MIAMI: A massive construction project in the southern US state of Florida will try to breathe life back into the state's wetlands as large parts of the state's ecosystem have dried up following decades of flood control measures.
The Kissimmee River flood basin is part of a 47,000-square-kilometre ecosystem that includes the Everglades, the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States.
Chuck Wilburn, who leads the US Army Corps of Engineers' effort to restore the basin, said channels built during the 1960s and early 70s to prevent flooding caused serious damage to the ecology of the Everglades and southern Florida's wetlands.
"What that has done is - it has changed the flood basin, it has taken the flood basin and actually dried it up," he said.
The channels drained two-thirds of the flood basin, so in 1992, the US Congress approved work to restore more than 100 square kilometres of flood basin.
"The Kissimmee River basin is supposed to be fully restored by 2012 so there's a lot to do in the next four years," Mr Wilburn explained.
Further south, an enormous reservoir is being built in Florida's vast sugar cane fields. The reservoir will be used to restore almost a million hectares of the Everglades ecosystem by collecting almost six billion litres of water per day, which is currently channelled out to sea.
Grey May, who heads the South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Task Force that coordinates the work of agencies, said: "We have got to make sure we've got a place to store the water, that we can clean the water, and that we can ensure that the flood protection that is necessary to protect the seven million people that surround the remaining Everglades is all in place".
The reservoir is part of an US$8-billion comprehensive restoration plan for the Everglades.
An environmental group, however, has filed a lawsuit, temporarily halting the work.
The Natural Resources Defense Council wants assurances that the reservoir will be used mostly to restore the Everglades, not for development.
Brad Sewell, an attorney for the council, said: "While the title is Everglades restoration, there is a very strong set of interests in Florida that want many of these projects to also be used for water supply. They're expecting a 30 per cent increase in water demand over the next 20 years."
Many experts believe recent growth in this part of the United States means it will be impossible to fully restore the Everglades to their former glory, but the program still aims to try. - CNA/ac
Healing Florida's 'River of Grass'
By Kathryn Westcott
BBC News
Florida's Everglades - the world-renowned wetland area that has been under siege for more than a century - has been offered a lifeline.
This week, the governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, announced plans to buy more than 800sq km (300sq miles) of land used for growing sugarcane, and restore it to its natural state.
The state of Florida will pay the firm US Sugar $1.7bn for the land, which will be turned into marshes and waterways.
The aim is to restore the fabled "river of grass", a 160-kilometre (99-mile) long, shallow river flowing unimpeded from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay.
Lake Okeechobee is the second-largest freshwater lake wholly within the continental United States.
Water management
Environmentalists hope the latest moves will restore a fragile ecosystem that supplies fresh water to the aquifers of southern Florida.
They have described the proposal by Mr Crist as the largest ecological restoration project in the history of the US.
Jeff Danter, Florida state director of Nature Conservancy, told the BBC how the project could revitalise the region.
"As humans moved into the Everglades over the last more than 100 years, they've continually diverted the water through ditches and canals for a variety of reasons: agriculture, drinking water and that sort of thing," he said.
"It has got to the point where the system no longer works the way it used to and that's had a really detrimental effect on most of the life in the Everglades. The government has committed billions of dollars to try to restore the Everglades but this, we're very hopeful, will make that job a lot easier."
According to Michael Grunwald - journalist and author of The Swamp: The Everglades, Florida, and the Politics of Paradise - the Everglades, which once covered four million acres of swampland, has shrunk to half its original size.
"Half of it has gone, the other half is in an ecological mess," he said.
Change
He welcomed this week's proposals, which he says aim to recreate the region's natural flow of water.
"This could bring real political and economic change," he told the BBC News website, speaking from Florida.
In 2000, Congress passed the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (Cerp), which called for the construction of reservoirs, back-filling of canals and rerouting of water to rescue the Everglades.
Mr Grunwald said the 2000 plan prioritised water for agriculture and expanding cities.
"It was not going to provide much water for the Everglades itself," he said. "The latest proposals by Governor Charlie Crist will help send the water south again."
Lobbying power
He describes how growing sugar cane has irreversibly altered the environment.
"Sugar fields like to be wet when the Everglades like to be dry and vice versa," he said. "And, when it rained hard, the growers had to blast the water east to west to get rid of it, dumping millions of gallons of water and ravaging the estuaries."
Land sitting below the sugar plantations was not getting enough water, he said.
He blames what he calls the sugar industry's "spectacular lobbying power" for the fact that not enough has been done to restore the natural balance.
Mr Grunwald said that while it was too late to entirely restore the Everglades, the purchased land could provide hundreds of square miles of water storage. Water could be filtered and then moved to the southern end of the Florida peninsula.Environmentalists have dreamed of the restoration of a direct lake-Everglades connection for decades.
Jack E Davis, history professor at the University of Florida described this week's announcement as an "historic move" by Mr Crist.
"It shows remarkable commitment," he told the BBC News website. "He is putting the state ahead of the federal government in terms of providing money. The 2000 plan made the federal government and Florida 50-50 partners but under President [George W] Bush, the federal government has not lived up to its part of the bargain."
He said that for many Americans, the protection and restoration of the Everglades was of the highest priority.
"It has become an indicator of how well the US is doing in its relations with the environment - particularly the wetlands," he said. "Providing clean, drinking water has become a priority."
Mr Grunwald agrees: "There is an understanding that one day water will be as precious as oil.
"Many environmentalists see this as a test - if we pass we may get to keep the planet."