When the great protective levees were raised to separate the Everglades and the Water Conservation Areas from the urban areas along the coastal strip, the builders neatly partitioned the land into a wild west and a developed east. But they did not, and in reality could not, partition the waters. For the aquifers that support the Everglades also extend beneath the levees under and into the urban areas. From Miami restaurants to Palm Beach golf courses, we are drinking, and bathing in, and watering our lawns with Everglades water. The aquifers are indivisible, and that means that we cannot restore the Everglades without at the same time dealing with urban water supply requirements.
Flood control poses the same dilemma.
Pumping the Biscayne aquifer in Dade, Broward or Palm Beach County for flood control will lower the water table in the Everglades on the other side of the levees by an equal amount. Given these hydrologic realities, we cannot let subdivisions and shopping centers march right smack up against the edge of the Everglades. It simply won't work, because we would then have to choose either to sacrifice a part of the Everglades to perpetual drought or flood our subdivisions during the rainy season. All parties are beginning to recognize that there must be a transition zone designed to regulate water levels on opposite sides of thelevee, one that stores enough water to both replicate natural hydro periods in the Everglades on the west, and to allow flood control on the east, and to recharge the aquifer beneath them both. For years rock mining companies have been digging out the high quality limestone in west Dade County, leaving behind the large rectangular water pits that are visible on the approaches to Miami International Airport.