POLITICS

Bill would expedite Everglades restoration projects approved under CERP

Staff report
TCPalm

Expediting Everglades restoration is the aim of a U.S. House bill filed Thursday. 

Currently, such projects must be authorized en masse through the Water Resources Development Act that Congress approves periodically, but this new bill would allow projects to be authorized more quickly and on a case-by-case basis. 

The bill would approve shovel-ready projects already approved as part of the 2000 Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, also known as CERP.

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U.S. Reps. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, and Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami, filed the bill. Other Florida lawmakers have filed similar bills for several years, but they all stalled. 

Sugarcane fields were bulldozed as South Florida Water Management District staff announced preliminary construction of the EAA reservoir on a 560-acre tract of land at a news conference Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2018 in western Palm Beach County. Board Chairman Federico Fernandez said the water management district is "expediting this" project because it's "absolutely necessary" to move forward with constructing the 23-foot deep, 10,100-acre reservoir that will be able to store up to 78.2 billion gallons of excess Lake Okeechobee water. "Delaying is not an option," Fernandez said.

“Protection and restoration of the Everglades is a top priority,” Hastings said in a news release. “The Everglades is absolutely vital to the overall health of both South Florida’s ecosystem and economy. Congressional inaction has persevered for far too long despite bipartisan support for restoration.” 

Diaz-Balart said preserving the Everglades is "critical" to the state.

"We must do everything we can to protect Florida’s ecosystem, and we cannot allow delays to occur which would impede the work that needs to be done.”