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| Poster, Army Conservation Project U.S. Army Corps of Engineers |
The below sign-on letter is being distributed now to gather more signatures from organizations and businesses so that the letter can be sent to Governor Scott before the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Governing Board takes its plan to flush away billions of gallons of fresh water in Deep Injection Wells (DIWs) any further.
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| A deep injection well |
TO SIGN THE LETTER: Send your organization (or business) name, and the name and title of the representative signing for your organization/business, directly to cris.costello@sierraclub.org by close of business on Wednesday, September 6.
Please also forward this sign-on opportunity to any other organization or business you know that may be interested in getting involved. You can also access the letter here.
For background:
• State may pump stormwater below ground - 2/2/2017: http://www.news-press.com/story/news/2017/02/02/water-district-meeting-focus-everglades/97356032/
• New Everglades fix calls for flushing water deep underground - 2/15/2017: http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article132963849.html
• Deep injection wells would waste water and money | Opinion - 7/5/2017: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinion/fl-op-injection-wells-20170630-story.html
SIGN-ON LETTER (as of 9 am 8/31/17)
[DATE]
Governor Rick Scott
State of Florida
The Capitol
400 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
RE: Deep Injection Wells within the Lake Okeechobee Watershed are contrary to Everglades Restoration
We, the below-signed organizations and businesses committed to the restoration of America’s Everglades and the protection of all of Florida’s water resources write to express our concerns and opposition to the use of Deep Injection Wells (DIWs) within the Lake Okeechobee Watershed as part of Everglades Restoration. The US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) appropriately decided not to consider Deep Injection Wells (DIWs) as part of the Lake Okeechobee Watershed Project (LOWP), instead suggesting a regional study that would consider their system-wide Everglades impacts. However, in response to the Corps’ decision, the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Governing Board voted on June 8, 2017, without any advance public notice or opportunity for meaningful stakeholder input, to go forward with a plan to develop DIWs to dispose of billions of gallons of fresh water and to cover the entire cost with public state tax dollars.
Our concerns include the following:
• The use of DIWs is inconsistent with the goals of Everglades Restoration. DIWs are not a component of any project in the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP). DIWs do not help restore the flow of clean water through the Everglades ecosystem.
• DIWs would divert state dollars needed to implement other Everglades restoration projects, including the acquisition of land both north and south of Lake Okeechobee to restore wetland habitats and to eventually send clean water south to the Everglades, Biscayne Bay and Florida Bay.
• DIWs in the LOW would permanently remove billions of gallons of freshwater from the regional water budget. Florida has faced drought conditions several times in the past few years and is likely to again and again. Once disposed of, the water would be unavailable for ecosystem protection and Everglades restoration during dry and drought conditions. This freshwater is also needed to replenish rivers, wetlands, and the aquifer for millions of Floridians, and to lessen the impacts from rising sea levels and fight saltwater intrusion that pollutes and shuts down potable water wells.
• According to estimates presented by SFWMD in February 2017, implementation of DIWs would cost or exceed the cost of $1 billion dollars. Annual operation and maintenance costs will raise the actual budget for DIWs beyond SFWMD’s construction projections. That is a significant amount of public state funding diverted to a project that will offer no beneficial uses of water to people or the environment, particularly south of the Lake.
• According to information presented during Project Delivery Team (PDT) meetings, there is relatively little geologic information in the LOWP area. In fact, according to a 2007 desktop-study prepared for SFWMD, “the presence of appropriate hydrogeologic conditions for development of injection wells is less certain in areas north and immediately east of the Lake Okeechobee. Most of the areas considered for locating injection wells have little existing data regarding hydrogeologic conditions of the Boulder Zone or its confining layers. This report also states that “the transmissivity of the Boulder Zone is highly variable. It is related to the thickness and lateral extent of the cavernous zones and the related intensity of fracturing. In areas near the Lake, the transmissivity of the Oldsmar formation cannot be confidently estimated without testing.” It is very risky to depend on DIWs in this region; the state would be gambling taxpayer dollars on a project that may fail to provide its expected benefits.
• There are valid concerns over vertical cross-contamination from upward migration of injected untreated water to the overlying Upper Floridan aquifer, especially given the uncertainties about the hydrogeology at this depth and location. The upward migration of DIW water can contaminate the Upper Floridan Aquifer which is being used as a source of potable water supply in many regional water supply utilities. Groundwater contamination clean-up in the Upper Floridan would be cost-prohibitive.
• Injected water from DIWs has been found to move laterally into the nearshore ocean reefs causing pollution and harmful algal blooms. Whether or not this might displace water that could create harmful seepage of ground water and fresh water into surrounding oceans has yet to be answered.
• While DIWs (approximately 180) are currently being used to dispose of wastewater or wastewater byproducts in Florida, DIWs have never been implemented at the scale and density being considered by the SFWMD; nor have they been used to dispose of fresh surface water. The long term implication of disposing of such large amounts of untreated water into the Boulder Zone is unknown.
• The disposal of freshwater from the surface ecosystem via DIWs will not help the natural carbon sequestration (capture) processes that come from protecting and restoring wetland habitats, such as mangroves.
• The operation of DIWs will be energy-intensive, requiring pumps that run on fossil fuels to pump millions of gallons of water per day, per well, for an unpredictable number of days to months per year. This operation would increase the release of carbon into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels.
The best solution to significantly reduce and ultimately eliminate harmful discharges from Lake Okeechobee to the northern estuaries during extreme weather events is to speed up the long term restoration of the Everglades ecosystem. We urge you to ensure that public state tax dollars are invested in Everglades restoration projects that are fully vetted, are consistent with CERP, do not jeopardize our public drinking water supply, and do not waste the state’s precious fresh water resources.
Sincerely,
Anglers for Conservation
Rodney Smith, President
Aquatics for Life
Susan Steinhauser,
President
ASBRO LLC
E. Allen Stewart III
P.E., Manager
Bullsugar.org
Chris Maroney, Director
Calusa Waterkeeper
John Cassani
Camelot Technology
Integration
Gayle Ryan, Owner
Catalyst Miami
Gretchen Beesing, CEO
Center for Biological
Diversity
Jaclyn Lopez, Florida
Director, Senior Attorney
Center for Earth Jurisprudence
Margaret R. Stewart, Esq., MPA,
LL.M., Associate Director
Citizens for an Engaged Electorate
Barbara Byram, Co-Founder
Clean Water Action
Kathleen E. Aterno, National
Managing Director
Conservancy of Southwest Florida
Marisa
Carrozzo, Senior Environmental Policy Specialist
“Ding” Darling Wildlife Society
Michael J. Baldwin, Vice-President
Earth Ethics, Inc.
Mary Gutierrez, Executive Director
Emerald Coastkeeper, Inc.
Laurie Murphy, Executive Director
Environment Florida
Jennifer Rubiello, State
Director
Florida Clean Water
Network
Linda Young
Florida
Native Plant Society - Conradina Chapter
Carol Hebert, President
Florida Water Conservation Trust
Terry Brant, Legislative Chairman
Florida Wildlife Federation
Manley K. Fuller,
President
Food & Water Watch
Jorge Aguilar, Southern
Region Director
Friends of the Arthur R.
Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge
Elinor Williams,
President
Friends of the
Everglades
Alan Farago, President
Friends of Warm Mineral
Springs, Inc.
Juliette Jones, Director
Geranium Lane Farm, Ft. White, FL
Diane Buxton, Owner
IDEAS For Us
Clayton
Louis Ferrara, Executive Director
Izaak Walton League of
America
Jared Mott, Conservation Director
Jared Mott, Conservation Director
Izaak
Walton League of America - Florida Division
Michael F. Chenoweth, President
Last Stand
Michael F. Chenoweth, President
Last Stand
Mark E. Songer, President
Lobby For Animals
Thomas Ponce, President/Founder
Martin County
Conservation Alliance
Tom Bausch, Director
National Parks
Conservation Association
Cara Capp, Everglades
Restoration Program Manager
Nature
Coast Conservation, Inc.
DeeVon Quirolo, President
Our Santa Fe River, Inc.
Pamela I. Smith, President
Progress Florida
Mark Ferrulo, Executive Director
Progress For All
Tim Canova, Chair
Progressives Northwest Florida (PNWFL)
Dr. Carolynn Zonia, Activism
Committee
Rebah Farm
Carol Ahearn, Owner
Sanibel Captiva Conservation
Foundation
Rae Ann Wessel, Natural Resource
Policy Director
Santa Fe Lake Dwellers Association
Jill McGuire, President
Save the Manatee Club
Dr. Katie Tripp,
Director of Science and Conservation
Sierra Club
Frank Jackalone, Florida
Chapter Director
Solutions to Avoid Red
Tide (START)
Sandy Gilbert, Chairman
South Florida Audubon
Society
Grant Campbell, Director
of Wildlife Policy
South Florida Wildlands Association
Matthew Schwartz,
Executive Director
Spectrabusters, Inc.
Debra Johnson, Board
Member
Stone Crab Alliance
Karen Dwyer, Ph.D.,
Co-founder
Theodore Roosevelt
Conservation
Partnership
Edward W. Tamson Ph.D.,
Florida Representative
Treasure
Coast Democratic Environmental Caucus
Paul Laura, Chair
Tropical Audubon Society
Erin Clancy, Director
of Conservation
Urban Paradise Guild
Pete Gonzalez, Director
of Policy & Chairman
Withlacoochee
Aquatic Restoration (W.A.R.), Inc.
Dan Hilliard, President
Waters Without Borders
Randall Denker Esq., Co-Founder & CEO
WE CAN U & ME, Inc.
Allen's Underground, LLC
Robert M. Allen
Women's March Florida
Natalia Duke,
Environmental Policy Director
Women's March Central
Gulf Coast Florida
Jayne Arrington, Chair
