Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands (BBCW) National Park Service (NPS) Alternative Y

Downer, Charles; Klochak, John

The National Park Service has prepared an alternative to be considered for the Biscayne Bay Coastal Wetlands project. The alternative was developed through the BBCW Project Delivery Team by Everglades and Biscayne National Park Staff'. The NPS alternative was originally conceived as jointly sponsored alternative between the NPS and the Fish and Wildlife Service. This joint alternative has diverged into two alternatives. Like the FWS alternative, the NPS alternative strives to restore an estuarine Coastal zone along the western boundary of BBNP by redistributing canal flows through restored and natural wetlands and transverse glades. The NPS alternative goes a step further by attempting to determine the quantity of water needed to fully meet the project goals. The NPS alternative also provides a description of what is thought the best way to distribute the currently available water in a way to maximize the area of a sustained estuarine zone along the BBNP western boundary, roughly between Turkey and Black Points. Thus the park service alternative is a phased approach~ The first phase is the redistribution of the current amount of water available to the project to maximize the size of a sustained nearshore estuarine zone. This plan calls for the construction of roughly 10,000 acres of reservoirs/ST As, the re-establishment of roughly 12,000 acres of converted wetlands, and 3,000 of converted glades. The plan also calls for the re-routing water from C100, and C1 canals, to the C-102 canal. With the addition of reuse water, this plan is anticipated to establish a sustained nearshore estuarine zone between Turkey Point and Black Point, and for the area immediately north of the Black Point Jetty. In addition, this plan will eliminate direct canal discharges to the bay and hydrate the natural and restored freshwater wetlands. Ultimately, the alternative calls for the addition of 700 K-acre-ft/yr of water to be delivered to the bay. Utilizing the storage systems outlined above, approximately 1.0 to 1.4 M-acre-ft of water/yr will have to be delivered to the bay to meet the full restoration goals as outlined by the Project Delivery Team. A simple spreadsheet analysis tool was used to size alternative components and compute effects on the bay. The tool is limited in its ability to analyze detailed response from the bay and the alternative must be further analyzed and refined using the full suite of physics-based models.