111007 Editorial: Hope for the Everglades

November 10, 2007

Editorial

Hope for the Everglades

Seven years ago, Congress and the Clinton administration set in motion the most ambitious environmental initiative on the planet: an $8 billion, 40-year project to restore South Florida’s ecosystem and, in particular, the Everglades, which had been punished by a half-century of uncontrolled development and starved of fresh water.

It was a 50-50 deal, and so far Florida has lived up to its share of the bargain, contributing more than $2 billion already. The federal response, crippled by an inattentive president and a divided, ineffectual Congress, has been pathetic — a mere $363 million — putting the whole enterprise way behind schedule.

Now, at last, comes some good news. Overriding a rare veto by President Bush, Congress this week approved a $22 billion water resources bill that has been hanging around for seven years. Like all big infrastructure bills, this one includes a little something for every member of Congress. But in addition to the pork, the bill also contains several necessary projects. Among them are coastal restoration in Louisiana and two big wetlands restoration projects in the Everglades.

For the Everglades, three tasks lie ahead. The first is to get the money. This water bill merely authorizes the necessary funds, which Congress must then appropriate. The second is to make sure that the Army Corps of Engineers, which is essentially running the Everglades project, spends it wisely and expeditiously. The water bill’s biggest shortcoming is the absence of far-reaching reforms of the corps’ operations that were proposed by Senator Russell Feingold but rejected by the House. The reforms sought to impose discipline on a notoriously dysfunctional agency.

The third task is to sustain the momentum. The departure of the Clinton administration and the retirement of Senator Bob Graham cost the Everglades many of its champions, and this is the kind of project that can fall by the wayside in time of war and massive deficits.

Meanwhile, as Congress dithered and the president left most of the responsibility for the project to his brother Jeb, then the governor of Florida, costs have gone up — for land acquisition, for water storage, for rejiggering canals and levees and for building the treatment systems necessary to clean up the polluted water that flows into the Everglades from the sugar cane fields.

It is thus reassuring to hear Barbara Boxer, the California Democrat who is chairman of the Senate’s environment committee, say that she will seek a new round of funding and, equally important, ride herd on the corps. It is also reassuring that the new Republican governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, seems fully committed. If we have learned anything over the last seven years, it is that the ecosystem cares little for noble intentions alone.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/10/opinion/10sat2.html