For more than 100 years land developers, farmers and politicians at local, state and federal level did everything they could to transform the Everglades from "wasteland" to productive land.
As far as they were concerned, the Everglades - the vast River of Grass - served no purpose and so it was best to drain the land to sustain agriculture and an exploding population. Levees, canals and pumping stations were built to divert water from the rivers feeding the wetlands and very successful they were too. More than 700,000 acres of land were reclaimed for agriculture - mostly sugar cane - and tens of thousands more acres were used for housing.
It wasn't until the 1970's that the full impact of what had happened struck home. Half of the wetlands had been lost and the water supply for six million people had been compromised. The wildlife, which includes 50 endangered and threatened species, has been disrupted and 94 percent of the nesting wading birds in the Everglades have gone.
There was a very real threat that the Everglades - the only wetland of its kind in the world - could disappear completely.
Of course, the environmentalists who first sounded the alarm were dismissed as cranks and it took more than a decade before federal and state agencies acknowledged that something had to be done. It then took another ten years to agree a solution.
In the early 1990s, the federal government passed the Everglades Forever Act designed to clean up the water flowing from Lake Okeechobee into the Everglades and in 2000, Congress approved the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), the nation's largest environmental restoration effort. It will cost at least $10.9 billion and will take more than three decades to accomplish the 68 planned projects. It covers 16 counties and an 18,000 square mile area and involves 1,000 miles of canals and 720 miles of levees, complex planning, state-of-the-art science and engineering and many, many diverse interests. It combines restoration, water supply and water management and flood protection - all of which are not always mutually compatible.
However, in the five years after the plan was approved not a single CERP project was built. The tempo has now picked up a little. A series of marshes has been built to filter polluted water flowing from Lake Okeechobee. More treatment marshes are needed as well as huge reservoirs to hold the water. They are needed to stop the water flowing to east and west coast estuaries so that it can be funneled south into the Everglades. Many of these projects are still under construction or have not even been started.
Friends of the Everglades estimates that two acres of Everglades continues to be lost every day because the system is still so unbalanced.
Getting anything done has become a tedious process of public meetings and consultations and, of course, behind the scene lobbying from powerful vested interest groups. Congress recognized that this would lead to problems so ordered biennial reviews of the progress being made. The third independent review has just begun but it will not report to Congress until December 2010.
"The Florida Everglades is a place known throughout the world for its abundant wildlife, and it is also essential to the water supply of the people of Florida," Governor Crist said. "I have made Everglades restoration and the conservation of Florida's natural resources a high priority so that future generations can experience the Florida we love."
Because nothing like this has even been attempted work has to proceed cautiously. Scientists and engineers don't really know what the impact will be of restoring water to parts of the Everglades that were drained decades ago. That is why many projects go through a testing phase that can last up to five years as the results are evaluated. There are also concerns that if you divert water back into the Everglades it could lead to flooding in the heavily populated areas of Greater Miami and Fort Lauderdale.
Huge sugar cane estates surrounding the Everglades have polluted waterways for many years from fertilizer runoff. However, after lobbying in Tallahassee the industry got a water cleanup deadline extended until 2013.
In June last year, Governor Charlie Crist announced that the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) would acquire up to 187,000 acres of land owned by the United States Sugar Corporation for $1.34 billion. Acquiring the enormous expanse of real estate offered water managers the opportunity and flexibility to store and clean water on a scale never before contemplated to protect Florida's coastal estuaries and to better revive, restore and preserve the Everglades.
In May this year, the SFWMD announced that because of the economic situation they were acquiring only 73,000 acres with an option to purchase an additional 107,000 acres over the next ten years. Projects are contemplated that will improve water quality treatment to deliver cleaner water to the Everglades and prevent tons of harmful nutrients from entering the fragile ecosystem. However the sugar company is leasing back some of the land and will continue to farm it for the next few years.
Environmentalists are concerned about three issues all of which could affect the plan's outcome. If attempts are made to satisfy all the various interest groups — conservation, wildlife, fishing, hunting, farming and urban dwellers - it could lead to the plan being diluted. There is also concern about how the plan is being rolled out and who reaps the early benefits. For instance, the Everglades National Park in the far south will have to wait decades before planned projects are implemented. The final, and perhaps most serious concern, is that much of the work is untested because it has never been done before.
If they get it wrong, one of the world's most spectacular habitats could be lost for ever.
If the scientists and engineers get it right, not only will the Everglades be fully returned to its former magnificence it will provide a tried and proven formula that can be used to restore similarly threatened habitats around the world.
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