Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan Additional Water Quality Projects May Be Needed And Could Increase Costs

The South FL Ecosystem Restoration Initiative is a long-term effort to restore the South FL ecosystem, which includes the Everglades. This report: describes the role of the Army Corps of Engineers' Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in addressing the major water quality concerns in the ecosystem, and identifies modifications that may be needed as the Plan is implemented. The info. is based on discussions with fed. and state officials that have responsibilities for managing water supplies and ensuring water quality in South FL. Also reviewed the portions of the Plan that describe water quality projects and obtained and reviewed other pertinent water quality reports and studies.

RCED-00-235 Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan: Additional Water Quality Projects May Be Needed and Could Increase Costs

The South Florida Ecosystem Restoration Initiative is a complex, long-term effort to restore the South Florida ecosystem, which includes the Everglades. Because water is key to restoring the ecosystem, one of the initiative's major goals is 'getting the water right'-or improving the quality, quantity, timing, and distribution of water in the ecosystem. The primary means of achieving this goal is through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (the Plan). Although achieving the right quantity, timing, and distribution of water is important, improving its quality is critical to sustaining and restoring the South Florida ecosystem. The Plan represents one of the most ambitious restoration efforts the Corps has ever undertaken; it contains 66 individual projects that are scheduled to take more than 20 years to complete."2 Implementing the Plan is currently estimated to cost $7.8 billion-a cost that will be snared equally by the federal government and the state of Florida. We are here today to discuss our report,3 which is being released today, on (1) the role of the Corps' Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in addressing the major water quality concerns in the ecosystem and (2) modifications that may be needed as the Corps implements the Plan after it has been authorized by the Congress.

Although the progress of environmental restoration projects in the Florida Everglades remains slow overall, there have been improvements in the pace of restoration and in the relationship between the federal and state partners during the last two years. However, the importance of several challenges related to water quantity and quality have become clear, highlighting the difficulty in achieving restoration goals for all ecosystem components in all portions of the Everglades. Progress Toward Restoring the Everglades explores these challenges. The book stresses that rigorous scientific analyses of the tradeoffs between water quality and quantity and between the hydrologic requirements of Everglades features and species are needed to inform future prioritization and funding decisions.