MIAMI (AP) - Environmental advocates hope Everglades restoration won’t have to wait another seven years for a federal water projects bill like the one expected to clear Congress this week.
The House passed the Water Resources Reform and Development Act on Tuesday, and the Senate could vote on it later this week.
The bipartisan legislation authorizes over $1.8 billion for four Everglades projects, along with 30 other water projects nationwide. It’s been seven years since Congress last considered a similar bill.
When a massive, multibillion-dollar Everglades restoration plan was approved in 2000, Congress took up water projects bills every two years. Few of the roughly 60 projects originally included in that plan have been authorized for federal funding.
Some of the original projects have been absorbed into a $1.9 billion Central Everglades Planning Project that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is reviewing. Environmental advocates had hoped it would be included in this water projects bill so that it wouldn’t languish for years without authorization.
The advocates say the lag between authorization bills and federal bureaucracy in project planning forces the state to shoulder more of the funding burden up front and keeps Everglades restoration to incremental progress.
“In order to have more things to work on, we needed this bill,” said Julie Hill-Gabriel, director of Everglades policy for Audubon Florida.
“There has to be a more efficient way of doing things,” she added.
In general, the state and the federal government each pay half the cost of Everglades restoration projects.
The state hasn’t sat idle during the yearslong wait for authorizations for federal funding, though. Two projects included in the current bill - coastal wetlands along Biscayne Bay and a plug to an existing canal that keeps water from seeping out of Everglades National Park - already have been completed, and now the federal government will kick in its half of the costs.
The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan doesn’t need to readjust its goals to restore Florida’s iconic wetlands over 30 years, said Eric Eikenberg, CEO of the Everglades Foundation.
“We don’t have to do anything with the plan. We need Congress to get back to regular order,” he said.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster, R-Pa., has said he wants to see lawmakers consider water projects bills every two years, as they did in the 1980s and 1990s.
Rep. Dan Webster, R-Fla., whom Shuster selected for the Conference Committee to work with the Senate to finalize the bill, said he’s looking forward to working on the next water projects bill next year. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-Fla., said she believes there would be bipartisan support for similar bills every two years. U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., also supports including Everglades restoration in more frequent water projects bills.
“One would hope that the support would continue to be there for restoration projects because there are many more projects that have to be done,” said Randy Smith, spokesman for the South Florida Water Management District, which leads Everglades restoration efforts for the state.
___
Follow Jennifer Kay on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jnkay .
Please read our comment policy before commenting.