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Corps receives funds to develop holistic recommendation

Jacksonville District Commander Col. Paul Grosskruger accepted for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, a ceremonial check representing $1 million in funding from the Department of the Interior. The funding, and an agreement between the two agencies, will allow the Corps to immediately begin developing a comprehensive recommendation for ending the ecological damage caused by the 80-year-old Tamiami Trail.

Deputy Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett said the funding was a down payment on the next steps to getting waters flowing again. Scarlett and more than 75 Everglades supporters attended the ceremony at Shark Valley.

The Tamiami Trail, a highway built in the 1920s to connect the east and west coasts of Florida, sliced through the heart of the Everglades and cut off the natural flow of the River of Grass. Since that time, the altering of freshwater flows has taken an environmental toll on both Everglades National Park (ENP) and the water conservation areas to the north.

In effect, the Tamiami acts as a dam that deprives the park when it's parched in the dry season, and backs up water - drowning the water conservation areas - during the wet season.

“We’re trained professionals and we’re ready to begin this tasking,” Grosskruger said. “We completed the first report for the first bridge, and though that has been delayed, we are very thankful to the National Park Service for their funding and support for this next step."

The special report will provide a holistic recommendation, drawn from information and analyses contained in the 2005 and 2008 reports. The Corps has already amassed a great deal of information about the Trail. This information and analysis will help expedite the effort. The Corps and DOI have estimated completion by the end of 2009.