Supporting the Everglades now is so important for future generations

Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.8/102.5FM this morning to talk about the importance of the Everglades.

The mission of the Everglades Foundation has been to restore and protect the Everglades, driven by science. An event on January 25 celebrated the South Florida Water Management District.

Eikenberg said, “You may remember back in 2016, the foundation along with a number of other partners including individuals, we launched the Now or Neverglades campaign and this was an effort to get a reservoir approved by the Florida Legislature and then ultimately built so that we can store clean and send water from Lake Okeechobee down to Florida Bay. So 2016 started this process, it moved into ‘17 where it was approved, 2018 Congress gave its approval to it. The good news is the reservoir project, 17,000 acres, the size of Manhattan is now underway directly south of the lake in the middle of all that sugar cane territory. In January that ribbon cutting was the state portion, an engineered wetland that is now built, 6,500 acres of a wetland that will remove the pollution, phosphorus, nitrogen, all the nutrients and the pollution in the water, again from Lake Okeechobee, so that we can send clean water south to the Everglades again, ultimately down the Florida Bay. That was a huge event in January. It was a long time coming. And now this massive reservoir project is coming out of the ground and we’re quite optimistic that the solution to our problems is coming quickly.”

Some discharges from Lake Okeechobee released a lot of polluted water.

Eikenberg said, “Well, as they say, here we go again. Lake Okeechobee at 16 and a half feet, the water depth, 16 and a half feet back in February, a little bit too high for the Army Corps. As we head into the remaining months of a dry season heading towards June 1. The colonel in Jacksonville decided that it was time to open the gates on the east and west coasts of Lake Okeechobee. We certainly could Monday morning quarterback why was this not done back in the fall? Why is there a foot and a half of additional water going into the central Everglades, i.e. coming off sugarcane fields but all that to say the Army Corps opened the gates and we have billions of gallons of water being wasted to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. What adds insult to injury here is it’s not just a bunch of freshwater. It’s dirty freshwater. That pollution is impacting the oyster habitats. It over time will impact the seagrass that manatees feed off and the fisheries feed off. Then as the temperatures increase as we head into the summer months, you’re going to start to see the presence of algae. In fact, there is algae on Lake Okeechobee and that’s toxic. We’ve been through this in years and summers past. The solution to this calamity is Everglades restoration and the infrastructure that is desperately needed. The optimistic message here today is that the projects are coming out of the ground. We have a few more years for all this to come online. Once it does, we receive significant benefit here on the Florida peninsula.”

Could there be any relation between the discharge of wastewater in February to what people have been seeing in the sawfish in the Keys?

Eikenberg said, “I think the discharges in February would not be directly impacting what you’re seeing down in the Florida Keys here recently and I also want to be very careful not to present anything, I’m not a scientist. I’m not an expert on these fisheries. But listen, I was on Florida Bay last summer when we had that record day of the water temperature, I recall it being 104, 105 degrees. So whether these impacts of water temperature, we have coral bleaching, we have a number of issues, let alone still recovering from the 2015 algae outbreak in Florida Bay. So again, there are scientists at the Everglades Foundation, Florida International University, Bonefish and Tarpon Trust, a variety of NGOs, universities studying to understand what’s happening, but it’s a phenomenon, which is quite sad.”

Last week Congress approved $425 million fiscal year 2024 for funding for Everglades restoration.

Eikenberg said, “No doubt, it is good news. That’s critical money and critical dollars to come down here to Florida and then with the Florida Legislature adjourning on March the eighth, they sent a budget to the governor that calls for $741 million for comprehensive Everglades projects. That’s a record from the state perspective. Then the president just after his State of the Union address, he has now recommended $444 million dollars to Congress for the next fiscal year. So all this to say, in order to achieve in our view, that connection from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay, these next five to six years are critically important. We need to have $1 billion dollars combined between Washington and Tallahassee happening every single year in order for us to meet a 2030 moment. When Bill Clinton signed the Everglades plan back in the year 2000, it called for a 30 year commitment to the river of grass and we feel that 2030, the end of this current decade, that’s where we are putting our energy towards, that’s where we’re making sure that politicians both in Washington and here in Florida understand what’s at stake. It’s the economic best interest for all of us. We need these projects built.”

Education is key when it comes to the Everglades.

Eikenberg said, “I want to thank the schools, the elementary, middle and high schools in the Keys, Upper Keys, Middle Keys, Lower Keys, they’ve been exceptional with our Everglades literacy program, ensuring that students in Monroe County understand the importance of Florida Bay, our fishing, our boating, our Everglades, our water supply. But also the viability for the Keys long term economically all hinges upon the water. When we get the water right, and we get the flow right and we get the pollution out of the water and we get a healthy ecosystem and a Florida Bay, the next generation and future generations will benefit. That’s what this is all about. I want to thank all the teachers and administrators within the school district for participating in our Everglades literacy program. Any school that might want to do so, reach out to us. It’s a free curriculum, free lesson plans. We train the teachers and we’re building an army of advocates for generations to come.”

For more information, click here:  https://www.evergladesfoundation.org/