Posted on May 17, 2016
By Ledyard King, news-press.com
Environmental projects in Florida got a significant boost from the Senate this week, with votes approving more than $100 million for Everglades restoration along with additional recovery money for the Indian River Lagoon and other distressed estuaries.
Lawmakers voted 90-8 on Thursday to pass $37.5 billion Energy and Water Appropriations bill that includes roughly $6 billion for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A similar bill is expected to reach the House floor in the coming weeks.
Congress can’t explicitly tell the agency where to spend the money. It would be up to the Corps to allocate the money to individual projects after Congress approves the spending.
But the agency lists Everglades projects among its top priorities for fiscal 2017, which begins Oct. 1.
The $37.5 billion spending bill includes $106 million for the South Florida Ecosystem, the multi-year program to restore the Everglades, partly by redirecting water flow from Lake Okeechobee south instead of east and west. Of that amount, $75 million would be allocated for projects under the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, including $59.5 million to continue work on the Indian River Lagoon.
The bulk of that – $53.3 million – would be used to continue building the C-44 Reservoir and Stormwater Treatment Area in western Martin County. The reservoir is designed to store and treat nutrient-laden water drawn from farmland so it doesn’t pollute the St. Lucie River and Indian River Lagoon.
There’s also $500,000 for construction oversight of the C-43 canal, which is designed to reduce water flows from the lake that carry farm-related nutrients into the Caloosahatchee River and befoul beaches in Southwest Florida.
The Corps of Engineers also plans to spend nearly $5 million continuing work restoring natural water flow across the Picayune Strand, an 85-square mile swath in western Collier County that was drained in the early 1960s in anticipation of extensive residential development.
The agency also says it wants to spend about $50 million to fix the decades-old Herbert Hoover Dike, a 143-mile earthen dam surrounding Lake Okeechobee that’s designed to reduce flooding from high lake levels but is increasingly prone to seepage.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said the bill is good news for Florida.
“It provides needed funding for several key Florida projects, such as critical Everglades restoration, the Herbert Hoover Dike and the operation and maintenance of our harbors and waterways,” he said in a statement. “This is the first time in several years the Senate has advanced a stand-alone Energy and Water Appropriations bill, and as these projects are incredibly important to the state of Florida.”
The Indian River Lagoon also could receive some much-needed relief from a bill the Senate also passed Thursday night. The measure, whose chief sponsors included Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, and Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, now heads to President Obama for his signature.
The bill would authorize $26.5 million to help the nation’s 28 estuaries, and would provide extra funding to those in the worst shape. That would probably apply to Indian River Lagoon, a $3.7 billion annual economic engine that’s beset by algae blooms and suffered its worst fish kill two months ago.
Scientists say low levels of dissolved oxygen suffocated thousands of fish. More than 30 species died in the kill-off. The same scientists believe the recent “brown tide” of algae blooming in the lagoon is responsible for the low oxygen levels.
“This common-sense plan will help provide critical funding for our nation’s estuaries, and make available additional funding to estuaries that are experiencing urgent and challenging ecological problems, including our own Indian River Lagoon,” Posey said.
The bill only reauthorizes the program. Congress still has to approve the money for it.
Source: news-press.com
