A federal district judge approved this month a settlement of decades old lawsuits brought under the Clean Water Act to improve water quality in the Everglades. The $880 million plan allows the EPA to issue permits for water treatment and storage facilities. The ruling was made in a lawsuit filed by the Miccosukee Indian tribe and an environmental group, Friends of the Everglades, in 2004. A similar suit dates back to 1988. Soon after the ruling, EPA's Region 4 issued an approval of projects submitted by the State of Florida intended to remove excess phosphorous and monitor water quality. About 6,500 acres of new storm water treatment will be built as well as water storage for about 110,000 acre-feet. Development of the South Florida metroplex has placed great stress on the fragile marsh ecosystem, so much so that conservationists fear for the complete loss of the Everglades to development. Now, $80 million in federal money will be used to help farmers and ranchers who voluntarily conserve wetlands in the Northern Everglades Watershed. Agriculture, especially cane sugar plantations have overloaded the wetlands with phosphorous and other nutrients from fertilizers that have caused invasive growth to choke native plants. Since 2009 the USDA has spent $373 million to restore wetlands in the northern Everglades. The additional money is intended to restore another 23,000 acres of wetlands vital to wildlife, such as the critically endangered Florida panther, and water quality. In 2008 a female panther with two cubs was photographed by Magdelana Palomino
[photo] on Dinner Island, the first documented evidence of a Florida panther in the area since 1973.
Congress passed the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Program in 2000, a 30 year program to restore the Everglades by modifying the massive flood control system in South Florida. There was little progress under the Bush Administration due to ideology, lawsuits, federal-state jurisdictional disputes, and bureaucratic delays. The latest legal settlement may be a sign that things are now moving in the direction of actually saving the Everglades from destruction*. The current administration has asked for an additional $246 million in fiscal 2013 to fund continued action to restore the Everglades to health.
*The Everglades figure prominently in the $67 billion Florida tourism industry. The British will spend £17 billion hosting a month-long athletic event. The Everglades eco-system, if we take care of it, should live for millennia.
