Wenger 72944 Especificações descarregar pdf (Página 297)

Section 7 Environmental Effects of the Selected Plan

EAA Storage Reservoirs Revised Draft PIR and EIS February 2006

7-31

miles of canals. Such construction and structural modifications are proposed on

such a scale that these features represent an irreversible and irretrievable

commitment of resources.

Resources to be committed if the project is approved include state and federal

funding to purchase lands and labor, energy and project materials to build,

operate, and maintain the Project. Fish and wildlife habitat will be permanently

altered (converted to open water, particularly in the case of a storage reservoir).

These lands will likely be inundated for much of the year. Another resource that

may be impossible to replace is the caprock. It is proposed to be broken at the

top of the limestone formation underlying the soils in the area of the EAA

Storage Reservoir project. In addition, soils classified by the USDA/NRCS as

Unique Farmland would be permanently taken from agricultural use.

7.23 CUMULATIVE EFFECTS

The EAA Storage Reservoir project is a proposed part of the CERP. Large areas

north of Lake Okeechobee, within the EAA, around the lake, in the

Caloosahatchee River Basin, and on the Upper East Coast will be used to

increase water storage for the overall gain and long-term benefit of the regional

system. These project features will provide important storage functions and are

essential to the overall restoration of the freshwater marshes and the estuaries

of the area.

The CERP contains 68 components that total approximately 217,000 acres of

new reservoirs and wetlands-based water treatment areas. This plan increases

the supply of fresh water for the Everglades and South Florida ecosystem and

improves the quantity, quality, timing, and delivery of water to the natural

system. CERP includes the following structural and operational changes to the

existing C&SF Project:

• Construction of 181,250 acres of surface water storage reservoirs with a

capacity to store 1,543,270 acre-feet of water;

• WPAs consisting of multi-purpose water management areas in Palm

Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade Counties between urban areas and the

eastern Everglades;

• Aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) wells around Lake Okeechobee, in the

WPAs, and in the Caloosahatchee River basin capable of pumping as

much as 1.6 billion gallons of water a day;

• Construction of 35,600 acres of STAs;

• Removal of more than 240 miles of project canals and internal

embankments within the Everglades;

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Wenger 72944 Especificações Página 297