Everglades Restoration Plan Unveiled
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
By: Patricia Sagustume

June 6, 2012 | WMFE - State and federal officials may finally have a plan for the Everglades Restoration project. The latest Everglades restoration deal proposes to clean up water pollution and resolve decades of federal legal fights. The plan has a price tag of more than $1.5 billion public price tag.

  

The Everglades water quality fight has been going on for two decades.
The newly proposed cleanup plan is not a final solution but a major step for getting clean and fresh water into the Everglades, says Eric Draper, Executive Director of Audubon of Florida
“We finally have a set of projects. An actual water quality standard that we can believe in, that we can depend on and that is actually enforceable in a court of law.”
 
In the plan, forwarded to the federal government from the Florida
Department of Environmental Protection, 7,000 acres of artificial wetlands will be created. Engineers say these storm water treatment areas, known as STA’s are critical  because they clean polluted water as it flows through to the Everglades.
Much of the pollution comes from runoff contaminated by fertilizer used by the area’s large sugar farms.
 
Estimates show the project costing about $880 million dollars over the next decade.
Audubon of Florida’s Eric Draper says the plan could be further improved if the sugar industry paid more for the cleanup.
“Right now the sugar companies do pay a small agriculture privilege tax but that’s only used to operate some of these projects.” Draper said.  “The actual cost of building the projects is borne by the state of Florida and the taxpayers.” 
Draper says that is something they can take a look at in the future. Right now he says it’s critical that the state meet the deadline the EPA has set. The state is cutting it close because today, June 6^th, is the deadline for permits to be filed.