A Fight for the Heart of the Everglades: The EAA Reservoir and Big Sugar
A Fight for the Heart of the Everglades: The EAA Reservoir and Big Sugar
by Scott Virgin
Growing up amidst the ecosystems of South Florida is a blessing. Exploring mangrove channels, spearfishing coral reefs, climbing coastal islands, hammocks, and swamps, and observing the vast wildlife connects the young mind to the ancient. Watching a loved one predict the locations and movements of wildlife from a developed understanding of life’s behavioral ebb and flow felt like witnessing superhuman magic. As an adult, this connection to these ecosystems has created both a livelihood and a way of life for our family through a marine industry dependent on them. This relationship sustains us economically and spiritually-and at the heart of it all is the Florida Everglades. Two decades into the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), a lawsuit threatens the heart of South Florida’s ecology.
Explaining the intricacies of Everglades restoration, especially the EAA (Everglades Agricultural Area) Reservoir project, can be overwhelming for any enthusiast. Many of us Everglades addicts close our eyes and imagine when the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee was a lush Pond Apple forest—nature’s connection between the swamp and the lifeblood of the Kissimmee River and Lake Okeechobee. The indiscriminate destruction of the Pond Apple ecosystem in the 1920s was like a sharp knife cutting the jugular vein of our Everglades. As a result, the EAA now sits squarely on and chokes the Everglades’ connection to its water supply. Recounting nature’s swift answer to this habitat destruction, in the form of hurricanes in the late 1920s, is eerie and disturbing. These hurricanes overcame the misguided earthen levees separating Lake Okeechobee from the Everglades, washing away early farming efforts and killing thousands of people. This early narrative gets down to the marrow of the matter: the modification and destruction of the Everglades habitat is a vast, frightening issue that has held thousands of people and entire ecosystems in limbo for over a century.
The EAA Reservoir project and its current construction stand as the cornerstone of Everglades restoration, addressing the initial destruction and disconnection of the Everglades from its natural water source. Despite the creation of Everglades National Park in 1947 and the launch of the largest environmental restoration project in American history (CERP) in 2000, no qualitative repair or restoration of critical water flow paths has been made. A multi-billion dollar sugar industry operating in the EAA is the Goliath actively and passively obstructing restoration efforts. Nutrient-rich conditions created by sugar farming in the EAA can severely damage the Everglades’ biodiversity and unique chemistry. The sugar industry uses our water as a subsidy, contaminates it, and then taxpayers drastically outspend them to clean it up. Additionally, the Army Corps of Engineers maintains lake water at a high level to ensure sugar companies have irrigation water when and in the quantities they require. When the rains bring Lake Okeechobee to dangerous levels, untreated nutrient-rich discharges flow down the Caloosahatchee River to the west and the St. Lucie Waterway to the east. These connections to the lake are unnatural, and the discharges are devastating. Toxic algae blooms, respiratory illnesses, ecosystem collapse, fish kills, and significant economic consequences are just a few of the results.
The EAA Reservoir claims to correct our over-engineered water management system for the Glades at a significant cost. Most people know the 7-mile bridge in the Florida Keys–it was the longest continuous bridge in the world when built in 1982. In 2023, the bridge would have cost $120 million, only 1/25th of the EAA Reservoir’s budget. The overall size of the reservoir will be 16,600 acres, larger than Manhattan and Staten Island combined. It would store and clean 78 billion gallons of water. In short, this project is massive. The Everglades desperately need this cleaned water to raise water levels, restore our aquifer, provide water to a growing population, lower salinity in Florida Bay, restore brackish ecosystems, reduce toxic discharges, and support the Florida Keys Coral Reefs. Otherwise, we may watch these ancient and incredible ecosystems disappear. Ecological catastrophe is an accepted fact, and that’s why state and federal governments are shelling out $3 billion in funding for the project.
In early May, my social media feed was flooded with news about Everglades activism. Big Sugar, notably the United States Sugar Corporation, Florida Crystals, and the Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative of Florida, filed a federal lawsuit against the Army Corps of Engineers over the EAA Reservoir. What is terrifying about this lawsuit is that the issues surrounding the reservoir are just complicated enough that the public may reasonably not understand that this is the pivoting point for restoration. With this lawsuit, Big Sugar is suing for control of public funding for publicly owned water resources, and that threatens the state and federal government’s resolve to provide $3 billion for the project. This lawsuit is an indiscretion against our environment and the public over a life-support project for an irreplaceable ecosystem.
In the evenings, I take my two- and four-year-old sons to see sea turtles and sharks patrol the seagrass fingers south of Soldier’s Key in Biscayne Bay. Even though the ecosystem we observe has drastically diminished since I was a child, I see amazement at the ancient in the boys’ eyes and feel immense gratitude that moments like these will help shape their early lives and connect them with their natural world. As a result, my family and I intend to boycott Big Sugar, as the spirit overwhelmingly leads and the situation clearly demands. The Everglades, St. Lucie & Caloosahatchee waterways, Florida Bay, estuaries, and coral reefs all deserve to exist regardless of our use for them. While the call to action is clear, the task is large and complex and requires experiential and expert guidance. A small group of members of various Monthly Meetings in the Southeastern Yearly Meeting have started researching the holdings and relationships of Big Sugar, as well as exploring other possible actions, such as demonstrations, outreach, and seeking personhood for the Everglades. Please share this story with others, avoid sugar consumption, and watch for updates on effective action. We wholeheartedly welcome accomplices and have faith that the right people will provide the right guidance at the right times.
