On Jan. 8, Florida Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart secured $461 million of funding for Everglades restoration projects.
The bipartisan agreement plans to revitalize the “River of Grass,” which is currently suffering from water flow problems because of urban developments and saltwater contamination due to sea level rise.
Wasserman Schultz says Everglades restoration is a significant problem in South Florida. The Everglades provides drinking water to nine million Florida residents and supports many of the state’s flora and fauna.
“The network of canals and public works have dried up a lot of that land, which has now resulted in a very serious imbalance in the wetlands and dry season,” said Wasserman Schultz in an interview with Caplin News. “It has really prevented us from having the historic sheet flow of water through Central Florida, and down into Florida Bay.”
Some of the projects funded by the money include the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) Reservoir, designed to bring clean water to South Florida, and the Tamiami Trail project, which plans to restore natural water flow to Everglades National Park and Florida Bay.
As the funding legislation moves to the Senate for consideration, the Everglades is on a steady path to being healthy again. Dr. Evelyn Gaiser, aquatic ecologist and a biological sciences professor at Florida International University, says it will take years to see a big difference.
“It’s going to be a couple of decades, I think, before we can see the completion of all the different parts and begin to recover the system,” she said. “But in the last few years, we have been able to document those positive trajectories of change.”
