CONGRESS DOES NOT OK EVERGLADES RESTORATION BILL

Everglades restoration bill doesn't get Congress OK

By Jeremy Cox (Contact)

Tuesday, October 3, 2006

Election-year politics weren't enough last week to win congressional approval for a critical Everglades restoration funding bill.

The bill would have included the federal government's tab for a $362 million makeover in Southern Golden Gate Estates. State water managers are forging ahead with the project on their own although it was planned as a 50-50 endeavor between the state and federal governments.

A conference committee tried to work out the differences between House and Senate versions of the Water Resources Development Act. But negotiators ran out of time last week, leaving issues such as the more than $10 billion price tag and disputes over federal-state cost-sharing on the table.

The bill won't get another hearing until after the Nov. 7 elections. Congress hasn't passed a Water Resources Development Act since 2000; such bills are typically approved every two years.

April H. Gromnicki, assistant director of government relations for Audubon, said she is optimistic that lawmakers will come to an agreement soon.

"Too much work has gone into this. We're too close," she said.

An Office of Management and Budget report written in July highlights the Bush administration's concerns with the bill. The report criticized the bill for adding to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' $50 billion backlog of projects without offering a way to prioritize the workload.

Another knock against the Senate version of the bill is a provision that strips federal authorization for a project that would restore flows to the heart of the Everglades. That project, which was authorized in 1989, includes raising Tamiami Trail in Miami-Dade County with two bridges for a total of three miles, allowing sheet flow to replenish Shark River Slough.

The lack of federal financial help with the Everglades campaign prompted Gov. Jeb Bush to pledge $1.5 billion of the state's money to jump-start eight projects in 2004.

One of those was the Southern Golden Gate Estates project, which aims to fill in canals, tear out roads and install giant pumps to restore sheet flow to the Ten Thousand Islands. Work proceeds in the failed eastern Collier County subdivision, as evidenced by the filling of five miles of the Prairie Canal, the easternmost canal that began in August.

But progress is at a standstill for the Indian River Lagoon project on the state's east coast. Funding for the nearly $1.4 billion project is tied to the Water Resources Development Act.