Letter to Palm Beach Post Editorial
 
July 21, 2007
 
Nature can do a better job of managing itself than the efforts of SF Water Management District
 
By Drew Martin
 
We have recently received the news that the cost of Everglade’s restoration may increase to $20 billion ("Everglades restoration delays boost cost estimate $5 billion," July 3). But the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan process is not working.
 
The problem is that the South Florida Water Management District has avoided using natural hydrologic processes such as sheet flow in the Everglades Agricultural Area. Too much money is being spent on reservoirs, dikes, canals and pumps.
 
Money could be better spent purchasing more land in the EAA and re-creating the original sheet flow and filtering sawgrass wetlands that originally produced the clean water that supported the Everglades. Money also needs to be spent removing those impediments to the natural gravitational pull of the water south. This would re-create the "River of Grass," which Marjory Stoneman Douglas described in her epic book.
 
Yes, it is true that Lake Okeechobee's waters are polluted because agricultural interests in the area have over-fertilized and livestock operations north of the lake have dumped waste into the system, but these problems can be solved through organic farming and careful filtering of water before it is placed into the lake. We also must prevent large development from occurring around the lake.
 
To preserve the natural processes, there can be no back-pumping of water from the EAA into Lake Okeechobee. We need to build more extensive storm water treatment areas than are currently planned.
 
Let's put the money into new ones rather than expensive reservoirs with expensive pumping systems. Permit the land to flood and recede naturally. Remove impediments to the flow of water, and build the 11-mile skyway to open up Shark River Slough.
 
We also need to create natural sand systems for our beaches. We need to stop putting sand on beaches and let the beaches naturally re-nourish themselves. Right now, we are killing the next generation of sea turtles by burying and moving nests.
 
Beach armoring also is destroying the beaches. Too many buildings have been and still are being built on unstable dune systems, blocking the natural re-nourishment from the dunes. We must compensate for the inlets with sand bypass systems. Once these are established, the sand then will naturally cycle through the system and preserve the beaches.
Nature knows how to manage these systems, so let's put nature back in
the driver's seat.
 
DREW MARTIN, conservation chairman and co-chairman, Everglades Committee
Loxahatchee Group, Sierra Club
Lake Worth