Pull the plug on FP&L plans to put power lines across Everglades National Park!

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Comments due by August 4th!Submit comments here:http://m1e.net/c?77950662-npGmNE8UFmah6%404469433-p8BUAZNfSqA7EDear Friends,During the 2008 presidential campaign, then Senator Obama responded to a questionnaire on National Parks with these words -"I believe strongly that our national parks are one of America's most precious treasures, and that we should do all we can to ensure that they are properly maintained and available for all Americans to enjoy."That commitment within the new administration is now being put to the test. Right here in south Florida, Everglades National Park, the first 'biological park' in our nation's history, is being threatened anew. And this time it's not lack of water, agricultural runoff, sewage,

excessive motorized recreation or Burmese pythons on the loose.Anxious to double the size of its Turkey Point nuclear plant on the shores of Biscayne Bay with two new nuclear reactors, Florida Power and Light (FPL) is attempting to make use of an old utility corridor it still owns inside the borders of the recently acquired East Everglades Expansion Area of Everglades National Park. The plan being put on the table is for FPL to swap out this corridor for one on the park's eastern edge. Three separate lines would cross approximately 7 miles of what is currently national park property on more than 300 towers. Two of the three lines would carry 500,000 volts along towers 150 feet tall, while the third would carry 230,000 volts along 90 foot towers.Consequences for the park would be enormous. First of all, the towers would dominate the eastern horizon of the entire East Everglades Expansion Area - the heart of the

Shark River Slough and the main source of water for Everglades National Park. They would be visible as far away as the popular Shark Valley Visitor Center and tram/bicycle path. But aside from creating a permanent industrialized viewscape for our beloved park, there are other consequences. Scientists are concerned about damage to vegetation and fragile wetland soils; hydrological changes due to the massive concrete pads that would have to be put in place in the floodplain to support the towers; the likely spread of invasive plant species due to both construction and maintenance activities; and effects (including collisions and electrocutions) on wading birds (already reduced by over 90 percent in south Florida since the 1930s) and migratory birds. A good summary of this topic can be found on this U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service Fact Sheet:http://m1e.net/c?77950662-vAMRDbMPUtefE%404469434-RXJ3FJ5/g8vnoComprehensive article on the plan from the Miami Herald is here:http://m1e.net/c?77950662-tBiC2Vfe6k9Uw%404469435-xAzu8j4GWe8OYTime is short. Our public servants at the National Park Service will be accepting comments on this important issue up until Tuesday, August 4th. Please do your best to let them know that our one remaining intact section of the once vast Everglades, Everglades National Park, is simply not available for FPL. When the East Everglades Expansion Area was created, the National Park Service acquired many privately owned properties within the new park boundary. In fact both the 1989 Everglades National Park Expansion and Protection Act and the 1991 East Everglades Addition Land

Protection Plan required that. There was no exception made for FPL to hold back and say they are not a 'willing seller'. The fact that the utility has already included the new corridor in their application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for expanding Turkey Point makes no difference whatsoever. The National Park Service should pull the plug on this ridiculous idea now.Submit your comments directly to the National Park Service at the following website:http://m1e.net/c?77950662-Xm4QSKDZsldE6%404469433-QanTP7rCCeJp2National Park Service scoping document is here:http://m1e.net/c?77950662-bmPqWdmnjV3xo%404469436-lSP/Z2kAW9KFkWith all respect to the National Park Service, the questions they are asking the public to respond to on

their comment form might seem a bit like gobbledygook. Only two alternatives are actually presented - buy out the FP & L property AS REQUIRED BY LAW (NPS refers to this as the 'no action alternative') or do the exchange with Florida Power and Light and put massive power lines across a significant section of Everglades National Park. Feel free to use your own language on the comment form. IT'S YOUR PARK - YOU DECIDE!Thanks for your help and feel free to pass this on to others you think would be interested,Matt SchwartzEverglades Chair and Outings LeaderBroward Group of the Sierra ClubFlorida Sierra Everglades CommitteeSierra Club National Wildlands Committee