1.   Construction of several pipelines around the island and the cutting of nearby canals to service oil and gas vessels have broken up the surrounding marsh and accelerated the erosion.

2.   Standing in an airboat in the Everglades, Dale Gawlik scans the surrounding marsh.

3.   Surrounding marsh plants then help process the water before drainage to a subsurface drain field.

4.   The chemical stew that would be pumped into the lake and surrounding marshes would be an environmental disaster by itself, he added.

5.   To a visitor, the surrounding marsh looks like the same old Everglades.

6.   The strategy failed, and the liquid leaked into surrounding marshes, contaminating mangroves and killing fish and marine life.