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Everglades Restoration > CERP: The Plan in Depth - Part 3
CERP: The Plan in Depth - Part 3
Development & Study Goals
The Central and Southern Florida (C&SF) Project is a multi-purpose project which was first authorized in 1948 to provide flood control, water control, water supply, and other services to the area that stretches from Orlando to Florida Bay. The project has performed its intended purposes well. However, the project has also contributed to the decline of the south Florida ecosystem. The purpose of the C&SF Project Comprehensive Review Study (Restudy) is to re-examine the C&SF Project to determine the feasibility of modifying the project to improve the sustainability of South Florida. Specifically, as required by the authorizing legislation, the study will investigate making structural and operational modifications to the C&SF Project for improving the quality of the environment; improving protection of the aquifer; improving the integrity, capability, and conservation of urban and agricultural water supplies; and improving other water-related purposes.
Since passage of the Water Resources Development Act of 1986, planning for U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects is accomplished in two phases - the reconnaissance phase and the feasibility phase. The reconnaissance phase of the Restudy was initiated in June 1993 and the Reconnaissance Report was completed in November 1994. The feasibility phase of the Restudy, which is cost-shared between the Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District, was initiated in August 1995.
Subsequent to initiation of the feasibility study, there have been a number of major developments that have affected the Restudy. First, the Governor’s Commission for a Sustainable South Florida undertook a major effort to assist the Restudy. This effort involved the development of preferred alternatives for the Restudy and culminated in adoption of a Conceptual Plan for the Restudy in August 1996. In addition, the Water Resources Development Act of 1996 provides specific congressional direction concerning the Restudy. Specifically, the Act requires the completion of a comprehensive plan and submission of the feasibility report and Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement to Congress by July 1, 1999. The Act also establishes 50-50 cost sharing for C&SF Project modifications, including water quality features essential for restoration, and authorizes construction of critical restoration projects.
The purpose of this feasibility study was to develop a comprehensive plan for the overall C&SF system and the tools necessary to evaluate the comprehensive plan as well as separable and incremental portions of the project. The comprehensive plan includes such features as are necessary to provide for the water-related needs of the region, including flood control, the enhancement of water supplies, and other objectives served by the C&SF Project. Additionally, this study includes findings from other on-going study efforts including the Indian River Lagoon Feasibility Study, and Water Preserve Areas Feasibility Study. The end-product of this feasibility study is a Feasibility Report with an integrated Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement that will serve as the basis for obtaining congressional authorization of the comprehensive plan.
Comprehensive Plan Goals and Objectives
The purpose of the Restudy was to review how well the C&SF Project is functioning and determine what modifications are needed to achieve a new set of objectives. The precursor to the feasibility phase of the study -- the reconnaissance study -- identified a set of regional-scale planning objectives. The Governor’s Commission for a Sustainable South Florida also developed a set of regional-scale objectives for the Restudy. A synthesis of these has resulted in an inclusive set of objectives to achieve two general goals for south Florida’s ecosystem: enhance ecologic values and enhance economic values and social well being.
Goals and Objectives for the C&SF Restudy
| Goal: Enhance Ecologic Values |
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| Goal: Enhance Economic Values And Social Well Being |
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The Restudy planning objectives were developed as the result of public participation and scientific knowledge of south Florida. Through workshops conducted during the reconnaissance phase of the Restudy and subsequent technical evaluations, it is evident that the C&SF Project must continue to provide valuable services to developed areas as originally intended. Therefore, many of the economic and social objectives are similar to those of the original C&SF Project.
Enhance Ecologic Values
Healthy natural systems are integral to the sustainability of south Florida. These systems provide numerous functions such as plant and animal habitat, recreation and educational opportunities (photography, fishing, hunting, bird watching, etc.), water quality filtration including removal of nutrients and silt, ground water recharge, soil formation, hydrologic linkages, ground water quality protection, interception of airborne pollutants, shoreline stabilization, and protection against erosion. Wetlands, in particular, retard floodwater and provide surface water storage. Mangroves and estuarine areas provide critical breeding habitat for finfish and shellfish, including several of commercial interest. Upland natural systems function as noise buffers, urban green space, habitat for plants and animals (such as tree snails, deer, hundreds of species of birds, and the endangered panther and indigo snake), and travel corridors for these same animals. Thus, plant and animal habitat, although perhaps the most obvious benefit or function, is just one of many functions that natural systems provide. Collectively, these systems benefit the natural ecology and support agricultural, urban, and other human interests as well.
Two recent documents are particularly important in framing the Restudy's goal for enhancing ecological values. These documents, which were prepared by many of the leading experts on Everglades ecology, are The Science Sub-Group Report, Federal Objectives for the South Florida Restoration (Science Sub-Group, 1993), and Everglades, the Ecosystem and Its Restoration (Davis and Ogden, 1994). Another earlier publication, Ecosystems of Florida (Myers and Ewel, 1990) also contributed substantial input into the Restudy.
Enhance Economic Values And Social Well Being
The C&SF Project provides economic benefits through regional water supply, flood damage reduction, navigation, and recreation. While most people recognize the need for a healthy ecosystem to support the region's economy and jobs, there are others who are concerned that potential restoration projects will displace farms and other businesses, limit development, and reduce job opportunities. By contrast, continued degradation of the south Florida environment will inevitably adversely affect the tourism and recreational industry that are important to the regional economy.
Many people recognize the beneficial services provided by the C&SF Project. Public concerns about water supply and flood control generally center on preservation of the existing protection from relatively frequent flooding, and delivering water for aquifer recharge, as provided by the C&SF Project.
A Hydrologic Solution
Alternative plans had to be formulated for the Restudy such that they could be evaluated to reveal important effects, including effects that reflect progress toward meeting the objectives, as well as effects that are of interest for other reasons. Usually, plans are developed based on a particular strategy. A strategy defines the approach to a problem in terms of the means and the results that are sought. It is a process of translating the objectives to means to achieve them.
Numerous studies support the theory that the remaining natural system can be changed in the direction of its pre-drainage wetland character through modifications to the hydrologic features. The issue that remains is how to accomplish the ecologic restoration objectives while allowing the system to serve the economic and social needs of the region. The hydrologic characteristics that form this strategy, while not in themselves objectives, provide a basis to formulate alternative components as well as measure and evaluate how they will effect both ecologic and economic goals. They include:
| Goal: Enhance Economic Values And Social Well Being |
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Plan Formulation
Plan formulation is an iterative planning process that identifies alternative plans to achieve a set of planning objectives and allows those plans to be modified as more information becomes available. Each iteration of this process provides an opportunity to refine and sharpen the planning focus. The reconnaissance phase of the Comprehensive Review Study (Restudy) and the Lower East Coast Regional Water Supply Planning process provides a foundation from which to begin reducing and refining the many ideas that have been proposed to a manageable set of ideas that deserve further evaluation during the ensuing feasibility study. This feasibility study will culminate in the selection of a Comprehensive Plan for the C&SF Project.
In February 1996, the Restudy team began considering a vast array of ideas (components or options) that could be included in a comprehensive plan. These components were generated from a number of sources including the Restudy reconnaissance report and the Lower East Coast Regional Water Supply planning documents. The components were then used by the Governor’s Commission for a Sustainable South Florida to create their Conceptual Plan for the Restudy. This Conceptual Plan contains 13 Thematic Concepts that will be used during the Restudy as an organizing framework for developing and evaluating alternative components and generating the comprehensive plan that will be recommended to Congress by July 1999.
| The 13 Thematic Concepts include: |
- Regional Storage Within the Everglades Headwaters and Adjacent Areas
- Lake Okeechobee Operational Plan
- Everglades Agricultural Area Storage
- Water Preserve Areas
- Natural Areas Continuity
- Water Supply and Flood Protection for Urban and Agricultural Areas
- Adequate Water Quality for Ecosystem Functioning
- Spatial Extent and Quality of Other Wetlands
- Invasive Plant Control
- Aquifer Storage and Recovery
- Protection and Restoration of Coastal, Estuarine, and Marine Ecosystems
- Conservation of Soil
- Operation and Management of the C&SF Project and Related Lands
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Components
The Comprehensive Plan for the C&SF Project consists of structural and operational changes to the C&SF Project. Individual project features have been termed components. Components have been developed by sub-regions and were optimized at the sub-regional level then grouped with other components to form alternative Comprehensive Plans. These plans were then evaluated and trade-offs determined using the system-wide objectives stated previously. This evaluation provided the Restudy critical data to determine what refinements to the plan were needed.
Component Screening
The purpose of the screening analysis was to define the range of components to be used by the Restudy team in developing alternative comprehensive plans. The Restudy defines components as conceptual project features (or options) intended to achieve a particular planning objective or set of planning objectives. During the subsequent study phase, the team used the data from the screening Phase to develop alternative comprehensive plans, each consisting of different combinations of these components. The Restudy team considered more than 100 components. Ideally, different alternative restoration plans could be developed by making different combinations of these components. To put this into perspective, if the team were to evaluate all the possible combinations of these components, the number of possible comprehensive plans would be approximately 6.72x1030. Therefore, the Restudy team developed a process to allow the team to select a smaller number of plans for the evaluation phase. Because screening was limited and the nature of assumptions made during the screening process are generalized, components were not eliminated from further consideration at this point. Rather, the screening process organized and prioritized the components for consideration in alternative plans. Clearly, more detailed evaluations were necessary before the Restudy could recommend any particular component be included in, or excluded from, the Comprehensive Plan.
Screening is a process for comparing alternative components or plan features against certain criteria. The screening process at this stage of the study provided a basis for identifying relative differences between components. The information gathered during the screening process was used to combine components into alternative comprehensive plans. The alternatives then underwent a more rigorous evaluation utilizing a system-wide hydrologic model and a suite of ecologic and water quality models.
The screening process involved three sets of screening criteria, including: hydrologic modeling using the Everglades Screening Model, a cost effectiveness analysis, and findings from the Lower East Coast Regional Water Supply Planning process, which utilized the South Florida Water Management Model for system-wide evaluations. Best professional judgment and findings from other studies such as the L-28 Feasibility Study and the Water Preserve Area Land Suitability Analysis also provided a basis from which screening conclusions were drawn.
Comprehensive Plan Development
With the help of new technology and increased agency partnerships, the multi-agency Restudy Team and the public used the Internet to develop and evaluate alternative plans for the Comprehensive Review Study. The Internet effort did not replace the legal requirement under the National Environmental Policy Act for public review and comment. In the fall of 1998, traditional public workshops were held upon completion of the draft feasibility report.
Due to the large number of people potentially affected and the complexity of the south Florida ecosystem, the Corps and its multi-agency study team partners seek input from as broad a base as possible. The use of the Internet helped to reach as many interested parties as possible and get their input on the alternatives as they were formulated.
Between September 1997 and May 1998, numerous alternative comprehensive plans were formulated and evaluated. Each plan developed was judged on how well it met study goals. This was done by comparing the alternative plans against the Existing Condition and the Future Without-Project Condition for a range of hydrologic performance measures.
Based on evaluation of the alternative plans, an initial draft plan was selected by the study team. Additional analyses and refinement to the initial draft plan was performed prior to completion of the draft feasibility report in October 1998.
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