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
*****************************************************************************
October
9, 2017
Governor
Rick Scott
State of Florida
The Capitol
400 S. Monroe St.
Tallahassee, FL 32399-0001
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.
[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,
|
|
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
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
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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