Deep injection wells would waste water, money needed for ’Glades restoration

“Don’twastewater.” That message has been hammered into our heads sincewewere children. Yet, to our dismay, a fewweeks ago, without public notice, Gov. Rick Scott’s hand-picked board members at the South FloridaWaterManagement District decided to go it alone on a plan to dispose of billions of gallons of untreated freshwater permanently by pumping it deep into the earth— water needed for the Everglades, Florida Bay and our drinkingwater supply.

Themove came after theU.S Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) rejected further consideration of so-called deep injectionwells. The Corps’ decision did not sitwell withSFWMD board members, who seem much too eager to please Big Sugar and Big Ag interests.

Last August, the three largest Big Sugar corporations (U.S. Sugar, Florida Crystals and Sugar Cane Growers Cooperative) requested deep injectionwells be included in the LakeOkeechobeeWatershed CERP project. Soon after, as many as 100 deep injectionwellswere under consideration, with estimated construction costs as much as one billion dollars.

But, the Corps, recognizing the risk of limited hydrogeologic data in the proposed project area, rightly decided to drop deep injectionwells from further consideration. Instead, they recommended a comprehensive study to evaluate potential system-wide impacts to the Everglades ecosystem. The Boulder Zone, wherewaterwould be dumped 3,000 feet down, is supposed to be confined. But, this layer could be prone to vertical cracks that might allowuntreated surfacewater to migrate back up into drinking water sources. Considering these uncertainties, it’s shocking howquickly the governor and hiswater managerswant to move forward with this.

Just four months ago, when faced with an intense drought, theWaterManagement District said itwas “operating the system to save as muchwater as possible.” Ifwe are constantly prone to droughts, whywould Scott’s water managerswant to squander freshwater? They claim that doing sowould help reduce LakeOkeechobee discharges to the estuaries during extreme wet events. However, this dumping-water “solution” will create new regional problems. The injectedwater will take centuries to reach the sea and surface again. It will not be available in our lifetime, or even in our children’s lifetime, to recharge our aquifers, our rivers, our wetlands, or even to give us rain.

Big Sugar and Big Ag will stop at nothing to avoid selling any more land, whether north or south of the Lake. What is surprising is the extremes theywould go: to deprive the public of billions of gallons ofwater in an age of recurring and intensifying droughts. We all desire a stop to harmful LakeOdischarges to the estuaries, but the solution is not to create a new problem.

Deep injectionwells will divert dollars needed to restore wetlands, to supplywater during droughts, to irrigate our crops, to send more cleanwater south to the Everglades and Florida Bay, to replenish the drinkingwater aquifer for millions, and to fight saltwater intrusion and sea level rise.

Gov. Rick Scott’swater managers say the state will pay for all of it. Let’s demand ourmoney be spent on real Everglades restoration.

DianaUmpierre is Sierra Club’s Everglades organizing representative and lives in Pembroke Pines.