Almost 8 miles long, seepage wall to keep water in Everglades National Park while protecting neighborhoods
MIAMI - It looks like a regular gravel road on top of a levy, but underneath the stone is a huge "seepage wall." It's meant to keep water from the eastern edge of the Everglades National Park from seeping out and flooding nearby properties.
"It's 7 and a half miles long, it goes along the levy on the east side of the park, 63 feet deep, 2 and a half feet wide, about 4 million cubic yards of this cement type material in the wall so the water can't pass through it," explains Drew Bartlett. He's the Executive Director of the South Florida Water Management District.
The wall allows water to flow south into the park without fear of overwhelming farms and homes in the Las Palmas Area of Southwest Miami-Dade. Bartlett said so far, it seems it's doing its job.
"If you look behind me you see water, what looks like wetlands," Bartlett said while pointing to the Everglades. "When you look on the other side of the levy it's dry," he said.
Kathleen and her family grow banana and fruit trees right next to the Everglades. "That's the actual Everglades, that's the levy right there," she said pointing just feet from her property.
Pictures show how devastating floods have been for their farm in the past.
"We used to have, 400-500 coconut trees. They all got lethal yellow. Everything that we planted would go underwater," she said.
With the seepage wall in place - she's keeping her fingers crossed.
"It looks promising. We just hope what they say is going to work. We'll see," she said.
Florida Bay should see big benefits too. The wall will allow more water to move south, infusing the bay with fresh water that is needed to keep the seagrass and marine life vibrant.
"When you have a healthy meadow of seagrass under the water in Florida Bay, not only the fish, the birds, all the wildlife that make the Everglades special again benefits from it," said Everglades Foundation CEO Eric Eikenberg.
