U.S. Proposes Massive Effort to Save Everglades

The federal government Wednesday proposed a massive replumbing of much of South Florida to save the Everglades.

In a 1,945-page report, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers laid out options for restoring the hydrologic conditions that existed before urban and agricultural development decimated one of the world’s largest marshes.

The Corps did not endorse any of the six complex options for re-engineering water flow. All aim to re-create conditions similar to those that existed when the “River of Grass” flowed unimpeded in a 60-mile-wide swath, creating rich habitat for millions of birds, reptiles and mammals.

But environmentalists hope that the Corps and other federal and state agencies involved in Everglades restoration, a Clinton Administration priority, will endorse the most ambitious plan. That blueprint, in addition to rearranging levees and canals, calls for a broad “flowway” of water through the Everglades Agricultural Area and the construction of large water-reserve areas.