When President Harry S. Truman designated the South Florida Everglades as a national park in 1947, he described it as "a land tranquil in its quiet beauty....To its natural abundance, we owe the spectacular plant and animal life that distinguishes this place from all others in our country."

Over the last half century, however, this national park--the world's second largest wetland--has deteriorated significantly and is now considered the most endangered ecosystem in the United States.

One player in its restoration is Julia McGovern Lacy, EG '89, who has worked for the past four years to "re-plumb" the Everglades, serving as senior engineer for the South Florida Water Management District, a state agency dedicated to water management and wetland preservation.

Lacy says she remembers well the first time she viewed the Florida Everglades via helicopter as part of a work-related project. "Before I climbed on that helicopter, I had expected to see huge, expansive mangroves and moss-laden oaks. Instead, I saw a river of sawgrass so vast it could create its own hydrologic cycle. I was also amazed that I never saw any wildlife. When one views the Everglades this way, the wildlife completely conceals itself. You could almost get the impression that there is no wildlife."

According to Lacy, wildlife and plant life as well as South Florida's 6 million human residents rely on this ecosystem for clean drinking water, flood mitigation, fish and shellfish, recreation and tourism-related jobs. But, the area is shrinking, according to the National Wildlife Federation, which reports that the Everglades has been reduced to half its original 8 million acres and is now home to 16 endangered and six threatened wildlife species?

Major restoration efforts already have been put into place to address the situation, Lacy says. The most considerable to date is the $8 billion Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), which is half funded by a federal grant. There is other support for--and interest in--the restoration efforts, she says, and, the Florida Everglades has been designated by the United Nations as a World Heritage Site.

Lacy says to understand the restoration efforts, one needs to understand the history of the area. The woes that now affect the health and vitality of the Everglades can be traced back to the 1920s, she says, when severe floods devastated the region. By the early 1940s, the state's increasing population, with its demand for land for housing and agriculture, led the Army Corps of Engineers to drain the area, then viewed by many as primarily a useless brown-and-green mosquito swamp. The Corps engineered a system of canals, levees and pumps to supply water for South Florida's residential boom, while also providing flood protection for the region.

Since then, Lacy says, the health of the Everglades has been further threatened by pollution from agricultural and urban development, a loss of native habitats for natural wildlife and plant life and the introduction of non-native and invasive plant species, such as cattails. Endangered animals also are a prime concern, and conservation efforts have focused on the Florida panther, known to live in its pinelands, hardwood hammocks and mixed swamp forests. Only about 50 adult panthers are thought to remain.

"The historic Everglades' ecosystem," Lacy says, "compensates for floods and drought. Native Everglades plants and animals and birds are adapted to such high and low water conditions, but not to the extremes that we have today. The soils, which served to soak up extra water during flood periods and maintain adequate moisture during drought, are slowly eroding."

These alternating periods of flooding and drying, called hydro-periods, were vital to the historical functioning of the Everglades ecosystem. Restoring these variations in water flows and levels so that they match as closely as possible the natural patterns is an essential part of the restoration program.

"Currently, during flood periods, we pump much of our water right out to the ocean," Lacy says. "The result is that there is too much water in some areas and not enough in other areas. Pollution has complicated matters further. Normal water levels are disrupted. As a result, saltwater intrudes on drinking water supplies, and abnormal flows of re-directed freshwater cause dilution of brackish waters, damaging coastal ecosystems."

The goal of CERP–and of the water management district where Lacy is employed--is to "get the water right" so that the Everglades may return to a healthy state.

Lacy's specific team focus is water management. "There are basically two main considerations to the water management aspects of the program--water quality and water quantity. Our team concentrates on water quality," Lacy says. "There are some situations where we just have to continue pumping water into the Everglades because there is just no other place for the water to go in the developed areas. People live there. It's a fact. We can't dig them all up and put them someplace else. However, we can ensure that the quality of the water meets the Everglades Forever Act standards."

Under CERP, Lacy's team researches ways to store the water that is currently being sent to the ocean so there will be enough water for the ecosystem and urban and agricultural users in the future. The plan includes a number of features to improve the quality of water flowing to the natural environment.

"We look at where water goes, how to relieve flooding problems, how to save water in a drought and how to monitor new development to make sure that it doesn't further complicate the restoration project," Lacy says. An example is the construction of aquifer storage and recovery systems that store water, settle out pollutants and provide water to developed areas.

Lacy also is part of a broader effort to restore and manage ecosystems and protect water quality in the area from central Florida's Kissimmee River to Lake Okeechobee, and from coast to coast, spanning the peninsula from Fort Myers to Fort Pierce, south through the Everglades to Florida Bay.

"There are eight basins that discharge into the Everglades, and I manage one of them–the North New River Basin," she says. "My team goes out and samples the water, not just the water that is getting pumped into the Everglades, but the water that is getting pumped into our canal from the secondary canals and developments."

Lacy's team is concerned with nutrients in the discharges, such as phosphorus, and finding the proper balance for Everglades vitality. "Phosphorus levels are really the indicators for pollutants," Lacy says. "Pollution contributes to the growth of invasive species which choke out the native Florida flora and fauna, disrupting this fine balance that the South Florida Water Management District is trying to rebuild. We try to find the source of the pollution and work with the residents and municipalities to find solutions."

"The water balance is sometimes complicated from decades-old drainage systems that direct water in a way that is adverse to other stakeholders, worsening flood and drought conditions and lowering the water quality," Lacy says. Additionally, she says, contributors to pollution can include homeowners over-fertilizing their lawns, older developments in which washing machines are emptied out into canals, huge golf course developments and agricultural areas.

While the range of solutions to water balance problems is broad, she says, many times, solutions are very simple. "Even a BMP [best management practice] as seemingly insignificant as keeping grass-clippings on the yard can help improve the quality of runoff (the water that washes off the yard when it rains) and, ultimately, can improve the situation in the Everglades," she says.

"We work with individuals to help them make changes so they can comply with pollution guidelines," Lacy says. "If a single homeowner on an acre or two of land is found to have a faulty septic system, there are grant programs we can suggest to assist the family in making changes to be in compliance. As part of CERP, local governments also are able to assist with funding as needed to make changes."

Lacy looks back fondly at the path that brought her to where she is now in her career. At the University, she began her studies as an electrical engineering major, but "quickly found out that was not my cup of tea," she says. She took an environmental engineering class and loved it. "I knew I wanted to do something that would contribute to the health and sustainability of the environment," she says.

She started her career at Raytheon Engineers and Constructors Inc., concentrating on site development for large industrial projects, and then moved on to land development. She eventually began looking into other opportunities where she could contribute to improving the environment.

"I wanted to work on solutions," Lacy says, noting that she has found her niche with the Everglades project, but is humbled by its magnitude. "When I look at a map of the Everglades, then focus in on my little pump station, it looks like a spit in the bucket. I'm only one person, but if we get enough people spitting, we can really accomplish something!"

-- Linda Bird Randolph, AS '88