Abstract
This is an updated version of a review written by the author in April 2018 at the request of The Friends of the Everglades, an NGO based in Miami, Florida, on a plan developed primarily by the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) to mitigate coastal pollution that has resulted from discharges from Lake Okeechobee to the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic coastline and eventually to “send the water south” to the Florida Everglades instead. This EAA Reservoir project was included by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a 2018 U.S. Congressional bill that was approved. In May 2019, U.S. President Donald Trump pledged to spend $200 million to begin construction of this restoration, three times the amount requested by the state of Florida. While supported with enthusiasm by the Florida state legislature, the SFWMD, and some NGOs such as The Everglades Foundation, a change in leadership in the state of Florida after November 2018 elections and especially in the leadership of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) has led to a renewed public optimism for major improvements in water quality management in south Florida. It is therefore timely for this review of the advantages and shortcomings of this “EAA (Everglades Agricultural Area) Reservoir Plan” to be widely disseminated in an international forum such as Ecological Engineering to encourage discussions among scientists and engineers.
