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Photo by Bruce Garrison |
An
Oasis of deception in a world of water scarcity, Florida is in the
throes of an impending water crisis. The sunshine state rests
on what has been one of the world's most productive sources of groundwater.
It has 50,000 miles of rivers and streams, 7,700 lakes, 3 million acres
of wetlands and approximately 600 underground springs.
However, both the quantity and the quality of that valuable resource continue to diminish, threatened by an array of scientific, industrial and political forces. “An Oasis in Crisis” is part of The Water Project, a cross-disciplinary endeavor of the Modern Media Collaborative at the University of Miami.
Oasis is a comprehensive multi-media project devoted entirely
to
the water crisis throughout the state of Florida. The project covers a myriad
of both informative and provocative issues beginning with the controversial
restoration of the Florida Everglades.
The goal of this project is to research and produce stories for print, television, radio and the Internet with cross disciplinary participation from students and faculty at the University of Miami.
Click here to read the most recent article
Click here to see videos
Everglades at a Glance
"A Timeline of the Progressive of Ecological Concern Awareness and Activism in the Everglades"
Florida
becomes a state
The
Lacey Act, which banned the interstate shipment of wild
animals or birds killed in violation of state laws, was enacted
by the U.S. Congress. This was followed by the passage
of the bird protection act passed by the state of Florida,
and the wildlife protection act passed by Dade County.
These legislations prohibited the killing, capturing or
shooting of deer, crocodile, and any wild birds.
Drainage,
drying, and oxidation of the peat soils around Lake
Okeechobee led to their rapid subsidence which caused
flooding of the surrounding croplands.
The
spread of cattails, a breed of weeds that thrives on phosphorus,
across the northern Everglades was a result of the
decision to pump storm water from the Everglades Agricultural
Area into the Water Conservation Areas, instead
of Lake Okeechobee.
Hurricane
Andrew damaged southern Dade County causing
extreme damage to the Everglades region and to National
Park Service structures.
Worried
about the restoration and protection of the Everglades,
the Everglades Forever Act was enacted by the
Florida Legislature. In order to improve water quality in the
Everglades, it was mandated by the act that Stormwater Treatment
Water Areas (STAs) were to be constructed. Over
20 years the sugar industry agreed to pay $320 million,
while the taxpayers were expected to pay the rest. Operation
of the Everglades Nutrient Removal Project removed
112,000 pounds of phosphorus in its first three years
of operation.
