Approaching the S-12A
Major hydrologic milestone of the Trail
Can you see the S-12A?
flying southeast
How about now?
into the Everglades and
Water Conservation Area 3A
Here’s an even closer view:
To the left of the red Mack truck.
Connected (but controlled) ecosystem
A levee and its gates
Here’s some aerial footage …Â
Of a spot where the Everglades and Big Cypress meet.
Tour of the S-343B and S-12A
If it weren’t for that darn levee.
How To: Fix a leak
Why dripping faucets bother me so much
How much water do I use per month?
My water bill read around 5,000 gallons.
By “use” I don’t mean drinking it all. There’s the sprinklers, cooking, washing dishes and clothes, an occasional fill up of the pool, plus two bathrooms and showers.
Still, doing the math, that works out to a hefty half tablespoon per second.
Talk about a leaky faucet!
Pre-Drainage Song
As sung around the campfire
Bobby Angel brings down the house …
With his sprawling masterpiece on the destruction of the Everglades and the power of dreams to both haunt us and inspire a new way.
If you’re a history buff …
You’ll rejoice in the many references to the pre-drained Everglades, how it changed over time, and our quest with hydrologic restoration to get it right.
Bobby Angel may not have all the answers …
But boy can he sing a Nature Folk ballad!
Cocohatchee River (and Canal)
And why one is much harder to find
The river is still there …
You just have to look to find it.
As for the canal:
It’s easy to find.
It’s deeper, wider, longer and straight as an arrow …
And parallels modern-day Immokalee Road.
Everglades S-190
Video tour of water releases at the structure
In trying to send water south …
Flows at this structure appear to be heading north.
The bigger picture is revealed with a 360 degree view.
S-190 Panorama
As seen from the top of the structure
Being a hydrologists …
Is an adventurous job.
The view from the top of a structure is always worth the effort.
Water was pooling 3 feet on the upstream side and the flow rate was around 500 cubic feet per second I think.
Mythical watershed
How rain saved the swamp
One of the biggest myths of the swamp …
Is that it’s a watershed untouched by time.
So the story goes:
Unlike the highly-engineered Everglades management system that depends on a complex operation of gates, pumps, water treatment areas and regulation schedules …
The Big Cypress escaped from drainage unscathed.
The true(r) story:
Yes, the swamp gets most of its water straight from the sky, but it relies on upstream flows too. And here’s the big catch: The size of its upstream drainage (or watershed) has shrunk over time.
Or in other words, the swamp is (primarily) rain-driven because all the other “pre-drainage” sources of water got drained away or boxed out.
The good news:
There are a lot worse fates that could befall an ecosystem than to become a watershed. And why cry over spilt milk of drainage past when there is a lot of work big and small that can be done to help achieve the goal of making the swamp the very best rain-driven work it can be.
Water Control
A sampling of waterworks
Some shun photos of concrete …
In favor of more naturalistic scenes.
But I’ve always had a weak spot in my heart for water management structures and canals. But what exactly the pond apples are dong in this gallery I’m not quite sure.
Before Canals
Yes, the Big Cypress is its own watershed …
And it gets most of its water straight from the sky.
As presented at the Big Cypress Symposium
But that doesn’t mean …
It hasn’t changed over the decades.
In fact, by the time the Big Cypress was saved from development – and designated as natural refuges, parks and preserves – a vast network of canals and levees had already been put in place.
Animation of how drainage altered the watershed
The result?
For one, the watershed shrunk.
The headwater delivery system that used to reach high up into the Caloosahatchee and Lake Okeechobee is now diverted to the coasts. Meanwhile, the water that used to flow into Big Cypress from the Everglades has been cut off, or even reversed.
Major drainage preceded conservation of The Big Cypress
We’re not saying we don’t love being a watershed.
It’s the best of all possible foundations to build on. The next step is doing hydrologic restoration projects great and small to get the water right.
History of water
There was a time when the water just flowed …
Unfettered, free and without a thought.
A parable of a water manager with regrets
And then we built the original gate.
And one more after that, and then another and another until there were too many to count.
Nothing is more complicated than water management.
But let’s also face the facts: We brought it on ourselves.
Vegetation plume
Fueled by poor water quality
The Everglades are oligotrophic.
The canal below provides a direct connect between agriculturally enriched waters to the heart of the Everglades.
The result is a dense and growing thicket of willow and cattails in the middle of what should be pristine Ridge and Slough.
The solution?
Filling in the canal and cleaning up the water seems like a good start.
It’s part of a plan gaining multi-stakeholder support.