Army Corps Lays Out Everglades Restoration Roadmap

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, November 5, 2003 (ENS) - The final blueprint for the massive $8 billion, 30 year Everglades restoration effort was released Tuesday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Federal officials say the 110 pages of guidelines will ensure the success of the world's largest ecosystem restoration project, but environmentalists contend the rules will do nothing of the sort.

The Army Corps' document is "110 pages of fluff," said Brad Sewell, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The guidelines are too vague, do not spell out clear goals and undermine the core premise of the massive restoration plan by failing to ensure that the ecosystem gets enough water to recover and survive, Sewell said.

"Water supply and restoration are to be given equal priority - that is radical change," Sewell told ENS. "We expected substantive standards, a comprehensive process and the right partners involved. We got none of them."

Bush administration officials say such criticism is unwarranted and that the "results oriented" rules are an integral step toward restoring the world renowned ecosystem.

The guidelines are "the roadmap for ensuring that America's Everglades will thrive once more," said Assistant Secretary of the Army John Paul Woodley, Jr.

The natural ecosystem of the Everglades needs a slow, steady, clean supply of water in order to survive. (Photo courtesy U.S. Geological Survey)

The CERP is a daunting effort by any measure - it covers 16 counties across more than 18,000 square miles and centers on revamping the Central & Southern Florida Project, which includes 1,000 miles of canals, 720 miles of levees, and hundreds of water control structures.

This massive water control project has provided south Florida with a reliable water supply and flood protection, but it has contributed to the widespread degradation of the Everglades ecosystem, which is dependent upon a natural, slow, steady, clean flow of water.

The Everglades has been ravaged by agricultural pollution, invasive species and inhibited natural water flows caused by Army Corps projects and subsequent development. The ecosystem is about a fifth of its original size and contains some 60 endangered or threatened species.

The ultimate goal of the 30 year plan is to restore the ecosystem while ensuring clean and reliable water supplies and providing flood control.

The Army Corps says it has addressed many of the concerns cited by environmentalists and other critics who reviewed drafts of the final rule during the three years spent developing the regulations.

Officials said the final rule expands the role of the Interior Department, requires independent scientific review of future decisions affecting the plan and sets up a process for establishing interim restoration goals that will provide hydrologic, water quality, and ecological targets against which restoration progress can be measured.

Critics say these interim goals should have been defined with the Army Corps rule, which is a legally binding document, rather than delayed and worry that by making decisions on a project by project basis, federal and state officials will fail to achieve the overall goals of the restoration effort.

Woodley says the guidelines include a definition of the term "restoration" that goes beyond consideration of merely technical descriptions of water flows.

This definition, according to the Army Corps, sets forth the intention that the restored areas of the Everglades ecosystem exhibit essential hydrological functions and biological characteristics exhibited before human settlement in south Florida.

The Army Corps says it will collaborate with Florida state officials and the U.S. Interior Department to determine the amount of water needed to restore the ecosystem and to serve other water needs.

Florida state officials and U.S. Interior Secretary Gale Norton praised the Army Corps guidelines.

The Florida panther is one species that has suffered from manmade changes to the Everglades ecosystem - fewer than 100 exist in the wild.(Photo courtesy National Parks Conservation Association)

But Sewell says the only certainty in the regulations is that the interests of South Florida water utilities will overshadow the needs of the ecosystem.

Congress did not intend for the water of the Everglades to be split equally between the utilities and the ecosystem, he said, rather it called for 80 percent of the water for restoration and 20 percent for human use.

"The Everglades will at each and every turn be the loser," said Sewell, who added that his organization is considering the merits of a legal challenge to the Corps rule.

There is no lack of agreement that the Everglades is suffering, but there is a myriad of powerful interests thirsty for Florida's limited water supply.

The state is expected to some six million new residents by 2025 and the state continues to grant new permits to meet the growing water demand.

Despite the criticism of the regulations by environmentalists, Florida Democrat Senator Bob Graham said the regulations are "welcomed progress toward the restoration of Florida's River of Grass."

"My staff is still analyzing the content of the regulations, but it is apparent that some important improvements have been made," said Graham. "We have come a long way down the road to restore America's Everglades and I look forward to moving CERP from the planning phase to the construction phase."