Phil Ammann
Extending a two-decade record for Everglades restoration south of Lake Okeechobee, a group of farmers — armed with an effective water quality treatment strategy — have posted historic water-quality performance levels in 2017, sending more clean water than ever flowing south.
Seizing on numbers announced this week by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD), Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) farmers are celebrating their role in more than 20 years of restoration, by delivering increasingly clean water to the Everglades.
Beginning in 1994 with the Everglades Forever Act, this science-based conservation process has been effective in preserving Florida’s fragile environment.
To carry out this, EAA farmers south of Lake Okeechobee use several farming techniques — commonly known as Best Management Practices (BMPs) — developed in collaboration with University of Florida researchers and scientists.
The program, overseen by the SFWMD and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, ensures water in Everglades National Park is in full compliance with precise water-quality standards.
According to farmers, more than 90 percent of the remaining part of the southern Everglades also meets those stringent standards.
Before water reaches the Everglades, it receives added treatment using “green technology” in the Stormwater Treatment Areas (STAs), a network of treatment wetlands. The success of this strategy has resulted in a marked improvement in water quality throughout the Everglades.
During 2017, STAs treated water for phosphorous to an average of 15 parts per billion (ppb), the best performance on record. Monitoring station data confirms this treated water from the northern part of the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge now meets or exceeds state water quality standards.
Through April 2017, the STA network — along with improved farming techniques known as Best Management Practices (BMPs) — have removed or prevented about 5,500 metric tons of phosphorus from entering the 470,000-acre EAA, a crucial first step to clean water flowing south into the Everglades.
Over the history of the BMP program, phosphorus levels dropped by an average of 55 percent annually, more than twice the improvement mandated under the Everglades Forever Act. The program also prevented more than 3,000 metric tons of phosphorus from entering the Everglades ecosystem.
Tests show at least 90 percent of the Everglades now meets clean water quality standards for levels of phosphorus — at 10 ppb or less required by state law. The average total phosphorus concentration of water in Everglades National Park is reported at about 4 ppb.
Since 1994, the network of five STAs south of Lake Okeechobee has treated about 18 million acre-feet of water. From that water, the STAs retained about 2,329 metric tons of phosphorus that would have otherwise entered the Everglades.
To date, STAs have kept more than 80 percent of the phosphorus from water flowing through the treatment cells.
