The Everglades Oxymoron
The Water Flow
In my story last month I explained that the Kissimmee River is oxymoronic. This month I am going to try to explain why The Everglades (as the Army Corps of Engineers envisions it) is also an oxymoron.
If you’ve been following my stories for the last two years you already know that The Everglades is a long and wide river that flows from the north to the south. The water moves from the north to the south, at the very slow rate of about 1 to 2 miles every 24 hours. Before The Army Corps of Engineers came along the glades were doing just fine. The water levels reach their high point of the year in January and their lowest point in May. To add to the high and low part of the year, we also have El Nino to adding to our water tables. When El Nino hits South Florida hard, the higher than normal water levels would flood the coastal areas and the people that moved to South Florida would complain. The Army Corps of Engineers stepped in and tried to stop any flooding in the future by creating canals and levees to redirect the natural direction of the water flow. Well folks, they did a great job. The folks in the cities on the coast are high and dry. Unfortunately, it was a bad thing for The Everglades. The Army Corps of Engineers dug their canals and built their levees, keeping the water from the river of grass from flowing into the suburbs on the East Coast. Building levees in the glades blocked off the water flow and dammed up the river of grass. They dammed up large areas of Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties calling these dammed up areas water conservation areas. We all know water conservation is supposed to be a good thing, so no one asked questions.
Well, a water conservation area is a reservoir! Is The Everglades, a river or a reservoir? The Army Corps of Engineers has made it both. The only natural part of the glades that is left is the area south of The Tamiami Trail. All of the areas north of the trail are water conservation areas. This covers a large area of land. At Tamiami Trail the river is about 25 miles wide. North of Alligator Alley (I-75) the river is about 50 miles wide. The river has been split down the middle. From the center of the river to the west is, water conservation area 3-A (reservoir 3-A) and it spans from Tamiami Trail north to the sugar plantations of Palm Beach County with no obstructions. On its eastern edge, The Everglades is sectioned off into four reservoirs. These reservoirs are named 3-B, 2-A, 2-B and The Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge (Loxahatchee reservoir).
The next venture for The Army Corps of Engineers and their scientists is an attempt to correct their mistakes of the past by building a ten mile long bridge from the eastern edge of the glades, over Tamiami Trail to the west. Then knock out some of the levees to the north and take out Tamiami Trail to let the water flow (as they say) naturally. Something is terribly wrong with this idea. The trail was completed in the late 30s and the water has never even come close to flowing over the road and now the corps of engineers says that the road is blocking the water flow. This is a lie. The problem is, the road is in the way of their money making plan, the bridge.
We know that there is something wrong with their plan because, the river of grass is 25 miles wide and the bridge will only be 10 miles long. If they wanted to return the water to its natural flow, the bridge would have to be 25 miles long. The army corps of miss-engineers has already said they want to raise the water levels in the east everglades to 4 to 6 feet and this will mean the death of The Everglades.
If the water level were raised to 4 feet or more, the animals would have to leave the area because they walk and forage for food and cannot eat and swim at the same time. All of the plant life would also die because they can not live under water. The Everglades re-creates itself annually by processing fertilizers and minerals during the dry season. This is accomplished through the natural processes of fire and decomposition of plants and animals including fish that die when the water levels drop during the dry season creating the rich sediment that feeds the plant life that returns every year during the rainy season. With water levels kept at 4 feet or more all the time, the glades cannot re-create itself. It will become the equivalent of a lake 4 feet deep. High water will result in the death of Everglades National Park and of The Florida Bay as well as our reefs in the Atlantic Ocean and The Gulf of Mexico. All of which rely on the nutrient rich sediment which can only be created by a natural dry and wet season cycle Because The Everglades is a river that flows southward, everything south of us will starve to death without the ability to create fertilizers or minerals.
The Everglades is not all that complex; we just have too many scientists trying to fill their bank accounts with federal tax money.
The Everglades is drowning in her own tears! We the people will not hear the truth until it is too late to do anything to stop The Army Corps of Engineers and their scientists from killing our river of grass, The Everglades!
Well, I hope you understand The Everglades’ oxymoronic situation a little bit better. It is so hard to explain the glades in one short sentence. That’s why I have to write about it.
THANKS so much for visiting our award winning web site this month and I hope to see you next month!
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Mr. Glenn W. Wilsey Sr. "GATORMAN"
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