WaterWired

CRS InFocus Report: 'Recent Developments in Everglades Restoration'

Anna E. Normand and Pervaze A. Sheikh updated (30 August 2022) CRS InFocus report: 'Recent Developments in Everglades Restoration'. I have pasted the entire document below the graphic.

Download CRS_InFocus_Rpt_Recent_Devlpments_Everglades_Restor._30August2022

Here's a map - not from the CRS report. I believe it's from the National Park Service.

Overview
What Is the Everglades? The Everglades is a unique network of subtropical wetlands in South Florida. Due in part to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) water supply and flood control projects (as well as agricultural and urban runoff), the ecosystem was degraded and was approximately half its historical size by the end of the 20th century. The ecosystem is home to Everglades National Park and unique species, including 67 species listed under the Endangered Species Act (16 U.S.C. §§1531 et seq.).

What Is CERP? Congress approved the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) in the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 (WRDA 2000; P.L. 106-541). CERP is a framework under which the federal government, with the State of Florida, is attempting to restore the Everglades and improve the timing, distribution, and quality of the water flowing south from Lake Okeechobee to the Everglades. Under CERP, the federal government, through USACE and the Department of the Interior (DOI), is to fund half the costs of restoration; the State of Florida is to contribute the other half. Several tribal and local agencies also are involved in this restoration effort. Originally, CERP was to include 60 projects to be completed over 30 years at a cost of $8.2 billion in 2000 dollars (equivalent to $13.2 billion in 2021 by accounting for inflation). Subsequent reports to Congress projected CERP would take approximately 50 years from its authorization to implement at a total cost of $23.2 billion (in FY2020 dollars) due to inflation, changes in project scope and schedule, and new project authorizations. As of FY2022, the federal government has provided $3.5 billion and the State of Florida has spent an estimated $5.3 billion on CERP in nominal dollars (some of Florida’s funding has not been officially credited toward its cost share).

CERP is expected to cost $23.2 billion (FY2020 dollars) and take until 2050 to complete.

Outside of CERP, USACE has performed complementary efforts to restore the Everglades (most of which predate CERP). Construction of a major project, Kissimmee River Restoration, was completed in July 2021 after 22 years. The federal government has spent over $3.8 billion (nominal dollars) on these non-CERP projects.

CERP Projects Must Be Authorized by Congress
WRDA 2000 approved CERP and the process for its implementation. The law also authorized several pilot projects. Subsequent projects require USACE to study and produce a project implementation report (PIR) and obtain congressional authorization before they can receive federal appropriations for construction, including credit or reimbursement for nonfederal work undertaken in advance.

Several laws subsequent to WRDA 2000 authorized projects contemplated under CERP. Some projects received appropriations and are under construction. Studies for other CERP projects are in progress (see Table 1).

Selected USACE Authorizations
Central Everglades Planning Project. The Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP) is a CERP project that Congress authorized in WRDA 2016 (Title I of P.L. 114- 322). CEPP prioritizes restoration projects (e.g., CEPP South, CEPP North, and CEPP New Water) in the central portion of the Everglades and aims to address issues associated with the quantity, quality, timing, and distribution of freshwater flows south of Lake Okeechobee into the central Everglades and Everglades National Park. Congress initiated construction for CEPP with FY2020 appropriations.

Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir Storage Project. WRDA 2018 (Title I of P.L. 115-270) authorized the Everglades Agricultural Area Reservoir Storage Project (EAA Storage), which nonfederal sponsors proposed as an addendum to CEPP. EAA Storage aims to provide capacity to store around 350,000 acre-feet of water coming from Lake Okeechobee and a stormwater treatment area (i.e., a wetland area that removes excess nutrients to improve water quality).

WRDA 2020. WRDA 2020 (Division AA of P.L. 116-260) authorized two CERP projects―Loxahatchee River Watershed Restoration Project for construction and modifications to the Caloosahatchee River West Basin Storage Reservoir. It also authorized two non-CERP activities―Canal 111 South Dade Project and a study at Shingle Creek and Kissimmee River. It combined CEPP and EAA Storage into one project. It authorized USACE to enter into an agreement for a nonfederal sponsor to pursue construction of one CERP project on its own.

Congressional Interest
Appropriations. Following project authorization, the timing and level of federal and nonfederal funding affect project implementation and completion. In FY2022 annual appropriations, Congress provided USACE with $350.6 million for CERP and $2.0 million for non-CERP Everglades study and construction activities. FY2022 annual appropriations also included $9.0 million for USACE operation and maintenance (O&M) activities in the Everglades. In FY2022, USACE also allocated $1.1 billion to Everglades restoration activities out of the $1.9 billion that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA; P.L. 117-58) provided for USACE aquatic ecosystem restoration construction. For FY2023, the Administration’s USACE budget request included $405.4 million for CERP, $14.3 million for non-CERP Everglades study and construction activities, and $10.7 million for Everglades O&M activities.

DOI implements CERP, conducts science to support restoration, and manages and restores wildlife habitat in the ecosystem. In FY2022, Congress provided $8.2 million and $56.0 million for DOI CERP and non-CERP Everglades activities, respectively. The Administration’s DOI FY2023 budget request included $8.3 million for CERP and $60.6 million for non-CERP Everglades activities

Lake Okeechobee/Herbert Hoover Dike. Water storage and discharges from Lake Okeechobee, managed by USACE, affect the Everglades ecosystem. According to a regulation schedule, USACE may discharge water at certain times and quantities east and west to estuaries and south to the EAA and greater Everglades ecosystem. The Herbert Hoover Dike (HH Dike) is an earthen dam that surrounds Lake Okeechobee. Since 2001, USACE has conducted modification on HH Dike to address structural issues associated with the dike. HH Dike repairs are not categorized as Everglades restoration, but many stakeholders consider them essential to broader restoration efforts in the Everglades ecosystem. HH Dike repairs required USACE to alter discharge regulations and increased discharges from the lake during high-water events. Higher releases of nutrient-rich water from Lake Okeechobee to canals flowing to the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries have contributed to harmful algal blooms and have increased sediment in the estuaries and surrounding coastlines. According to USACE, following modification of HH Dike, increased capacity to store water in Lake Okeechobee and changes to regulating discharges from the lake could aid in addressing water quality in canals flowing to the estuaries.

As of September 2021, USACE anticipated completing dike repairs by the end of 2022. Section 1106 of WRDA 2018 directed USACE to expedite the update of the Lake Okeechobee regulation schedule to coincide with completion of HH Dike and to consider all relevant aspects of CERP, including projects not yet constructed (e.g., EAA Storage) in its operating procedures. WRDA 2020 provided further direction to USACE on water management efforts within Lake Okeechobee and authorized a national harmful algal bloom demonstration program with the lake as a focus area (FY2022 appropriations provided the first funding for the program). USACE expects to finalize new discharge regulations for the Lake Okeechobee System Operating Manual (LOSOM) by January 2023 to account for the completed HH dike construction. In August 2021, USACE announced a preferred alternative for the new schedule. In July 2022, USACE released a draft environmental impact statement for LOSOM identifying a preferred alternative, with public comments due in mid-September 2022.

WRDA 2022. In 2022, the House and Senate passed different versions of WRDA 2022 (H.R. 7776). The House- passed version would authorize a comprehensive plan for restoring, preserving, and protecting the Everglade’s northern estuaries. Both chambers’ versions would authorize a study for resiliency improvements to existing projects in central and southern Florida. These provisions include limitations on how these activities may impact CERP progress. The House-passed version also would require an update on CERP, LOSOM, and other Everglades activities to be sent to the authorizing committees. Both chambers’ versions would require future accounting updates to CERP nonfederal sponsors and alter how CERP nonfederal cash contributions are calculated and their payment timeline (provisions in the two versions vary). The Senate version also would increase the authorization of appropriations amount for the Indian River Lagoon project.

Enjoy!

"In Florida, it's not the winter that coming. It's the ocean." - @weswolfe in Florida Politics 

Robert Glennon Opines: 'If You Live in New York City, Why Should You Care What Happens to the Colorado River?'

Guest post from Robert Glennon, Regents Professor Emeritus at the University of Arizona College of Law and author of Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It and his first book Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America's Fresh Waters. He is also a co-author if the Brookings report Shopping for Water:  How the Market Can Mitigate Water Shortages in the American West.

I first met Robert at an NGWA meeting in Orlando in the early 2000s where he keynoted. Imagine speaking about his popular (not technical) book before a bunch of groundwater scientists and engineers at their annual conference! What hubris! He had us nodding (not shaking) our heads and wondering 'Why didn't I (or one of us) write that book?' Smart guy! 

In any case, he is a wonderful raconteur so if you have a chance to hear him speak do so, regardless of the topic. 

Enough already; let me turn it over to Professor Glennon.

The Colorado River is facing a crisis caused by the seven basin states diverting more water from the river than Mother Nature reliably provides, a nasty 23-year drought that shows no signs of ending, and climate change.

The water levels in the river’s two giant reservoirs, Lakes Mead and Powell, have dropped hundreds of feet, leaving a tell-tale bathtub ring of salts on the walls of the canyons. Water officials are fretting that one or both may soon drop below the level where the dams can generate hydroelectric power. There is even talk, by knowledgeable experts, that the reservoirs may drop below “dead pool,” an ominous level when no water passes through the dams.

       You may already know this. But, if you don’t live in the Colorado River Basin, why should you care? After all, you may think, it has nothing to do with me. That’s not true.

     Do you enjoy eating salads? I thought so. A recent survey found that most Americans eat salad four times a week. From late-November through March each year, more than 90 percent of the leafy greens in the country comes from the Yuma, Arizona region. Every leaf of head, butter, green and red lettuce, spring mix, arugula, spinach, celery, cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower is grown with Colorado River water.

       A small percentage of lettuce is not processed; the consumer washes it at home. The key to being able to supply the entire country with winter salads is that the farming community in Yuma has developed a remarkable system for harvesting, washing, drying, chilling, packing, shipping, and delivering the nation’s lettuce.

John Boelts and his field of romaine lettuce. Below: massive Heinzen HMI 300 salad spinner (300 pound capacity).

Every day during the four-month season, approximately 1,000, 18-wheel, refrigerated trucks depart Yuma, each loaded with 40- to 50,000 pounds of lettuce. Every day!

Processed lettuce comes in the bags and boxes so common at grocery stores and furnishes vacuum-sealed bags for the food service industry, from restaurants to schools to prisons. The vacuum packaging is not, as you may think, plastic bags, because the lettuce would start to turn brown within days. Instead, the industry has developed oxygen transmission rate film that allows a precise amount of oxygen to enter the bag and keep the chilled lettuce alive for 14 to 16-days. When a consumer buys a bag at the local Safeway or a restaurant opens a carton of bags, it’s as fresh as when it departed Yuma.

We should all care about climate change and environmental crises. The Colorado River crisis hits home in a very tangible way. It may require most Americans to change their diets.

NOTE: The cuts in current allocations were just announced. Nevada (-8%); Arizona (-21%); Mexico (-7%). The other states - CA, NM, UT, CO, and WY - were spared.

Enjoy!

 

"There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace." - Aldo Leopold

CRS Report: 'Wilderness - Overview, Management, and Statistics'

Anne A. Riddle and Katie Hoover (with the help of Kristina Alexander and Ross Gorte) assembled this CRS report (updated 29 July 2022): 'Wilderness - Overview, Management, and Statistics'. 

Download CRS_Report_Wilderness_Overview_Mgmt_Statistics_29July2022

Footnotes have been deleted from the text below. Click on the graphics to enlarge them.

Summary
Congress enacted the Wilderness Act in 1964. This act created the National Wilderness Preservation System, reserved to Congress the authority to designate wilderness areas, and directed the Secretaries of Agriculture and of the Interior to review certain lands’ potential wilderness designation. The act also designated 54 wilderness areas with 9 million acres of federal land. Congress began expanding the Wilderness System in 1968. As of July 6, 2022, there are 803 wilderness areas, totaling approximately 112 million acres, in 44 states and Puerto Rico. Numerous bills to designate additional wilderness areas and to expand existing ones have been introduced and considered in every Congress since the act’s passage.

The Wilderness Act defined wilderness as an area of undeveloped federal land, among other criteria, but due to differing perceptions of wilderness and its purpose, it did not establish criteria or standards to determine whether an area should be so designated. In general, wilderness areas are undeveloped; commercial activities, motorized access, and roads, structures, and facilities are prohibited in wilderness areas. In response to conflicting demands, however, Congress has granted both general exemptions and specific exceptions to the general standards and prohibitions. Questions persist over the frequency and extent to which federal agencies must review the wilderness potential of their lands, and how those lands should be managed.

The federal government owns about 28% of the land in the United States, although the proportion in each state varies widely. Four federal agencies—the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service in the Department of the Interior; and the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture—manage most of the approximately 112 million acres of designated wilderness, as well as many other lands. They also protect certain other lands as possible additions to the Wilderness System, and review the wilderness potential of lands.

In total, approximately 18% of federal land administered by the four major federal land management agencies is wilderness. A few states dominate wilderness statistics, however: approximately 52% of the total designated wilderness is in Alaska (57.8 million acres), and the state with the next-highest portion, California, has 14% (15.3 million acres). Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, and Rhode Island do not contain any designated wilderness.

In 1964, the Wilderness Act established a national system of congressionally designated areas to be preserved in a wilderness condition: “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” The National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) was originally created with approximately 9.1 million acres designated in national forest system lands managed by the Forest Service. Congress has since added more than 100 million acres to the NWPS (see Table 1). Wilderness areas have been designated on land managed by each of the four federal land management agencies—the Forest Service (FS) in the Department of Agriculture, and the National Park Service (NPS), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in the Department of the Interior. Federal agencies, Members of Congress, and interest groups have recommended additional lands for inclusion in the NWPS. Furthermore, at the direction of Congress, agencies have studied, or are studying, the potential of their lands for wilderness designation. This report provides a brief history of wilderness, describes what wilderness is, identifies permitted and prohibited uses in wilderness areas, and provides data on the 111.7 million acres of designated wilderness areas as of July 6, 2022. For information on wilderness legislation, see CRS Report R41610, Wilderness: Issues and Legislation.

History of Wilderness
As the United States was formed, the federal government acquired 1.8 billion acres of land through purchases, treaties, and other agreements. Initial federal policy was generally to transfer land to states and private ownership, but Congress also provided for reserving certain lands for federal purposes. Over time, Congress has reserved or withdrawn increasing acreage for national parks, national forests, wildlife refuges, etc. The general policy of land disposal was formally changed to a policy of retaining the remaining lands in the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA).

The early national forests were envisioned as working forests managed for multiple purposes.4 In time, some FS leaders recognized the need to preserve some areas in a natural state. Acting at its own discretion, and at the behest of conservationist and then-employee Aldo Leopold, the FS administratively designated the first wilderness area in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico in 1924. In the succeeding decades, the agency’s system of administratively designated wilderness, wild, and primitive areas grew to 14.6 million acres. However, in the 1950s, increasing timber harvests and recreational use of the national forests led to public concerns about the permanence of this system, as there was no law to prevent a future change to those administrative designations.

In response, the 88th Congress enacted the Wilderness Act in 1964. The act described the attributes and characteristics of wilderness, and it prohibited or restricted certain activities in wilderness areas to preserve and protect the designated areas, while permitting other activities to occur. The act reserves to Congress the authority to designate areas as part of the NWPS.

The NWPS began with the approximately 9.1 million acres of national forest lands that had been identified administratively as wilderness or wild areas. The Wilderness Act directed the Secretaryof Agriculture to review the agency’s nearly 5.5 million acres of primitive areas, and the Secretary of the Interior to evaluate the wilderness potential of National Park System and National Wildlife Refuge System lands. The Secretaries were to report their recommendations to the President and to Congress within 10 years (i.e., by 1974). Separate recommendations were made for each studied area, and many areas recommended for wilderness were later designated, although some of the recommendations are still pending. In 1976, FLPMA directed the Secretary of the Interior to conduct a similar review of the public lands administered by BLM within 15 years (i.e., by 1991). BLM submitted its recommendations to the President, and presidential recommendations were submitted to Congress (see “BLM Wilderness Review and Wilderness Study Areas”).

Skipping to the end...

Data on Wilderness Designations
The wilderness data presented in Table 2 are acreage estimates for wilderness areas that have been designated by Congress as compiled by the agencies as of July 6, 2022. Acreages are estimates, since few (if any) of the areas have been precisely surveyed. In addition, the agencies have recommended areas for addition to the NWPS, and continue to review the wilderness potential of other lands under their jurisdiction, both of congressionally designated WSAs and under congressionally directed land management planning efforts. However, statistics on acreage in pending recommendations and on those being studied, particularly in the planning efforts, are unavailable.

As of July 6, 2022, Congress has designated 111.7 million acres of federal land in units of the NWPS, as shown in Table 2 and Figure 1. Wilderness areas have been designated in 44 states plus Puerto Rico; Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, and Rhode Island do not contain any designated wilderness areas. Just over half (52%) of this land—57.8 million acres—is in Alaska, and includes most of the wilderness areas managed by NPS (74%) and FWS (90%).50 California has the next-largest wilderness acreage, with 15.3 million acres designated in the state. However, Washington has the largest percentage of federal land designated wilderness, with the 4.5 million acres of wilderness accounting for 38% of the federal land within the state. NPS manages the most wilderness acreage (44.3 million acres, 40% of the Wilderness System), followed by the Forest Service, which manages 36.7 million acres (33%). FWS manages 20.7 million acres (19%), and BLM manages the least wilderness acreage, 10.0

The 90th Congress began expanding the Wilderness System in 1968, as shown in Table 1. Five laws were enacted, creating five new wilderness areas encompassing 792,750 acres in total. Wilderness designations generally increased in each succeeding Congress, rising to a peak of about 60.8 million acres designated during the 96th Congress (1979-1980), the largest amount designated by any Congress. This figure included the largest single designation of 56.4 million acres of wilderness through the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.5 The 98th Congress enacted more wilderness laws (21) and designated more acres (8.5 million acres in 21 states) outside of Alaska than any Congress since the NWPS was created.

Including the Wilderness Act, Congress has enacted more than 120 laws designating new wilderness areas or adding to existing ones, as shown in Table 1. The NWPS now contains 803 wilderness areas managed by the four federal land management agencies, with approximately 111 million acres in 44 states and Puerto Rico, as shown in Table 2. The agencies have recommended that additional lands be added to the Wilderness System; these lands are generally managed to protect their wilderness character while Congress considers adding them to the Wilderness System (see “Wilderness Review, Study, and Release”). The agencies are studying additional lands to determine if these lands should be added to the NWPS. However, comprehensive data on the lands recommended and under review for wilderness potential are not publicly available.

Enjoy!

"Silly things do cease to be silly if they are done by sensible people in an impudent way." - Jane Austen

John Waldman Opines: 'Restoring Retired Rivers'

Although I am an Easterner by birth and childhood (New York City and its Long Island suburbs) I "learned my water" in the arid West (AZ, NV, NM) for the last 16 years in the wet Pacific Northwest (OR and northern CA). When someone mentions taking out dams to 'free' spawning fish (salmon) I don't think of rivers like the Peconic, Penobscot and fish like herring and Atlantic salmon. And European streams - really?

So I  have enjoyed our recent issue of Water Resources IMPACT that just hit the streets. Its theme is: 'Dams: Past, Present and Future' guest-edited by Lisa Beutler. The articles by Francisco Campos-López and Pao Fernández Garrido (Europe) and George Jackman (New York) exposed me to some new territory. But I missed the last article by John Waldman of Queens College of the City University of New York in NYC.

Here is a PDF of his article, 'Restoring Retired Rivers':

Download Restoring_Retired_Rivers_IMPACT_May_June_2022

Professor Waldman also authored the book, Running Silver: Restoring Atlantic Rivers And Their Great Fish Migrations. 

Enjoy!

"We didn’t hire you to discover the truth, find meaning, or make the world a better place with your research. We hired you to get grants with overhead that returns to the college!" - @ass_deans

Francisco Campos-López and Pao Fernández Garrido: 'A Dam-Busting Tour of Europe' and Film

Here is another gem from the latest issue of AWRA's excellent 
bimonthly magazine Water Resources IMPACT that just hit the streets. Its theme is: 'Dams: Past, Present and Future'. Lisa Beutler served as the editor of this issue and contributed a great article on the failure of St. Francis Dam that doomed the career of the legendary William Mulholland. 

Today we're taking a trip to Europe with Francisco Campos-López and Pao Fernández Garrido on a 'A Dam-Busting Tour of Europe'. Both authors are Spanish engineers. Their main objective was to tell the stories of some European "DamBusters."

Here are the first two paragraphs:

The notion of removing barriers in European rivers started as the distant dream of a handful of environmentalists during the 1980s. Now river restorations are happening all over the continent. Once fragmented essential ecosystems have become thriving like before human intervention.

Given the delicate state of the world, we wanted to find a way to show these  tangible success stories. We wanted to inspire people and find a new generation of European river heroes. So we have made a documentary, DamBusters, in which we looked for the most inspiring individuals working tirelessly to restore rivers across Europe. With Francisco serving as filmmaker and Pao serving as host we went on a journey to five countries from the southern to the northern end of Europe, to see the work of these “dam busters” and share their exciting stories.

Download Dam_Busting_Europe_IMPACT_May_June2022

Here are some videos (URLs from the article): 

Largest dam removal in Finland.  

Removal of he Sindi Dam in Estonia.

See the removal of the Bražuolė Dam in Lithuania.

Dam removal award - Finland.

Here is the trailer for DamBusters (in Spanish with English subtitles). Link: here

Enjoy!

"Yes, we have an ombudsman. Their job is to root out the faculty and staff likely to file complaints and to discourage them from pursuing a more serious course of action by making them think they have “been heard.”- ass_deans