Everglades Update

The maps above show the deteoration of the Everglades. The Florida government's land buy from U.S. Sugar Corp has been scaled down. There is a question is if Gov. Charlie Crist buying enough land for proper restoration. The purchase was intended to stop flooding and fix agricultural runoff. The short version is Crist's land buy will have little impact.

Was that all a false alarm? As details of the deal are coming to light, it now seems that only half of the 300 square miles Florida is acquiring will be used to restore water flow in the Everglades; the rest will continue to be used for agriculture. All told, Crist's plan may not have an impact for more than a decade, which could be too late: The National Research Council just released a new study about how the degradation in the Everglades wrought by decades of water diversions and fertilizer runoff could soon become utterly irreversible if major changes aren't made soon. The $7.8 billion plan Congress passed in 2000 to restore natural water flow in the area—a plan predicted to take 30 years—is already mired in cost overruns and bureaucratic snafus with the Army Corps of Engineers, while Congress has dragged its heels on matching Florida's spending, as promised.

In fairness, the budget crisis forced Crist to buy less land. Congress could help but that doesn't appear likely.