Rick Virgil

Saving a Huge Swamp

The Everglades Restoration Project in southern Florida ranks as one of the most important and challenging engineering projects in the U.S. In fact, the American Council of Engineering Companies considers a part of that project ­ the construction of the world¹s largest man-made wetlands ­ the most significant U.S. engineering achievement in 2005. To project engineer Rich Virgil, it¹s also one of the most satisfying.

The massive restoration project covers 18,000 square miles and includes 1,000 miles of canals, 720 miles of levees, 60 major components, and 200 projects, all aimed at improving water quality and flow rates through the Everglades and into Florida Bay. Specific components include improving water storage, flood control, water treatment, and conservation.

Virgil, 43, moved from his home in Glenn Falls, New York to Florida in 1986 after graduating with a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the State University of New York, College of Technology in Utica. A NASCAR fan, he had vacationed in Florida in his youth. When jobs became scarce in the Northeast, he joined a friend who lived in Florida and hit paydirt. ³I got a job in five days,² he recalls.

That first job, which came with a consulting firm in highway development, introduced him to water management issues. ³I had to pull dredge and fill permits, and surface water management permits. I was successful at getting the permits with minimal comments or difficulties,² he says. When the recession hit in the early 1990s, Virgil left consulting and joined the State of Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Over the last two and half years of that stint, he was integrated into the staff of the South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) to help streamline the restoration project, which began in 1995, and he went on to oversee the permitting process for it.

But as Virgil recalls, "I wanted to work on the project, not just regulate it." So when an opening became available at the SFWMD, he applied. Now Virgil serves as the lead engineer for the Construction Department in the Engineering Construction Division at the district, where he is responsible for some of the restoration project¹s key components.

Virgil put his expertise to use on the Everglades Construction Project (ECP), the centerpiece of one of the largest ecosystem restoration endeavors in the nation. The ECP involved 12 inter-related construction projects, including the creation of six wetlands totaling more than 47,000 acres between Lake Okeechobee and the Everglades.

Within that area, Virgil and teams of other engineers built the six wetlands, one of which is the largest man-made wetland in the world. Known officially as Stormwater Treatment Area No. 3/4, it encompasses nearly 17,000 acres, larger than the island of Manhattan. Virgil was the project manager for that wetland and two others, handling the design function through research, development, community forums, procurement, bidding and, finally, the contract award.

A key problem the Everglades faced, Virgil explains, was that agricultural runoff from sugar cane and other crops to the north introduced phosphorus into the water system that fed the Everglades. That caused cattail marshes to replace the sawgrass that sweeps for miles across southern Florida. "The Everglades is a low nutrient environment with virtually no phosphorus," he says." The presence of cattails proved this ecosystem was changing, threatening the 68 endangered species and other wildlife that depend on that environment to survive.

To remove the phosphorus, SFWMD bought thousands of acres of agricultural land between the current boundary of the Everglades and Lake Okochobee, land that once was part of the Everglades but in the past century had been planted largely with sugar cane. In those areas, Virgil and his team designed berm-enclosed wetlands to remove the unwanted phosphorus naturally.

The process, called phytoremediation, uses plants to take up and metabolize the unwanted components. In these wetlands, ironically, cattails are among the key plants used to remove the phosphorus from the water upstream before it enters the fragile sawgrass environment. Submerged aquatic vegetation, including southern niad, supplement the cattails.

Using phytoremediation, Virgil explains, didn¹t mean just planting cattails. It also involved a detailed analysis of water flow that led to a system of canals and pumps that directs ever-cleaner water through a series of wetlands at specific depths. This gives SFWMD staff the ability to control that flow in response to local conditions.

Directing the water involved leveling and filling some canals, adding canals perpendicular to the direction of the water flow to spread the water evenly across the area in a sheeting action, and using gravity as much as possible. Pumping stations placed at strategic points help ensure optimal water flow and adjust the amount of time water stays in any particular area based on current conditions.

How well does the system work? "Typically, stormwater treatment plants reduce phosphorus to 1,000 to 3,000 parts per billion (ppb)," Virgil notes. This project¹s goal was to reduce phosphorus levels to 50 ppb and, in fact, it has reduced them to about 25 ppb. A new target, based on further study, is 10 ppb.

"There were a lot of hurdles," Virgil says of this complex project. It involved chemical, structural, and mechanical engineering in "a soup to nuts" kind of way, he states proudly. "There were daily challenges and opportunities to learn."

One of the biggest challenges, though, wasn¹t the engineering. It was reconciling the concerns of myriad stakeholders. Scientists, environmental groups, Native American tribes, the Florida sugar cane industry, and others were all involved in the design process. "The design process was very open door," as Virgil says. Forums were conducted at the 30-, 60-, and 90-percent stage of design, giving stakeholders ample opportunity to tweak the plan based on what had been accomplished.

Virgil, who chaired the forums for much of their three-year duration, reveals, "We learned a lot from everybody. Looking from all perspectives is great for a project." That said, he adds, "The Everglades Forever Act was our savior. It laid out the process, set deadlines and mandated research." The deadlines set forth in that plan encouraged stakeholders to reach consensus more quickly and to avoid the waffling that otherwise could have delayed the project for years.

Working closely with the interested community and the Kansas City, Missouri construction engineering firm of Burns & McDonnell resulted in a project that, as Virgil says, "is better for the environment and has high priority nationally. You take a lot of pride in that."

Gail Dutton is a freelance writer in Montesano, Washington