Record is mixed on Everglades fix

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published July 9, 2007

Restoring Florida's Everglades was to be a major ecological achievement and a model of federal and state cooperation. But a report card on the project shows that Washington has lagged in providing money and the necessary leadership. These setbacks, while serious, are manageable, and should not detract from the progress being made or the merits of restoration itself.

The recent report by the Government Accountability Office is a useful barometer of a restoration plan that has decades more to go. The federal government and the state agreed in 2000 to a restoration strategy that was expected to take 40 years and cost $15-billion. But some of these projects, the GAO reported, are six years behind schedule. A third are in the planning stage or not under way, including those "most critical to the restoration's overall success." And while the federal-state deal calls for splitting the costs 50-50, Florida spent twice, or $4.8-billion, what Washington did from 1999 to 2006.

The Everglades plan is designed to repair South Florida's ecosystem from 100 years' worth of engineering projects that diverted the area's natural water flow. Urban development and farming, which polluted the Everglades, were to be addressed under a plan that sought to balance restoration with South Florida's water and flood control needs. The GAO found not only that projects were behind schedule, but also that estimates have shot up 28 percent, to at least $19.7-billion. And while costs have gone up, spending for critical ecological work already is nearly $1.2-billion short from the 1999-2006 period.

Florida should be proud for stepping up and providing hundreds of millions of dollars when Congress fell behind. Now Washington must do its part. The federal government needs to increase funding and bring stability to the appropriations process. That is key to cutting the backlog. So is better planning of the construction schedule. Many projects are linked, and one delay can have an accordion effect. As the GAO noted, in many cases agencies make decisions on scheduling "if and when funding becomes available." That's no way to manage such a massive undertaking, and it is the wrong message to send to the state.

Still, Congress and federal agencies can fix those mistakes, which do not rise to a level that discredits the restoration effort. The GAO and others point out that even early signs indicate important progress, such as with reducing pollution from agricultural runoff and with restoring a more natural water flow to the Kissimmee River, the headwater of the greater Everglades ecosystem.

Lawmakers both in Washington and Tallahassee should see this as a long-haul project with long-term benefit. As the GAO underscored: "The Everglades has been reduced to half its original size and the ecosystem continues to deteriorate, " mostly due to increased urbanization. Florida and the federal government need to continue undoing the damage that past and future growth pose to a complex and essential watershed.

[Last modified July 8, 2007, 20:02:11]