TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) Governing Board voted to advance an Everglades restoration project and remove 5.5 miles of Old Tamiami Trail roadbed in Miami-Dade County. Removing the roadbed will boost the volume of water flowing south through the Everglades into Everglades National Park.
The project is a component of the larger Central Everglades Planning Project (CEPP), which also includes the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Reservoir Project. CEPP will help deliver additional freshwater from Lake Okeechobee south to Water Conservation Area 3, Everglades National Park and Florida Bay. The project is located in Miami-Dade County south of U.S. 41 between the L-67 Extension Canal and Shark Valley Loop Road.
“This is another big step forward to send more water south into Everglades National Park and Florida Bay, where it is desperately needed,” says DeSantis. “By removing this old roadbed, we are helping restore the natural sheet flow of water and protect important wetland habitats.”
Old Tamiami Trail is a historic highway built across the Everglades to connect Tampa and Miami in the early 1900s. The roadbed removal is expected to increase the flow of clean freshwater into the Northeast Shark River Slough area of the park by more than 220 billion gallons per year. Project completion is expected by 2022.
“Yesterday’s approval marks the first in a series of steps needed to see species like the iconic Roseate Spoonbills nesting in high numbers along the Bay once again,” says Celeste De Palma, director of everglades policy for Audubon Florida. “We hope to see more CEPP groundbreakings in 2020.”
“Removing the old roadbed along Tamiami Trail will deliver more freshwater to Everglades National Park and Florida Bay, and is one of the final results of 30 years of hard work by local communities, state and federal leaders,” says Senior Everglades Program Manager of National Parks Conservation Association Cara Capp. “We look forward to more water flowing unencumbered under Tamiami Trail into Everglades National Park, and greater access to clean drinking water for South Florida families.”
The Tamiami Trail Projects, C-44 Stormwater Treatment Area, Caloosahatchee Reservoir and other critical Everglades restoration projects were identified by DeSantis in his Achieving More Now For Florida’s Environment Executive Order to be expedited and completed as quickly as possible.
© 2019 Florida Realtors®
This post has 0 Comments