PHOSPHORUS CHALLENGE & ECONOMICS



 ● A huge STA for removing P

The main problem for Florida Everglades is phosphorus contamination.  Huge tracts of land for constructed STAs are required for its removal. That is a very expensive water treatment indeed – paid for mainly by the taxpayers. While economical P-removal requires a technological breakthrough, some alternative ideas may be worth examining. A little summary can get us started:
- we have P-contaminated waters;
- we need to keep using big water quantities AND phosphorus for agriculture (it is NOT going to go away any time soon);
- that agriculture needs water - and keeps pumping and using perfectly CLEAN water from underground aquifers – only to contaminate it with hard-to-remove phosphorus.

● Water with plenty of P in it – use it.

Obviously, the agriculture needs WATER and P.
Give and distribute it to them already in a MIXTURE - and :
- save ourselves huge costs of removing P from water (to required low levels of 10 ppb for the Everglades);
- preserve the precious clean aquifers;
- recycle the finite phosphorus resource.
In other words - why don't we have agriculture using exclusively P-loaded water instead ?
Of course, that would mean -
- gathering and holding that water;
- pumping that water;
- conveying that water (higher-tech distribution PIPELINES rather than canals ?);
- have somebody (user ?) pay some (?) of the water conveyance costs.
The clincher of such a scheme is that this approach may still be CHEAPER than buying out LAND for, constructing and operating STAs. Some specialized reservoirs would still be needed but definitely no back-pumping of P-polluted water that further spoils LO.
Particularly considering that (and how) the whole regional water scheme will radically change with the disallowing and discontinuation of ocean outfalls - in a not too distant future.
It may also be worth noticing that, over the past century, Lake Okeechobee and its muds have become a veritable repository of phosphorus. 

● Phosphate mining in Morocco

The finite nature of world phosphorus supply (Morocco) leads us to the necessity of exploiting even low-level sources of the element so essential for agriculture.  High-phosphorus muds of Lake Okeechobee really represent a resource.
All these considerations should become another serious ELEMENT  in the water management schemes for Central and South Florida  (among those others like BMPs, RASTAs, LO, etc.).
Naive ? - well, keep it in mind and just see somebody else coming up with it sooner or later.

USING WATER

Adena Springs Ranch and the like.
The Ranch wants to take a huge slice (equivalent to 50,000 population) of a precious natural resource – clean fresh water from the underground aquifer. It might return probably back some portion of it  on the surface – seriously contaminated.  In our quest for water, we are heavily taxing our water resources.  The net result of it is that, for a local example, the amount of close by Silver Springs flow has already gone down 50%.  Freshwater in aquifers can be considered a non-renewable resource because it takes decades or hundreds of years (sometimes even longer) to replenish.  This is debatable and debated around Silver Springs by experts from both sides as the permit for water withdrawal is being considered (and contested).
According to the free-market economy, the price of a resource should be based on the supply/demand situation determining the commodity market values.  Correspondingly, that water permit should cost so much and be so restrictive that the Ranch would think more than twice about the feasibility of its venture.
The key question could be:  What do we need more, water – or beef ?
(And, considering the precarious Florida water situation – does that beef have to come from Florida ?)

AIRBOATS & SWAMP BUGGIES

Roaring around pristine nature.
Everybody is impressed by the natural beauty and uniqueness of Florida Everglades. What a priceless piece of pristine nature !  Excuse me, what did you say ? – I did not quite hear you now.
An airboat was just roaring by.  Its billion-horsepower noise at the deafening level – to the point that the tourists have to don earplugs to take a ride through that “pristine” nature of the Everglades. The tourism ads do not tell you about that !
But this certainly must be the way to go and see “nature” – all ads recommend it.  Mother Nature just loves our roaring contraptions. It is for sure that all the birds are waiting for them.  Elks and deers too. They are known to come from a distance to experience the roar.  And alligators ?
Actually, most people must believe that when it is “horse power” it must be natural.
So we put these horse-powered engines on airboats and plow the Everglades waters with them.  Oh, that wonderful nature around – and the wildlife ! Never mind the eardrum-piercing noise, we paid for it.

And where there is not enough water, we hop on the swamp-buggies and rip up the land too.
With a zillion horsepowers it just must be the best way to experience the magic of pristine nature.  And we are dead set on doing it. Some even call it a “sport”. Well, it shakes up the potbellies - -
Sometimes I wish that fuel would cost $50 per gallon.
As little boy-scouts, we may have heard something about “see and not be seen” when entering the majestic outdoors cathedral of Mother Nature. By extension, also “hear and not be heard” – a broken twig is a disturbance - -
I don’t know if our children are aware nowadays what nature is and what it is all about. However, they may catch glimps of it on their smart phones. The roaring monster of an airboat or a swamp-buggy gives them the thrill of power – isn’t that the nature we see all around ?
Now – take a kayak and try to see the watery beauty of the Everglades – you don’t have to go too far, there is enough of it just around the corner. Just make sure that you don’t get run over by an airboat – although you will hear it from 10 miles away. But watch out - they may not hear you.
If you are a landlubber – just walk away on the flat and luscious Everglades land feeling your way with a stick. And keep away from the tracks that a swamp-buggy left there – it may come back to devour you – rather than a panther or an alligator.
See, listen, enjoy - no horse-powers, no earplugs – just you and her, Mother Nature.

POPULATION GROWTH – curb it !?

"Ain't it too small, what do you think, doc ?"

We are undoubtedly the most successful species on this planet when it comes to populating it.  Expanding by leaps and bounds, doubling human numbers every 35 years – or less.  I was used to 3 billion people around me, now our global numbers topped 7 billion – our children better get used to 9-11 billion.  Florida has been doing particularly well – doubling its population every 20 years.
The population growth is a controversial issue, putting it succinctly. Just listen to the Pope’s sort of  “go and multiply” message - and then to environmental scientists considering sustainability - -
Yet, our exploding numbers, causing the shrinking ‘elbow space’ and critical resource scarcities, are undoubtedly the reason for escalating and deadly frictions on this globe.  And the endless human GREED – only gets multiplied by all those billions.
The current 19+ million people hanging onto Florida are the real reason for impossibility of the Everglades restoration too.  We dewatered the ‘swamp’ to gain land and converted it to intensive farming and agriculture uses as well as sprawling cities.  Florida economc machine revved up as our numbers kept growing – look at the census data, ask the developers, the government, just look around. Nowadays, a serious notion to “grow out of our debt” tends to be practiced as a working and ‘workable’ economic tool. Actually, our enlightened economists hardly even have an economy model for the population no-growth scenario. Corporate growth is a sacrosanct manta – and practice.  Grow – grow – grow – is it workable ?
All growth curves level off – and decline, according to the Malthusian hypothesis and historical observations.  Human history knows many instances where civilizations perished as their growth became unsustainable. Running out of resources (food, water, materials) and poisoning themselves with refuse and by-products are the unmistakable reasons. 
Could we see similar pressures in Florida ?
Freshwater shortages, pollution problems, economic dislocations and such – all stemming from the growing population pressures. 
Whether we like it or not, that is at the bottom of it all.

EVERGLADES ‘RESTORATION’ - what exactly ?

Florida population doubling
every 20 years from
1900 (0.5 mil.) to 2000 (16 mil.) 

The contemporary “Everglades restoration” is really a misnomer. The Everglades can be restored as much as the prairies can with hundreds of thousands of buffalo roaming around. The truth is that the Everglades can never be restored – to its original state and behavior. A 100+ years passed by – and Florida population mushroomed. There has to be protection against devastating floods, there has to be agriculture – and/but there has to be a secured freshwater supply. Any ‘restoration’ could only be to a certain point. The question is – just where is that ‘feasible’ and ‘reasonable’ point ?
The lack of knowledge and understanding of the Everglades by our great- and grandfathers resulted in a dangerous damage to its unique function. That is being only very slowly corrected now as reflected in recent judicial decisions and schemes such as the CERP, new Water Quality Plan, CEPP and other efforts. Yes, after a century of benefiting enormously from the Everglades, we have to seriously and responsibly think of paying the piper.
Floridian waters, let alone the greater Everglades, are a deplorable mess, sparking a big controversy between the State (FDEP) and the US Clean Water Act (EPA).
To clean and regulate water that would flow to replenish the WCAs and the Everglades National Park requires building expensive reservoirs and phosphorus-removing STAs. Very sophisticated modeling work is showing us the way. Unfortunately, models do not show us just who will pay for what.
There is a long list of specific tasks to do all around the FL peninsula – as well as to argue about. The different jurisdictions and stakeholders involved make for a good gridlock. The judges involved are trying to cut through this proverbial ‘gordian knot’. There is a snail-paced progress (or glacial slowness as Judge Gold qualified the progress for cleaning the Everglades) with one postponement after another – the latest talks about year 2025.
In the meantime, we are reminded of the "POLLUTERS PAY" amendment, anchored in the FL Constitution dealing with pollution in the Everglades Agricultural Area, to shift water clean-up costs from the TAXPAYER to the POLLUTER.

In the meantime, also, the seas are rising. Could there be a hope for at least a modest and reasonably paced and financed ‘restoration’ ?