Specifications

Section 6 The Selected Alternative Plan
EAA Storage Reservoirs Revised Draft PIR and EIS February 2006
6-35
beyond their design capacity. RECOVER also recently received two DRAFT
water quality reports and will provide further comments as needed. This
information was only recently provided to RECOVER (7-26-05 and 7-28-05).
RECOVER reviewed the Draft Water Quality Reports (Wetland Solutions, Inc.
2004 and Water and Air Research, Inc. 2005) and most RECOVER comments
were consistent with the reports. The key factors recognized by the reports and
RECOVER are the importance to maintain water in the reservoir when possible,
optimize hydraulic residence time, provide steady flows to the STAs, and
maintain hydrated soils in the STAs.
The RECOVER evaluation team recognizes that additional modeling runs have
not yet been run by the IMC. RECOVER expects to review this additional output
and will provide additional comments where necessary. In addition to the system
wide evaluation of the Project, RECOVER also evaluated the quantification of
ecological benefits methodology. This review will be submitted as a separate
report. Annex E contains the modeling results used by the RECOVER ET review
team.
6.9 SUMMARY OF ECONOMIC, ENVIRONMENTAL, & OTHER SOCIAL
EFFECTS
The primary economic effects of the project are the costs of implementation, and
the ecosystem restoration and improvement effects. The project cost (NED cost)
represents the largest monetarily expressed impact of plan implementation.
Project costs have regional impact dimensions as well, as expenditures on the
project can cause changes in local and regional earnings, sales, and employment,
due to the ripple effect of project spending throughout the regional economy. The
most significant beneficial effect of the project is the ecosystem improvement
expected to result from the plan.
The EAA Storage Reservoir features will provide important storage functions
essential to the overall restoration of the freshwater marshes and the estuaries
and the downstream Everglades. The project will permanently remove
thousands of acres of land from agricultural production. These impacts may be
felt locally and/or regionally as the economic base derived from agriculture is
incrementally reduced relative to other sectors of the economy. The overall
benefit to the regional system is expected to be far greater than the localized
adverse effects. The project will benefit South Florida ecosystems. Specifically,
it will benefit the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee Estuaries and Lake Okeechobee
as well as improve the quality and timing of water delivery to the STAs for
improved water treatment within the STAs. Benefits to the Caloosahatchee and
St. Lucie Estuaries will result from reducing the extreme discharges to the
estuaries. Ecological benefits from this project include: