e e e today while a lot of work remains real work is getting done and the once Unthinkable promise of restoring the Everglades no longer seems Out Of Reach the largest restoration project in human history is that right yes uh we we're talking about uh 68 major infrastructure projects totaling more than $25 billion 25 billion dollar is the kind of investment Steven Davis says is needed to fix Decades of damage to one of the world's great wonders the liquid heart of this area is Lake okobi the big water damage caused in part by a well-meaning operation intended to relieve repeated flooding of Rich Florida Farmland this is a project of Mammoth proportions one that calls for more than 700 M of new levies throughout the Central and Southern Florida area but it was really the Central and Southern Florida project that just had devastating impacts on this ecosystem Davis is the chief science officer of the Everglades Foundation what happened to the Everglades they basically disconnected Lake okachobee from the Everglades ecosystem and so this part of the ecosystem is deprived of that fresh water so for decades South Florida just hasn't gotten enough water exactly and with each Water Crisis we have whether it's blue green algae exacerbation of red tide fires out in the Everglades seagrass die off in Florida Bay and around the keys there's a growing awareness of the need to replum South Florida re-plumbing South Florida includes building a reservoir that's costing about $4 billion just by itself that is the entire footprint of this project we got a bird's eye view thanks to the nonprofit group lighthawk you describe the reservoir as hard bypass surgery exactly it's it's the means of reconnecting Lake of Kobi which is really described by many as the Beating Heart of this ecosystem it reconnects the heart back to the body which is the ever the River of Grass work is also moving along on a project to raise the Tammy Trail Road built in 1928 the road cut off almost all water flow into the southern Everglades perhaps the biggest impediment the Everglades remain a boon for big business most people are surprised to hear drilling still takes place in the Everglades and it's long been a hugely productive spot for the sugar industry how big of a problem does the sugar industry remain when it comes to the Everglades and a healthy Everglades really through a variety of means one they're a source of pollution to the Everglades and uh the state has had to respond by building tens of thousands of wetlands treatment marshes to clean up the pollution that run off those fields before it gets into the Everglades that's where project overseen by Lawrence Glenn of the South Florida Water Management District comes in we're standing in the middle of the cleansing yes what's really cool about this there's so much science going on in here to understand how we Cleanse This water that you don't normally think of plants like this are pulling out phosphorus from billions of gallons of water helping to make sure what flow South is safe to drink and healthy enough to feed this enormous ecosystem this is what's doing the work yes 63,000 Acres of man-made Wetlands largest constructed wetland in the world doesn't smell the best no but it doesn't but this is great stuff and uh when we were planning this project no one had built constructed Wetlands on this size we didn't know if it was going to work this treatment Marsh is being paid for by the state with a portion covered by attacks on polluters like big sugar over all on the larger project all of us are contributing a lot of the money coming in is federal money why should someone in Iowa care about the health of the Everglades thousands of miles away well for a variety of reasons um this is a biodiversity hotspot it's also uh carbon sponge th this ecosystem 3 million Acres uh takes up greenhouse gases from the atmosphere when it's hydrated when it's kept wet which is what Everglades restoration does sequestering carbon is an important functional value of the Everglades it's the water supply for more than 9 million Americans uh and it's also a place that people from all across the world like to visit there are so many stakeholders involved here including the native people who were here before anyone else Talbert Cyprus is Chairman of the mikasuki tribe the m kuki hid in the Everglades when the US Army tried to move them to Oklahoma in the 1800s he considers himself a steward of the land that protected his ancestors when I look out at this it looks natural is is it no right now this water is very high for this time of year this is the dry season right now so you can imagine if it starts raining a lot like during the summer this tree island would get flooded once rainy season comes along and that also affects the wildlife too when when the water gets high the wildlife can move to Higher Ground MH but when this water in the way they can't do that and so a lot of wildlife will drown or you know they can't get access to food MH and the quality of water coming through is very poor as well that may change soon obstacles remain but infrastructure work is well underway Lawrence Glenn says the reservoir for example is scheduled to be done by 2030 how long do you think it will take for the Everglades to be in a place where you want it to be and I'm saying probably 2040 you start to see an everglaze that really looks like the Everglade did historically took a 100 years to really mess it up so they're hoping a few decades and they can fix it we did want to speak to the sugar industry we reached out to them to ask them some questions they did not want to talk to us so uh we didn't hear from them but this is a massive amount of money and the reason why it's happening is because it has bipartisan support well the fact that it you can turn it around in a few decades on the federal and state level when people eventually that's huge come together there it is yeah there you have it thank you guys that was great I think one more one more thing Mike oh was is was that recently over the weekend oh that was a weekend report Saturday um and then uh we also had a request from commissioner Clark to present a video um that's kind of an interesting story as it relates to you can see those bricks on the thing um she just wants to do a lot more building no I'm just kidding um it's actually the the is it sah gum or what the type of seaweed that we get uh it's uh comes at different times of the year and it's um grows in abundance in the ocean it washes up on the beaches Etc this uh video that the commissioner has provided to us and asked us to play is a story about a guy that has invented a means to make construction bricks out of that and they're literally raking gosh thousands of Acres of it off of the beaches off of the coast of Mexico and reconverting it and using it for construction materials which is very interesting and these bricks are made from seaweed the secret is sargassum an invasive species washing up and rotting on beaches around North [Music] America the massive waves can lead to respiratory problems and can cost Millions to clean up but where most people see a problem Omar Vasquez saw potential he turns the seaweed into bricks strong enough to build homes that he says can withstand hurricanes Omar and his family immigrated to the US with nothing in their pockets when he was just 8 years old now he uses his bricks to build homes for low-income families like the Lopez's could this invention help other countries clean up their Coast lines we went to Mexico to see how entrepreneurs like Omar are making the most out of a stinky situation Omar and his team start collecting the seaweed at 5:00 a.m. today they're in Puerto Morelos a small Beach town about 25 miles from Cancun hotels pay them to get the Seaweed off the beach and out of the view of tourists they collect about 40 metric tons of sargassum every day enough to fill two of these [Music] containers the idea to turn seaweed into bricks came to Omar in 2018 when more than 50,000 metric tons of sargas overran the [Music] coast Omar makes the bricks which he calls Sara blocks at his Workshop 10 minutes from the beach workers grind the dry sargassum into a fine powder by Smashing it with rocks then they mix it with dirt which Omar repurposes from construction sites they shovel a mixture of sarasam dust and dirt through a grape to remove any large chunks they mix the powder with water to form a thick paste the exact recipes is a secret but each brick is about 40% sarcasm sargo blocks can also be recycled again and again with this single machine Omar can make up to 3,000 bricks a day he developed eight prototypes before perfecting this one now he's designing a bigger machine that could produce 8,000 bricks a day he has six full-time employees making the bricks and some help build homes too since 2018 Omar has built more than 40 homes the first one is right next to his Workshop he named it after his mother when he was eight years old Omar left behind a home just like this one to cross the Mexico US border with his mother they wouldn't have a Home of Their Own for the 30 years they lived in the US he finally returned to his home country for good in 2014 with just $55 in his pocket he used it to start a business buying and selling plants and he eventually saved money to buy this lot developing Sara blocks required a lot of trial and [Music] error saso Omar's business is called vetto blue green he makes most of his money selling plants and from hotels paying him to clean up the sarasam he also sells his bricks and builds houses he has sold more than 20 homes and giving away another 15 Omar admits the houses may not be fancy but they are durable that's good news for Elizabeth Del Carman bonola Lopez and her daughters their home was destroyed in a hurricane in 2021 Omar helped them rebuild it with Sara blocks indeed research shows that seaweed is a great insulator that keeps homes cool in the summer and stores heat in the winter usually Omar hears about people in need through a friend or a local and there's no lack of raw material over the past decade waves of sarcasm have gotten so large you can detect them from space in 2020 the Mexican Government collected 19,000 metric tons of sargassum from kintana Rose beaches in 2021 collected twice that [Music] amount studies show prolonged exposure can make it hard to breathe in 2023 the Cancun hotel association set aside more than $20 million to remove it from beaches and the problem goes beyond Mexico the invasive wheat has spread to Shores across North America and Florida Texas and other parts of the Caribbean the exact cause of the increase isn't clear but some experts blame high levels of nitrogen in the sea a result of agricultural waste runoff and deforestation so now Omar's business is getting International attention he's given TED Talks appeared on Shark Tank Mexico and traveled internationally to promote his product investors and businesses from over a dozen countries have reached out to learn from him Mar Omar is exploring licensing and franchising the SAR block recipe to other businesses elsewhere in Mexico other entrepreneurs are experimenting with new ways to use sarcasm like making notebooks and even shoes a British startup called seaweed generation is using sarasim to capture carbon and store it at the bottom of the ocean back in Mexico Omar is simply grateful to be living in his home country surrounded by the people he loves and after work he returns to a home he built himself using his own bricks Omar hopes his success will inspire others [Music] thank you Jim thank you commissioner Clark very that conclud take additional comments and adjourn the meeting that's fine but fig rather than having that during the city commission meeting do we have any additional comments no then we will adjourn 5:30