Save The Everglades

Put Further Research and Support into STAs

STA stands for Storm Water Treatment Area. They are man-made wetlands designed to lower phosphorus levels in water. They contain plants that lower phosphorus levels such as yellow irises, cannas, and wild rice.

Donate and Support CERP

The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, or CERP, is to take the excess water that goes to the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico to areas where it is needed.

You can donate to help them fund this plan and the rest of the Everglades park.

The population of the Everglades is only around 232 people and yet the poverty rate is 11.4%.

For reference, the average population of a county in Florida is 280,616 people with the average poverty rate in all of Florida being around 11.7%.

The population of the Everglades doesn’t even reach 300, and yet the poverty rate is almost that of the entire state. The water pollution brought on by the urbanization of the KOE Watershed and agriculture mainly affects the Everglades and those living there. 

The water quality is already diminished from the channelization of the watershed, but that coupled with the phosphorus pollution can decimate the normal way of life for those living there.

What is the KOE Watershed?

A watershed is the area of land separating waters that flow into different basins. The KOE Watershed (for Kissimmee Okeechobee Everglades) is an important environmental landmark for Florida. It is one of our most diverse ecosystems and an important part of what makes Florida, well... Florida.

What’s gone wrong?

We’ve urbanized the watershed. We’ve interrupted the natural southward flow of the water by sending it east and west to fit our urban and agricultural needs. This channelization completely ruins the quality of water that actually makes its way down to the Everglades.

Not only this, but the pesticides and fertilizers used in agricultural and urban life mix with the runoff after storms and contaminate the water ways. This creates high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus in our water.

What externalities does this issue raise?

High levels of phosphorus and nitrogen cause algae blooms. These algae can release toxins into the water that are harmful to humans and can block out important sunlight for the underwater grasses. When these grasses die and decompose, they suck up oxygen in the surrounding water.

This creates “Dead Zones”, areas of water that have little to no oxygen in them, which cause a spike in the pH of the water. Not only that, it kills off large quantities of fish.