In the final days of his administration, with the eyes of the world on Florida where the epic 2000 election recount was underway, President Bill Clinton quietly signed into law a plan to restore the Everglades. Twenty years and $17 billion later, the grandiose vision of reversing decades of environmental damage remains stuck in the swamp. In DRAINED, a podcast from WMFE and the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, Amy Green wades into the controversy around one of the most ambitious environmental restoration efforts ever undertaken. From rivers of toxic slime to a mind-boggling plan to inject a giant bubble of freshwater a thousand feet underground, DRAINED examines the massive plan to restore the river of grass and poses the big question about the future of this natural wonder: Can it be saved?
Everglades restoration is based on historical ecological trends in the river of grass, but south Florida's climate is changing. Can the Everglades be saved? Hint, It will take a while.
One component of Everglades restoration is aimed at getting the water clean. But what constitutes clean water in the Everglades? And how to make that happen? There's been a lot of debate about that.
When it comes to Everglades restoration, it is difficult to overstate how complicated everything is – and massive. The effort is aimed at recapturing billions of gallons of freshwater that is pumped out to sea, but where to put it all? One suggestion, underground.
In Everglades National Park, parts of the river of grass are collapsing – literally. A lot of the problems have to do with massive efforts to drain and replumb Florida's most important water resource, an ecosystem unlike any other on Earth.
In DRAINED, a podcast from WMFE and the Florida Center for Investigative Reporting, Amy Green wades into the controversy around one of the most ambitious environmental restoration efforts ever undertaken.
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