By Houston R. Cypress,
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement
Coordination Circle, Love The Everglades Movement
My name is Yahaletke, aka Houston Cypress and I'm from the Otter Clan of the Miccosukee Tribe, and I'm representing the Love The Everglades Movement.
I live on the Miccosukee Reservation on the border of Everglades National Park and Water Conservation Area 3A. I maintain ancestral villages in the Central Everglades, on those disappearing hammocks that were mentioned earlier in this meeting -- hammocks where I conduct gardening, hunting, and spiritual practices.
My support of CEPP is buttressed with a critique of the inadequacies of CEPP, it doesn't do enough.
CEPP is a good step forward, but it is inadequate. We need a holistic view and concerted action when it comes to Everglades matters -- because the Everglades matters.
A holistic view brings us to the Western Basin of the Everglades Agricultural Area and the ongoing and immediate problem of the L-28 Interceptor Canal, which is bringing waters that average 60 parts per billion of Phosphorus and spikes as high as 100 parts per billion of Phosphorus and this is happening every day!
By the time that the waters pass through the Water Conservation Area and arrive at Everglades National Park the waters nearly reach the Holy Grail and target of 10 parts per billion of Phosphorus.
This means that Miccosukee homelands and the Water Conservation Area become a de facto Stormwater Treatment Area.
With such a close margin, there's the potential for waters exceeding the Phosphorus target to enter Everglades National Park. We must be wary of any requests for waivers to exceed the Phosphorus limit. No waivers. No exceedances.
CEPP is about "new water," but what about the 40% of waters being brought into the system by the L-28 Interceptor Canal and the high Phosphorus waters that it delivers?
This seems like the next big project to be undertaken to address the on-going problem of the L-28 Interceptor Canal.
I live on the Miccosukee Reservation on the border of Everglades National Park and Water Conservation Area 3A. I maintain ancestral villages in the Central Everglades, on those disappearing hammocks that were mentioned earlier in this meeting -- hammocks where I conduct gardening, hunting, and spiritual practices.
My support of CEPP is buttressed with a critique of the inadequacies of CEPP, it doesn't do enough.
CEPP is a good step forward, but it is inadequate. We need a holistic view and concerted action when it comes to Everglades matters -- because the Everglades matters.
A holistic view brings us to the Western Basin of the Everglades Agricultural Area and the ongoing and immediate problem of the L-28 Interceptor Canal, which is bringing waters that average 60 parts per billion of Phosphorus and spikes as high as 100 parts per billion of Phosphorus and this is happening every day!
By the time that the waters pass through the Water Conservation Area and arrive at Everglades National Park the waters nearly reach the Holy Grail and target of 10 parts per billion of Phosphorus.
This means that Miccosukee homelands and the Water Conservation Area become a de facto Stormwater Treatment Area.
With such a close margin, there's the potential for waters exceeding the Phosphorus target to enter Everglades National Park. We must be wary of any requests for waivers to exceed the Phosphorus limit. No waivers. No exceedances.
CEPP is about "new water," but what about the 40% of waters being brought into the system by the L-28 Interceptor Canal and the high Phosphorus waters that it delivers?
This seems like the next big project to be undertaken to address the on-going problem of the L-28 Interceptor Canal.
And I also want to admonish the Board and the District for condoning the display of racist imagery with the display of the FSU mascot during the earlier PowerPoint presentation.
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