Mr. Chairman, as a member of the Board of Monroe County Commissioners, I serve as the County's Land Use Liaison to the State of Florida, and I represent the Commissioners on the National Marine Sanctuary's Water Quality Steering Committee. I am also a recent appointment to the Governor's Commission for the Everglades. My county, Monroe, is better known as the Florida Keys, but it also includes vast tracks of the mainland Everglades and is the southernmost component of the Everglades ecosystem.
My testimony before you today will be confined to five critical points:
ONE: The restoration of the Everglades is absolutely critical to the future of South Florida and the Restudy is our last best chance to restore the Everglades. This is about more than our water supply - there simply is no South Florida as we know it without the Everglades. Fully one third of Everglades National Park is Florida Bay, the shallow body of water between the mainland and the Florida Keys. It is the nursery ground of the marine creatures that make their homes on the reefs of the Florida Keys, thus serving as the foundation of both the Florida Keys' ecosystem and its economy.
TWO: We must start right away. The Restudy really must be authorized in the year 2000. The condition of the Everglades is not stagnant, but is getting steadily worse over time, and can be expected at some point to reach ecological collapse. And there often isn't recovery from collapse. Fragile ecosystems reach a point where no amount of action can ever restore what has been lost And sometimes when I'm walking along the edge of the grassy wetlands of the Everglades, I'm deeply frightened of how close we are to irretrievable loss.
THREE: The Restudy is an evolving process. When you examine the Restudy, you're definitely looking at a flawed document - there can be no question about it. There's a paragraph for just about every vested special interest in the state - with one major exception I will mention later - and the plan is fundamentally compromised repeatedly on one side or the other. But, as it stands, it's as close as we're likely to get to consensus with something this mighty, this expensive and this complex. Please recognize that your approval of the Restudy begins a process of refinement of these expressed objectives and plan - work to be done not before the passage of the Restudy but as the approved and funded Restudy evolves.
FOUR: The Restudy must not be the basis for further degradation of the Everglades ecosystem. Much of the expense of the Everglades Restudy is directly traceable to undoing the earlier work of the Army Corps of Engineers this century in Florida. Work to control and direct the flow of water for the convenience and profit of a single species is rarely wise, even when that species is us - and we're now finding the cost of single species ecosystem manipulation is not only expensive, its devastating and almost always harmful even to the single species it is designed to benefit. Let's enter this Restudy pledged not to commit the mistakes of the past and determined that we will not balance every step forward with a step back.
FIVE: Funding water quality improvements in the Florida Keys is crucial to the Restudy's success. Increasingly, the Army Corps of Engineers has come to see that their job, if responsibly undertaken, isn't just about the movement of water - it's about the quality of the water that is moved. That's why I'm deeply distressed by the one special interest I know of that didn't get included in this Restudy you'll find remarkably little mention of the Florida Keys, the enormous wastewater and stormwater challenges we face, and no money allocated to help with those problems.
The Florida Keys are essentially the southernmost third of the Everglades. What happens in South Florida to the north of us ends up in our Bay, in our backyards, flowing through to the precious reef tract that is not only the world's number one dive destination, but the boundary of the Everglades ecosystem. With documented water quality concerns that made headlines in national press across the nation last year, how could we have emerged completely unfunded from the Restudy? Our wastewater system upgrade costs are higher than anywhere else because our islands are solid rock, and the water quality standards to which we are being held are higher than anywhere else. And yet, with our cost of living among the highest in Florida, our citizens have one of the lowest incomes. We brought these issues formally before the Army Corps of Engineers during their public hearings to no avail.
I can't accept the argument I hear most frequently for our exclusion - that the Restudy is a delicately balanced Christmas tree, already heavily laden with special interest and specific project ornaments - that one more may topple this precious tree. Ignoring what the Keys face, and those impacts on the Everglades ecosystem, is like saying the tree is finished before you put the star on top.
We have a Restudy that recognizes the wastewater crisis in the Florida Keys, that acknowledges that solutions for this crisis are, and I'm quoting here, Beyond the means of Tanya and yet offers no help for us in its $8 billion budget. We're not left out because the problem isn't recognized, and we're not left out because our problems and their expense pale in comparison with those that were selected for funding inclusion.
Can it simply be about our lack of clout? With only 85,000 people spread across 150 miles of islands, have we so little voice in the process? I just don't know. But I can tell you with absolute conviction something that I really DO know - water quality surrounding the Florida Keys is deeply threatened and we cannot bear the burden alone. I am here before you today to ask, whether within the Restudy or through a separate appropriation, that you don't forget us. The Florida Keys are a national treasure, a part of the Everglades ecosystem, and we too are in danger of irretrievable loss and unbearable burdens.
The Everglades Restudy is our last, best chance to recover something we can't afford, in any sense of the word to lose, and the time for the Restudy's approval is now. Let us acknowledge that the Restudy is flawed and that it will evolve over time. And let us pledge to one another that the Restudy will be committed to movement forward! not used as an excuse for allowing additional degradation of the Everglades. And let me beg that you not forget the place I'm so proud to call home the Florida Keys.