LETTER TO GOVERNOR: Deep Injection Wells are contrary to Everglades Restoration

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

Contact:  Cris Costello, Sierra Club, 941-914-0421, cris.costello@sierraclub.org

**PRESS RELEASE**

LETTER TO GOVERNOR SCOTT FROM STAKEHOLDERS STATEWIDE:

Deep Injection Wells within the Lake Okeechobee Watershed are contrary to

Everglades Restoration

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October 9, 2017

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 LOW 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.”[1]    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.[2] 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.  

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[1] “Feasibility Assessment of Deep Well Injection to Assist in Management of Surface Water Releases from Lake Okeechobee to Estuaries”, Water Resource Solutions for SFWMD, June 2007

[2] “Benthic Macroalgal Blooms as Indicators of Nutrient Loading from Aquifer-Injected Sewage Effluent in Environmentally Sensitive Near-Shore Waters Associated with the South Florida Keys”, Sydney T. Bacchus, et al, Journal of Geography and Geology, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2014

Sincerely,

Anglers for Conservation

Rodney Smith, President

Apalachicola Riverkeeper

Dan Tonsmeire

Aquatics for Life

Susan Steinhauser, President

ASBRO LLC

E. Allen Stewart III P.E., Manager

Bay and Reef Company of the Florida Keys

Captain Elizabeth Jolin

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., Director

Citizens for an Engaged Electorate

Barbara Byram, Co-Founder

Clean Water Action

Kathleen E. Aterno, National Managing Director

DanceCraft

Jayne Arrington, Owner

“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

Environmental Confederation of Southwest Florida (ECOSWF)

Becky Ayech, President

Florida Clean Water Network

Linda Young

Florida Defenders of the Environment

Jim Gross PG, CPG, Executive Director

Florida Native Plant Society - Conradina Chapter

Carol Hebert, President

Florida Oceanographic Society

Mark Perry, Executive Director

Florida People’s Network

Lisa Peth & Taylor Smith, Co-Chairs

Florida Springs Council, Inc.

Dan Hilliard, 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

Halifax River Audubon

Melissa Lammers, President

IDEAS For Us

Clayton Louis Ferrara, Executive Director

Imagine That Events and Entertainment

Tim Rose, Owner

Indian Riverkeeper

Marty Baum

Izaak Walton League of America
Jared Mott, Conservation Director

Izaak Walton League of America - Florida Division
Michael F. Chenoweth, President

Last Stand

Mark E. Songer, President

Lobby For Animals

Thomas Ponce, President/Founder

Martin County Conservation Alliance

Tom Bausch, Director

Matanzas Riverkeeper

Neil A. Armingeon

National Wildlife Federation

David Muth, Director, Gulf of Mexico Restoration Program

Nature Coast Conservation, Inc.

DeeVon Quirolo, President

Oklawaha Valley Audubon Society

Jim Kochanowski, 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

Rise Up Florida

Sharon Van Smith, Membership Director/Environmental Committee Chair

Santa Fe Lake Dwellers Association

Jill McGuire, President

Save the Manatee Club

Dr. Katie Tripp, Director of Science and Conservation

Seminole Audubon Society

Pam Meharg, Conservation Chair

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

Space Coast Progressive Alliance

Philip E. Stasik, President

Spectrabusters, Inc. 

Debra Johnson, Board Member 

St. Johns Riverkeeper

Lisa Rinaman

Stone Crab Alliance

Karen Dwyer, Ph.D., Co-founder 

The Center for Sustainable and Just Communities

Ken Eidel, Executive Director

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

WWALS Watershed Coalition, Inc. 

John S. Quarterman, Suwannee Riverkeeper

Waters Without Borders

Randall Denker Esq., Co-Founder & CEO

WE CAN U & ME, Inc.

Allen's Underground, LLC

Robert M. Allen

Willpower West, LLC

Will Walton, Founder & President

Women's March Florida

Natalia Duke, Environmental Policy Director

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