Crist plans to seek more Glades restoration funds

Since 2000, the massive project has stumbled.

By CRAIG PITTMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published January 12, 2008

CAPTIVA ISLAND -- While admitting he faces "some challenges" with the budget this year, Gov. Charlie Crist said Friday he plans to call for an increase in state funding for restoring the Everglades.

He was not ready to unveil how much of an increase over last year's $200-million appropriation he will seek from the Legislature, he said.

"It's a moving target," he told reporters before giving a speech on Everglades restoration. "We're still working on it."

State Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Mike Sole said the hunt is on for sources of the increased funding and may include borrowing the money by issuing bonds.

Eric Draper of Audubon of Florida called Crist's promise of increased funding "incredible."

And it put a smile on the face of South Florida Water Management District executive director Carol Wehle, whose state agency has been largely responsible for what progress has been made on the restoration so far. An increase "would help offset the rapid rise in real estate prices and offset the increasing cost of construction," she said.

In a 10-minute speech Friday night to a crowd of environmental activists, scientists, elected officials and government bureaucrats at the annual Everglades Coalition Conference, Crist called the $10-billion restoration project "a cause that burns in my soul."

When it was first approved by Congress and the Legislature in 2000, the restoration project enjoyed a wave of unprecedented political popularity. But in the seven years since then it has stumbled repeatedly.

The Everglades restoration plan is supposed to repair the damage done by the complex system of canals, levees and pumps built to drain South Florida for settlement -- a system that wastes an estimated 1-billion gallons of water a day. The plan calls for holding that water in reservoirs and deep wells, then releasing it more gradually and redirecting it to mimic what was once the natural flow of the River of Grass.

Officials originally promised the restoration would cost $7.8-billion, split 50-50 between the state and the federal government. However, state lawmakers, at the behest of sugar industry lobbyists, extended the deadline for cleaning up water pollution in the Everglades by 10 years. That angered Congress, which repeatedly failed to approve money to keep the federal side moving.

In 2004, Gov. Jeb Bush launched a state program to push forward on some of the restoration projects using state money. However, environmental groups criticized the choice of projects, noting that they seemed more likely to fuel South Florida's sprawl rather than to help the environment.

Because of the delays, some of the restoration plan's crucial elements are already six years behind schedule, and the cost has ballooned, according to a Government Accountability Office report released in July.

Through 2006, the federal government spent $2.3-billion on Everglades restoration, while Florida spent $4.8-billion. That combined $7.1-billion was still $1.2-billion less than what state and federal agencies estimated they would need to spend on Everglades projects during that period, the GAO reported.

However, advocates of the restoration plan are optimistic that there will soon be signs of more rapid progress. Last month Congress overrode a veto by President Bush to approve a long-delayed bill that authorizes $1.8-billion in Everglades-related projects. They think Congress will now start pumping money into the project again.

However, U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miami, said getting federal funding still poses "significant challenges." But Everglades Coalition co-chair Mark Perry said if Crist is able to boost the state's funding, "that's going to send a big message to Congress," and should make Hastings' job easier.

Among the most controversial elements of the restoration plan is a proposal to store 1-billion gallons of water in 333 deep wells scattered around Lake Okeechobee. No one has ever attempted to put that many aquifer storage and recovery wells in one place in South Florida, and scientists say there could be problems.

Wehle said Friday that instead of building all 333 deep wells, the state will probably try to store some of the water on public and privately owned land by mimicking the natural marsh that once covered South Florida. That way the state won't have to spend a lot of money maintaining a well, she said.

Times news researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.

[Last modified January 12, 2008, 01:21:18]