Florida's Water Issues: Saltwater Intrusion

The Everglades restoration project, which established to clean up ecosystems and waterways for both current and future generations, has encountered many difficulties stemming from either damage that has been done to the environment was in a fact a result of mother-nature, or a result from the activities pursued by mankind. The case involving the South Florida Water Management District can be argued to have been caused by the agencies' activities within the

The Florida Everglades is a region of tropical wetlands in south Florida. It consists of the southern half of the state, ranging from the Kissimmee River, Lake Okeechobee, and the Everglades. This watershed is referred to as the KOE. Water in south Florida once flowed from the Kissimmee River to Lake Okeechobee, then flowed southward over low-lying lands to Biscayne Bay, the Ten Thousand Islands, and Florida Bay. This shallow, slow-moving sheet of water created a mosaic of ponds, marshes, and forests. Over thousands of years this developed into the balanced ecosystem we know today as the Florida Everglades. In the later half of the 19th century, America was expanding and there was a nation wide push for progress. The idea for expansion led

First and foremost, a main reason why the water supply to the everglades is having a bad effect, is because of all of the past draining. As stated in source 1 (The Florida Everglades) it says “From 1905-1910 , the settlers coverted the land… the Everglades were nearly drained entirely.” This shows that these new settlers wanted to get rid of the Everglades completely. As a result to their actions the Florida lost 50% of the wildlife’s population and diversity. This also included the subtropical wilderness of the Everglades. Which contained grassy marshes, hardwood hammocks, and mangrove forests. The draining of the Everglades was only one of the reasons why that the water supply on the park is bad.

The everglades is a place where nature is free in it’s paradise, besides the fact that there are hundreds of issues. The Everglades is home to many types of wildlife, and also provides for humans. The water supply has dramatically affected everyone, and everything, not all of it good. Water issues have affected the Everglades, and Florida by decreasing wildlife, droughts, and money issues.

A concrete network of canals was designed to bring water from the lake area to surrounding farmland in the dry season. Florida was becoming a booming area and more people came and more acres of the Everglades were cleared for farms, ranches, housing, roads, and railways. And more and more; the Everglades were dying (Miami Museum of Science, 1995).

To lead off, the water supply can be ‘polluted’ by rain and storms. The repercussions can be huge, and Floridians would not have access to clean water. According to the text, in Source 2, paragraph 4, it states, “One reason the water in the Everglades faces these issues is because the sugarcane crop grows so well there.” As said in the text, more land is needed for planting, plants need water, and sugar cane is affecting the water supply. On page 116, the text states, “A Supreme Court decision made in 2004 implemented an $8.4 billion project to re-establish the natural flow of the water to the Everglades…” As states, the Supreme Court is funding the Everglades to help restore its natural flow. The water supply can be ‘trashed’ or ‘polluted’

Groundwater is the largest and most available usable source of drinking water in the state. There is a vast and mysterious system of caves and natural springs in North Central Florida. The cave system within the aquifer is one of the most amazing parts. The caves are remarkable in many ways. They are among the deepest and longest in the world, let alone the U.S. Another amazing aspect of the system is the purity of the water. The springs collectively produce billions of gallons of crystal clear water per day. The whole system stems from the Florida Aquifer that rests under the entire state. When most people think of Florida, they think of the weather and the beaches, but its the springs and the whole water

(Salton Sea Symposium, 1998) However , the condition of the Sea has drastically changed and so has the amount of healthy living organisms in the Sea. By the 1980�s the water level rose greatly and gave way to abandoned businesses, deteriorating structures and empty beaches. The above was due to the fact that evaporation is the only outlet to the Salton Sea , in fact 1.35 million acre feet of water is lost each year , thus increasing its salinity even more. The salinity of the Salton Sea has increased to 45,000 parts per thousand or 45 PPT; the Pacific Ocean is currently 35 PPT.

The water resoures from the everglades is very important to florida. without them we wouldnt have water to wash your hands,shower or to drink.that can lead to diseases or dying of thirst. with out water factorys cant make sertant products which means less jobs.the floridans would be forsed to leave florida. so we should take care of the evergldes if not the water could get too pallouted and not clean enough to be used.

Along with the numerous natural disasters that humans face in their environment, sinkholes are becoming a more prominent and frequent force to reckon with. Sinkholes are not a new phenomenon, but due to human activity, these concavities are becoming increasingly common. If humans continue to abuse underlying aquifer systems then the influx of sinkhole occurrences will rise. Since sinkholes are naturally occurring hydrogeological systems, the only way to minimize damage caused by this detriment is to respect and conserve water. We can counter that the Floridian Aquifer will not deplete anytime soon, but we need to become realistic regarding the impact we apply on this delicate water mechanic. It is easy for humans to misuse their local resources

Natural hazards, such as sinkholes, pose hazards to the environment, humans, and property throughout the state of Florida. In 2013 a sinkhole claimed the life of Jeffery Bush in Seffner, Florida. He was lying in bed when the ground collapsed beneath his bedroom (Brinkmann, 2013, p.1). Sinkholes can drain wetlands, reroute surface runoff into aquifers, and detrimentally impact natural ecosystems by significantly altering them. Sinkholes occur naturally in Florida, but anthropogenic activities can influence their formation. Indeed, this paper will argue that groundwater pumping and surface loading are the most critical anthropogenic factors that influence sinkhole development in Florida.

Water Follies: Groundwater pumping and the fate of America’s fresh waters was about how Groundwater pumping has destroyed the water surfaces in the United States. Robert Glennon, the author of the book, wrote this book in a way that the reader would admire his exhaustive obsession for detailed research, in order to provide the most information to the reader. Even though the author wrote this book for history lovers and water and hydrology enthusiasts, most readers can get through the book without having the thought that this book is not for them.

Salt water intrusion is the movement of saline water into freshwater aquifers. Changes in the climate and sea level drives changes to the coastal groundwater system, which affects the public groundwater supply wells. A study on the impact of sea level rise on saltwater intrusion

The marshes that were just extensions of the ocean are harmless to the wetlands but when canals bring in salt water they damage the other marshes that aren’t supposed to have salt in them. When salt water invades the freshwater marshes, the plants start dying off because the plants can’t live in the salty conditions. “The fewer plants that are in the wetlands the more unstable the soil is because the plants’ root systems hold much of the land together” (Barnowski). “The loose soil is then more easily eroded, which connects the vicious circle of erosion and plant loss” (Barnowski). The higher amount of plants that die off by the salt water will cause Louisiana to lose larger portions of its wetlands. We are already losing about 35 square miles of the coastal land due to erosion annually (Colten). The salt water doesn’t only kill the plant life in the marshes, it starves the animals living in those marshes as well. The

Due to continued rainfall in December of 2014, the water level in the New River Lagoon was higher than normal. Higher water levers allowed us to conduct more extensive testing deeper into the tributaries that feed Belize’s largest body of freshwater. Over time, this testing will provide a clearer picture of the movement of the water that passes from runoff and ground water into the tributaries and into the New River Lagoon. The New River Lagoon then flows north to the New River and empties into the Bay of Corozal.