gov. Crist
l Originally $ 1.75 billion
            for 185,000 acres

l Twice scaled down to -

Florida and
US-Sugar Corp.
land deal
:

$ 536 million for 72,500 acres,
finally:                          
$ 197 million for 26,800 acres  
Gov. Crist US-Sugar Co. Land deal: Full & Downsized (CLICK to ENLARGE)
US-Sugar mill
 » NEWS - Read more - PRESS - -                               ( click the link for FULL TEXT by " EvergladesHUB.com " )
Everglades land-deal :
l Judge's order for reservoir imperils land buy -0331
l Big Sugar sues - Clean Water Act -0329
l Find money for sugar deal ? -0327
l Sugar growers take a swipe at Evergl. deal -0326
l Independent, 3rd party to negotiate (Mar.25)
l Time to renegotiate with US Sugar (Mar.24)
l Best for Everglades, re-do US Sugar deal (Mar.15)
l Don't give up on Everglades (Mar.15)
l Everglades needs sugar deal done right (Mar.13)
l Everglades land deal: 6-month extension (Mar.12)
l Water managers extend US Sugar deal (Mar.11)
l Purchase is key to Everglades restoration (Mar.10)

NY-Times
l Deal to Save Everglades           May Help Sugar Firm
        (March 7, 2010)

l Everglades Land Purchase
        (March 17, 2010)


 
l Fair price ? That depends
        (Mar.7, 2010)
Everglades land-deal :
l Key vote on US Sugar land buy (M.9)
l Deal - save Everglades - and a sugar firm
l Everglades: a Dream Is Deferred (Mar.8)
l US Sugar deal calls for oversight (Mar.7)
l Water district can't afford to buy... Mar.7
l Fair price ? That depends   (Mar.7,2010)
l Water managers - Everglades on hold
l Everglades Restoration Clears a Hurdle
l Crist praises for Big Sugar land buy
l US-Sugar Everglades land deal approved
l Florida to buy land from sugar firm
        (June 24, 2008)

 OFFSHORE OIL DRILLING Not quite an "Everglades" business
(But this is not the "Everglades business") :

Florida
offshore
oil drilling:

Is this how
Florida Gulf
Coast sunsets
will look like ?
Sunset - take a picture ! Sunset - take another picture ! Sunset - the rigs look similar ! oh-noooo !!
DATE HEADLINE      (click links for FULL TEXT by " EvergladesHUB.com " ) SOURCE (Original)

100521-1
100521-2
100520-5
100518-1
100517-1
100517-3
100511-3
100511-4

Anger Simmers Over Spreading Gulf Oil Slick
Conflict of Interest Worries Raised in Spill Tests
While off-shore drilling in question, Florida's onshore oil production strong
2 scientists say oil is nearing a far-reaching current
Deep sea oil plumes, dispersants endanger reefs
Fisheries fear oil spill impact
More than an oil spill
Oil spills and political futures

NPR
New York Times
Palm Beach Post
New York Times
Associated Press
So.FL Business Journal
Los Angeles Times
So. Political Report

    >>> The Gulf oil spill disaster - in hundreds of press articles !   <<<<

CLICK for special PAGE         Federal Off-shore Drilling - Proposed       CLICK for special PAGE Click here for a special "oil" web-page            FEDERAL OFF-SHORE DRILLING                    Click here for a special "oil" web-page                                                                            PROPOSED earlier by Pres. Obama:

    >>> Up to the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion event -   <<<<

100421-1
100330-2
100316-5
091017-2
091017-1

12 are missing after oil rig blast in Gulf of Mexico       see rig afire - VIDEO
Obama to Open (Federal) Offshore Areas to OIL DRILLING for First Time
Study: Drilling debate over state's Gulf waters has wider implications
Parties rake in oil, gas cash
China is close to oil deal in Gulf of Mexico

Houston Chronicle
New York Times
The Orlando Sentinel
Tampa Tribune
New York Times

 











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LOOK !
To double
reactors ?

Nuclear Plant :
cooling canals
Turkey Point FPL nuclear power plant south of Miami was to be doubled in size. This would require wast quantities of gravel, to be mined close-by. The plant expansion has been postponed. The plant's current huge cooling system of canals can be seen all the way from satellites in space.
Turkey Point nuke






   
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