Specifications

Section 5 Formulation of Alternative Plans
EAA Storage Reservoirs Revised Draft PIR and EIS February 2006
5-47
5.4.2.3 Quantification of System-Wide Benefits
The combined average annual habitat units (CAAHUs) from each ecological
region, described above, were combined using the following equation:
CAAHUs = HULO + HUSLE + HUCE + HURS + HUTI/5.776
where : HULO is the Habitat Units for the Lake Okeechobee region
HUSLE is the Habitat Units for the St. Lucie Estuary region
HUCE is the Habitat Units for the Caloosahatchee Estuary region
HURS is the Habitat Units for the Ridge and Slough habitat
HURI is the Habitat Units for the Tree Island habitat
The 5.776 denominator for the tree island variable is to account for overlap in
the geographic regions of the ridge and slough and tree island variables.
Although weighing could have been performed, this would not have affected the
final ranking. Table 5-16 indicates the results that the varied construction
periods have on average annual outputs yielded by the four alternatives, due to
land acquisition requirements.
TABLE 5-16: EFFECT OF ALTERNATIVE IMPLEMENTATION UPON
BENEFITS.
5.4.3 Ecological Benefit Quantification of Local Environmental Design Features
The Ecological Sub-team quantified environmental design features that would
result in additional project costs. The team based their scoring methodology on
the WRAP, which is the wetland functional assessment methodology used by the
USACE Jacksonville District Regulatory Division and the SFWMD Regulatory
section. The team evaluated the entire seepage buffer as a wetland/tree island
mosaic habitat. Each WRAP variable is scored on a 0-3 range. These variable
scores are then summed and divided by the total possible score of 18 (6 variables
x 3) to obtain the final WRAP score. The landscaped buffer was weighted by 1.5
to account for the synergistic habitat use between the wildlife habitat created by
landscaping and planting and the aquatic habitat of the reservoirs that would be
Ecological Region Alternative 2
Alternative 3
Alternatives 4, 5 and 6
Lake Okeechobee 26363 27866 29358
Saint Lucie Estuary 164 175 180
Caloosahatchee Estuary 17422 18567 19667
Ridge and Slough 46385 48257 50040
Tree Island 2627 2819 3012
Combined Adjusted AAHUs 90798 95362 99776