February 1999

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February 11, 1999

Critics fail to halt Everglades restoration plan
Sign-carrying and button-wearing critics of a multibillion-dollar plan to rework the water supply system in South Florida failed to convince water managers Wednesday to wait for more scientific review before moving forward with the proposal.  South Florida Water Management District Governing Board members voted unanimously to send a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers District Engineer in charge of the Central and Southern Florida Restudy to signal their support for being the corps' partner in the public works project unrivaled in the nation's history.  The vote included a carefully worded addition to the letter to support an "ongoing outside scientific review process" that an Everglades restoration task force of federal and state agencies has agreed to appoint.  Wednesday's decision keeps the plan on schedule to be submitted to Congress by July 1 despite charges from six internationally distinguished environmental scientists and scientists at Everglades National Park that the plan is flawed.  Yet to come are decisions to commit funding for the plan's dozens of projects that would store water underground, build reservoirs and undo a 50-year-old corps project that has provided water and flood protection for cities and farms but has left the Everglades ecosystem from Orlando to Florida Bay thirsting for water, said Tom Teets, a senior planner with the Water Management District working on the plan.  The plan is estimated to cost $7.8 billion, to be shared 50-50 by federal and state sources, and is scheduled to take more than 40 years to put in place.  
Copyright  © 1999  Naples News  All rights reserved.

 

 

Credit:
Everglades photograph courtesy Philip Greenspun

 

Revised:  04/29/03