To Save or Not to Save the Everglades Controversy

The Everglades is the home of many animals and of course provided water with most of Florida. The Everglades ecosystem is in danger within the last few decades has shrunk to a third of the size that it used to be. The Everglades is the home to many animals and of course many ecosystems that help with keeping the Everglades the way that it is. The issue is the pollution that is coming from not only farming and also from houses being built around the area.

Restoration to the area has been up in the air for quite a long time, the pollution is not only killing the animals but they are becoming extinct.

The Everglades is heavy polluted with prosperous from fertilizer and is the cause for about 67 animals on the verge of being endangered facing the brink of extinction The natural land characteristics of this area are highly variable, as it is a quilt work of a variety of landscapes, including freshwater marshes, wetland tree islands, pinelands, mangrove swamps, and coastal marine waters.

It has also been reported that millions of acres of the land are contaminated with mercury.

“Approved by Congress in 2000, the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan was originally estimated to cost about $7.8 billion and expected to take 30 years to complete — a price tag that has since ballooned due to construction costs and other inflation (nbcnews)”. Repairing the Everglades will also fix the waterways that go through the Everglades, which also is one of the main supplies of water in Florida.

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Without the restoration, the water is not only polluted but is dangerously high and could cause flooding.

“Now an effort is underway to cure its ills—the roads and farms blocking channels where water once flowed freely into the Everglades (Washington post)”.

The Major Players

• Conservatives are involved because they are in the house and have power over how much money that a particular organization or a project would grant money to have the work done. “Marco Rubio, Florida’s other senator, said the project was “the single largest thing that’s gotten done” on the issue” (the guardian).
• Democrats are one of another major player because just like conservatives they help make rules and laws for the land by also help passing acts and granting money to particular organizations that need it, both groups try to work together to come to a common ground to help the need of people. “This is a huge victory,” said Florida Senator Bill Nelson, a Democrat. “This project will enable us to take a significant step forward in restoring the natural water flow to a water-starved Everglades national park.”( the guardian)
• National Research Council is an academy based on a group of scientists that directs specific science research to universities and institutions. When they report back their finding it is usually unbiased and always backed up by research. The information is made public to promote public knowledge and to improve our lives as people living in the United States along with people living around the world. “ The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, approved by Congress nine years ago, contains 68 separate projects expected to take 20 to 30 years to complete” (npr.com).
• Farmers like sugary and Florida crystals dominate the production that happens in the Everglades. Farmers are considered to be a player because they are the ones that are causing the pollution that is happening in the Everglades and some of the damages are irreparable because they are trying to supply America with a product.
• House owners in the nearby area would also be a factor because the pollution from their yard is running off and going into the water stream into the water, which is causing pollution to the water where it is hurting the ecosystems that are living there. Important Facts
• Everglades provides ecosystems that help the environment along with all the animals that stay there, this land prides most of the clean water to most of Florida and has become smaller in size over the centuries. The Everglades filled with mostly filled with fresh water
• The Everglades are mostly responsible for all of South Florida water recharge through the Biscayne aquifer. The Biscayne aquifer is located in south Florida under the surface where. “This water is often referred to as groundwater or the water table and provides virtually all of the water that is used by South Florida residents, visitors and businesses” (Miami-Dade). The drinking water is so close to the surface that it’s actually prone to be contaminated which is harmful to humans to drink.
• The Everglades is home to 13 endangered species and ten species that are threatened. This is the only play in the world where both an alligator and crocodile both coexist in the same area.
• Farming and homeowners in the area are 2 of the main reasons why the restorations haven’t started because of the fact that even if the restoration does start it will be short-lived because of the same pollution that will be getting back into the water.
• Everglades’ restorations plants were passed in 2000 by Congress and were passed, the cost has been estimated to $10.5 billion with a 35-year timeline. This project gives the Everglades the effort to have clean water and to supply Florida like it’s been doing along with making a waterway to flow off both sides of the peninsula of Florida to prevent massive flood in south Florida.,

This would be putting fresh and clean water into the River of Grass. Side One: The Everglades are provided habitat for wildlife, plants, and other animals. It plays a large role in the preservations of wildlife. The Everglades are being destroyed and on the animals are on the brink of becoming extinct. The government has talked about a restoration plan to not only preserve the animals but fixing the water system that is leaving the water nasty, which contains pollutions that even the animals can’t even live there., These animals will suffer and be extinct due to the negligence of humans that have taken over their land and left their remaining land full of pollution.

“One million acre-feet (an acre one foot deep) of storage, distributed across several locations both south and north of Lake Okeechobee, could substantially reduce water surpluses and shortages for farmers, tribes, city residents and the Everglades. Building more water storage facilities would also drastically improve our ability to remove phosphorus from the water” (the conversation). The Everglades will provide more safe water with the restoration along with lower the pollution in the area for the animals and human who drink the water that is from the Everglades.

The endangered species list will go down along with the threatened species as well. Along with the restoration engineers will build a way for water to flow off of both the sides of Florida to limit the damage the flooding causes in Florida dues to horrible hurricanes that we get on a yearly bases and that results in more money, taxpayer dollars to help clean up the area. This restoration will improve that water that is delivered to Florida bays and Biscayne Bay which will improve the water supply by the aquifers.

“Everglades’s restoration will ultimately improve 2.4 million acres of South Florida’s ecosystem, including Everglades National Park. It will help reduce large discharges from Lake Okeechobee to the estuaries” (sun sentinel). Side Two: This is not really benefiting Americans directly and the money could go to using something better, the farming industry would be losing profits if it gets restored when sugar cane plants are based from there.

The animals don’t have anything to do with us and the money is just going back to the government if they don’t care why we should? There is much more that needs to be done to worry about the environment according to debaters. The restoration does cost a lot of money that the government shouldn’t be hashing out right now on the environment.

The main problem that sugar companies have is that the sugar company would still be pouring more pollution in the water and which causes the pollution in the water for providing a product the American as customer use on a daily basis. The vegetable farms use the same type of fertilizer the produces a ridiculous amount of phosphorous fertilizers and causes a chain reaction with putting out a lot of pollution.

The cleanup will have people without jobs and will put people out of business. “Sugar company executives have often insisted that the costs of cleanup would bankrupt them and risk the loss of 40,000 jobs. Indeed, some growers are still withholding support (Washington post). This project would take a lot of tax dollars a year approximately $22 million a year to maintain the costs of keeping the Everglades clean. Along with have the sugar companies pay for the restorations out of their profits.

“The law caps sugar industry payments towards water filtration systems at $320 million (democracy uprising).” This would make sugar companies be out of a lot of money and try to reap the reparations of their profit because of this lost, which will cause people losing jobs, leaving the Everglades the way it makes it easier for sugar companies to keep their company running the way they need to along with keeping their employees paid. Your Opinion and Rationale I strongly agree that starting the restoration project for the Everglades that is estimated to be about 10 million dollars is not only worth it but it will help us in the long run. Preserving the wildlife ecosystems are the ones that are helping the water stay clean and free of pollutant.

I personally wouldn’t care if it took 100 billion dollars to fix, it will reduce the flooding down south along with preserving endangered species. The animals were here first and we just came in a ruined it for them the least that we can do is fix the damage that we as humans have done. It would not only benefit them but it would be benefiting us as well. The only thing that the government has to do it to release the funding so that the workers can be hired to start fixing on this project.

This project will restore not only the animals that are suffering because of human pollution. Even though the sugar companies would have to pay for some of the work to be done I think that it’s only fair because of the fact that they are the cause that is ruining the land and causing the main pollution in that type of environment. Cleaning up the Everglades will benefit and produces more pros in the future than cons. I wouldn’t think twice about the restoration plan because its something that need to be done in order for not only the animals in the Everglades to live in their own ecosystems but also beneficial to us as Floridians to have local fresh water that we can get out of our tab that doesn’t involve a lot of chemical products in it just for it to be clean.

The more chemicals to clean water is not healthy for humans either we shouldn’t have to rely on chemicals to keep our water clean. The restoration project does help with major flooding in Florida as well. The current water flow “It also destroyed the St. Lucie and Fort Meyers estuaries by flooding them with unnatural pulses of fresh, and often polluted, water. In the Everglade, it caused a 90 percent decline in populations of wading birds and repeated seagrass die-offs in Florida Bay and Charlotte Harbor, which in turn led to algae blooms and fish kills.