Save Our Water, The Everglades and Our Economy
The response from the SAVE OUR WATER Summit, presented by The News-Press has been phenomenal. So many people are asking, ‘What can I do?’ and ‘How can I help?’ The Conservancy of Southwest Florida has made it easy to take action.
Please let Governor Rick Scott know how you feel. Ask him to start the planning now for the Everglades Agricultural Area water storage project to help save the Caloosahatchee, the Everglades and our economy.
Our Caloosahatchee River and the Everglades need your support. Senator Lizbeth Benacquisto, Representative Heather Fitzenhagen, Sanibel Mayor Kevin Ruane, and other local leaders are supporting the need to cleanse and send the polluted Lake Okeechobee discharges away from the Caloosahatchee and St. Lucie estuaries back south to the Everglades and Florida Bay, where they historically flowed and are desperately needed.
Please take action to convey your support today that Governor Rick Scott immediately direct the planning for the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) water storage project be started to help save the Caloosahatchee.
Excessively high volumes of freshwater this dry season have devastated the Caloosahatchee estuary, which is integral to our regional economy here in Southwest Florida. Now, the rainy season has brought even more dumping of polluted Lake O water; pushing the salt/freshwater mixing zone out into the Gulf of Mexico and dumping more nutrient-laden muck downstream.
The EAA south of the lake is the essential missing piece of the puzzle to lowering Lake Okeechobee lake levels to protect the dike and communities below the lake while diverting the unwanted estuary discharges. However, the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) storage project, part of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, has been pushed off until 2020.
Planning for EAA storage and treatment should begin now, concurrent with other planning efforts underway to address water storage north of the lake. Storage needs north and south of the lake are related and therefore, it is more economical and efficient to address them concurrently. Additionally, storage south of the lake will allow other Everglades restoration projects to be used to their greatest capacity to provide the maximum environmental benefit throughout the entire Everglades ecosystem including the Caloosahatchee River.
Click here to send your email to Governor Scott and click here to sign the Now or Neverglades declaration.
